Feeling the need to inject a little more happiness into our “Happiness Place”! So, anything from anywhere that makes you feel good about the world when you watch it. That genre of “look, it’s nice people doing nice thing because the world is good” show that is total pandering to the audience, but also a nice corrective to all the “people are trash” messages we get in other shows.
I’m gonna give three shows off the top of my head!
The Dog House (UK) on HBO Max (Reality)
Honestly, this is worth getting a Max subscription just for this show. It’s about people coming to a dog rescue and being matched with their Forever Dog. Do you like close ups of little doggie faces? Do you like hearing stories about people who went through tough times and came out the other end (first episode opens with a couple who are very in love, were friends for 10 years before getting together, and he helps her live with her clinical depression. But they need a dog to make their family complete)? Do you like seeing a sad dog who cries all the time finding a family to take him home? WHO WOULD NOT?!??!?
Basically, this is the greatest matchmaking show of all time and will make you believe in unconditional love again.
The InBestigators on Netflix (Fiction)
I love this show! 4 kids in Australia open a detective agency called “the inbestigators” because they are the best investigators. The greatest crime anyone can commit is “not being kind” and the punishment is “a long talk”. Episodes are two 15 minute halves, so you don’t even have to stress very long to find out who did it (“it” being things like stealing someone else’s solar system diorama). Do you hate all those gritty cop shows where the criminals do terrible things and the cops shake their head and wish for horrible vengeance? This is the opposite!
Queer Eye on Netflix (Reality)
No duh, everyone loves this show! I avoided watching it for years, and now I am addicted. Really good people struggling with their lives have 5 really good people show up and help them move forward. There’s no anger at the systems that have failed, no looking at the misery of the past, but instead looking forward to a better future. It’s just the best show to watch with your family (although my Dad doesn’t like it because it makes him cry), or on your own when you are feeling down.
Andi Mack on Prime and Disney Plus (Fiction)
This is maybe the realist least happy show on the list. Sometimes, people fight! Middle-school girl and her two best friends navigate the challenges of “why doesn’t the boy I like want to hold my hand?” and “my best friend is hanging out with someone I don’t like”. Meanwhile the parent generation deals with conflict that revolves around “who loves each other more.” And it all takes place in a nice small town surrounded by mountains with funky little store fronts and nice people who work at them. Heck, even the middle-school principal is just trying to do his best and is willing to listen when the kids have opinions!
Okay, that’s all my feel good serieses at the moment! Do you have hidden gems to recommend? Is there something like Queer Eye that is so over-promoted I assumed it was bad but it is wonderful? Are there more dogs somewhere?
dontcallitbollywood 
Oh! I have thoughts on this! For background feel good there is the classic Bob Ross. I also like The World’s Most Extraordinary Homes for pretty pictures and pleasant chatter. For nice people with good lives My Lottery Winner Dream Home is great.
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You should watch the Dog show! As part of my not-very-well-hidden attempt to get you to get a dog! And also because you would enjoy it. Dogs!
On Mon, Aug 3, 2020 at 12:21 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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We got “Doggies! A counting and barking book” for the baby’s birthday and I think that’s enough canines in our life right now.
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But it would be so cute! They could both be pooping on the floor together!
On Mon, Aug 3, 2020 at 12:58 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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The dog show sounds great. I also like most competitive cooking shows, especially the ones with kids.
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Oh! Yes! I’ve heard the competitive cooking kids shows can be good. What’s the best one?
And if you have HBO Max, you should definitely watch the dog show. Episode 3 has 10 German shepherd puppies! In case you don’t have enough German shepherd puppy in your life.
On Mon, Aug 3, 2020 at 2:48 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Squee! GSD puppies! Although other families who adopted puppies from Cosmo’s litter did the dna tests and it turns out my boy is 22 pct GSD, 22 pct Belgian Malinois (he does have mostly that look) so I’m partial to those now. Plus a bunch of other stuff…pit bull, Rottweiler and (oddly) Airedale terrier (which the vet thinks is all in his wiry back.
Best cooking show is Master Chef jr. also like kids baking championship
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All right, Master Chef Jr! I’m on it!
On Mon, Aug 3, 2020 at 5:15 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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The Great British Baking Show, as you have it in America, normally, The Great British Bake Off. Just honestly good people doing good things. It’s on your American Netflix.
