Let’s take a break from horror and watch some hilariously fun murder mysteries to solve.
Although this list doesn’t have much to do with horror, I still want to share it with you. Because these comedy mystery series are hilarious and can be thrilling and mysterious and a break from horror. I really love this genre. I love to solve the puzzles they offer, figuring out the clues, putting it all together. But of course the creators are smart enough to not reveal anything of importance that can lead to the killer until the final episode.
All these tv series are brilliantly written, clever and with different kinds of comedy. And of course a murder, or a might-be-murder, anyhow, a big mystery that has to be solved by quirky characters who are not your first pick to solve a mystery. And that’s what makes these series extra fun. Things go wrong, red herrings all over the place, secrets, but more importantly along the way you become part of their sleuthing party.
Here are some great comedy mystery series you don’t want to miss out on.
I have put together a list of Comedy Mystery TV Series that I have watched and personally recommend. It’s not a list with all the comedy mystery tv series out there or the best ones, but this is a selection of tv series that I enjoyed watching.
The list is set up by decade and by year. Starting with the most recent tv series. Each time I have found a new tv series within this genre that I highly recommend it will be added to the list.
So save this post for more recommendations.
The list consists of 5 tv series at the moment.
The Burbs (2026-) 1 season
Stars: Keke Palmer, Jack Whitehall, Kapil Talwalkar, Julia Duffy, Paula Pełł, Mark Proksch. Created by Celeste Hughey. (8 episodes, 35-48 min)
Genres: mystery, comedy, neighborhood watch
Samira moves with her new husband Rob and baby Miles to Rob’s old neighborhood where he grew up. His parents are on a lifelong cruise and they let them have the house. While Samira is the only black woman in the cul-de-sac she is first looked at funny but makes friends real quick. Lynn from across the street has wine nights on her porch with Dana and Tod and now Samira.
Across Samira’s house there’s an old Victorian house that is abandoned for years but Samira thinks she sees someone behind a window. When they learn that the house is sold and the new neighbor moves in at night and drags a human-shaped bag inside, Samira gets suspicious. Even more so as she learns that Allison once lived there who was best friends with Rob and Naveen who also still lives a few houses down. Allison disappeared and was never been found. It’s a mystery that Samira who’s a lawyer but now stays at home with Miles, is dying to solve. But the house isn’t the only one with secrets, her neighbors hide some things as well. Who can be trusted?
The series is based on the film The Burbs (1989) and revolves around the quirky characters. Each character has their own quirks and secrets and they form a fun Sleuthing Gang who are stirring up the neighborhood. Lynn and Dana are quite the characters, but especially Tod is a hilarious character who reminds me a bit of his previous role as the psychic vampire in What We Do in the Shadows.
Samira is a strong and determined woman who’s not afraid and goes after what she wants. While the mystery has some gaps and some things are not fully explained, the solving of the mystery itself is what it’s all about. That journey is exciting and often hilarious and keeps you guessing. At the end this mystery might be solved, but there’s a much bigger mystery at the core and hopefully we learn more about the secrets of the cul-de-sac. It might even involve Rob’s parents.
How to Get to Heaven from Belfast (2026-) 1 season
Stars: Roisin Gallagher, Sinéad Keenan, Caoilfhionn Dunne. Created by Lisa McGee. (8 episodes, 47-56 min)
Genres: mystery, thriller, comedy
When three high school friends Saoirse, Robyn and Dara get informed that their other high school friend Greta has past away, they go back to the place they grew up in to pay their respects even though they lost contact with her, while the three of them did stay friends. And there’s a dark reason for that.
However when Saoirse opens the casket to put something in it, she sees to her horror that it isn’t Greta who is lying dead, but a stranger. She is determined to find out what really happened to Greta. Before they know it, the three of them are dragged into a dangerous adventure with their dark past that wants to catch up with them, as is a woman who’s deadly dangerous. They have to solve the riddle of Greta, get peace with what they did and in the meantime try to stay friends.
It’s a hell of a ride with the three women finding themselves in the most precarious and dangerous situations which they wiggle themselves out of in the most hilarious ways. Each friend has a distinctive character that is very well-rounded and realistic. They struggle with their past and present lives and on top of that their dangerous quest to find Greta.
In the meantime we follow Greta and slowly the true story of what happened to the four of them in high school gets unraveled as is the story behind the mysterious Greta. While the whole background story might not be the most spectacular, their adventure and all the different characters are. All the characters are colorful and fun and even hinge on the verge of the weird and absurd.
The adventure is never boring and will you make laugh out loud a lot and it’s also exciting and drags you along with it in the most wonderful way. It’s not all fun and games because themes of childhood trauma are also addressed and play a pivotal part of the plot. The mix of heavy themes and absurd comedy is really well done and blend together without either of them losing value.
The end has a very fun cliffhanger, that needs to be revealed. So let’s hope there will be a second season.
The Residence (2025) Mini-Series
Stars: Uzo Aduba, Giancarlo Esposito. Created by Paul William Davies. (8 episodes, 47-87 min)
Genres: murder mystery, comedy
When during a dinner party for the Australian president the Chief Usher, the one who runs the show “downstairs” gets murdered, there are not only a lot of prominent guests present but also a very large staff. It’s up to the eccentric detective Cordelia Cupp to solve this mystery. She questions everybody present which leads to back flashes and the same situations seen from different perspectives. While she looks for clues and birds, we get to know the staff and the president and his husband and his mother-in-law, the Australian president and a whole cast of unreliable characters. Cupp is a quirky woman, serious, but Columbo-smart and doesn’t let herself fooled by anything or anyone.
It’s a very fun game of clue in the White House with a wide range of people who could have done it. With lots of people with secrets and the fight between the old staff who does their things how it has always been done and the new staff who wants to modernize the White House and how things are run which leads to some over the top fun confrontations and issues. Along the way we not only get more clues that can be misleading, but we also get to know the characters better. We learn about secret agenda’s, secret love affairs, quick romances you didn’t see coming, personal secrets and the relationships between all of them.
It’s not a hilarious murder mystery, but the story is very entertaining, most characters are fun and some even quirky and the mystery is a great puzzle you get to solve alongside Cupp. And pay attention to all the clues.
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The Afterparty (2022-2023) 2 seasons
Stars: Sam Richardson, Tiffany Haddish, Zoë Chao. Created by Christopher Miller. (18 episodes, 31-48 min)
Genres: murder mystery, comedy
Aniq Adjaye is going to his high school reunion and as you can guess he wasn’t the popular guy back then. He is nervous because Zoë Zhu will be there, his high school crush. He gets a better chance with her when a bunch of them are invited by Xavier, now a pop icon and movie star, at his house for an afterparty. While not invited Aniq gets in with his best friend Yasper who wants to show Xavier his music. When Xavier is murdered everyone at the afterparty is a suspect and Aniq might be the main suspect when detective Danner starts to question them all