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I have had people tell me for years to watch that. Of course, they’ve also told me to watch Queer Eye and I ignored them and then it was wonderful. So maybe I should listen.
On Mon, Aug 3, 2020 at 2:51 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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It’s British people of all walks of life fretting about pastry, they get to go home each week to see their families, they aren’t doing it for money and so they aren’t constantly saying “I have to win this so that my grandma can get surgery, I just need this money so much so I have to win!” which…while inspiring when they DO win can be hard when that’ the episode they leave on.
The presenters for the first 3 or 4 seasons are a couple of lesbian comedians who, this may be apocryphal but I’m still gonna say it, will say curse words and name brands when someone is obviously having a melt-down so that the footage becomes unusable. The judges are whatever, but Mel & Sue really make the show.
It’s like if Bob Ross ran Top Chef.
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This all sounds delightful! But it will really really make me craved baked goods, right?
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I’m watching right now Netflix’s Love on the Spectrum. I love it because it reminds me The Undateables.
The protagonists are nice people and their parents are even more lovely and I feel like moving to Australia to live among people like that.
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Ooo, that sounds nice too! And the accents will remind me of The InBestigators, which is of course the best.
On Mon, Aug 3, 2020 at 4:55 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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This is tragically (and inexplicably) not available in Japan, but when visiting my sister in America I had it on constantly. It’s so soothing, everyone is nice, everyone talks softly, you can watch mesmerizing things like batter going around in a mixer.
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Oh yes the accents and their English are so easy to understand and relaxing to hear.
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Netflix’s The Baby-Sitters Club is a light, feel-good series. Full disclosure – I’m coming at this with a lot of nostalgia since I read the books religiously as a kid. Given that though, its still a very good watch if you’re looking for something not-heavy and sweet. The kids seem like actual middle-schoolers and their problems are refreshingly normal (clueless but well-meaning parents, grandparents’ illnesses, crushes, trying to make friends, etc). Overall, a nice, feel-good series to watch.
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I just watched it! That’s part of what inspired this post! I wanted more serieses like that.
Also, it inspired this fanfic: https://dontcallitbollywood.com/2020/07/23/indulgent-fanfic-post-high-quality-middle-school-dramedies-remade-as-indian-movies-the-babysitters-club-and-andi-mack/
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Oops! Totally missed that post! Glad you liked it too though!
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New Legends of Monkey is great — it’s also out of Australia and it’s an adaptation of The Journey to the West, it’s really really cute and very touching in places. It is on Netflix. If you like watching people gardening you could head over to I think Amazon and watch Monty Don go gardening in England. That one lands somewhere between Bob Ross but for gardening and David Attenborough for education about nature…but for gardening. Forewarning: Monty Don is the British equivalent of like…Tom Hanks or something and they love him, so he has a million and one shows that have been made over the years.
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New Legends of the Monkey almost looks stressful. Minimal plot and violence and stuff, right?
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I failed you and didn’t see this earlier — it has a sort of meandering plot, they have to reach the place to save the thing to save the world, but it’s never like…URGENT. And the violence is very much aimed at the 9-13 set, so it isn’t extremely awful. The first episode has the most violent bits in it, if I recall correctly. They also just released season 2, which I haven’t seen yet, but it does exist!
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Oh, this does sound nice!
On Thu, Aug 27, 2020 at 11:33 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Rilakkuma and Kaoru (on Netflix) will make you feel happy. I know it is stop-motion animation and it has talking gesturing animals but watching the show gave me so much happiness. The characters care about each other and try not to let others down.
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I just looked it up and OH! It looks so good! Thank you!
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Glad you like it. After posting the comment, I started watching it again.
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Durrells is also good series to watch.
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My mind went right to Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Those characters aren’t good role models or anything, but they’re just the right amount of messed up to make the audience feel superior, without losing out on sympathy. I think the show is good at normalizing some things that need to be normalized, like including a late-in-life bisexual with his younger boyfriend or actually talking about addiction. And you can always rest assured that nothing so bad will happen that the protagonist can’t break out into a – sometimes awkward – song and dance number about it.
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That was my start-of-quarantine show! I got all caught up on it back in March and it was wonderful. But now I have no more episodes to watch and I am sad.
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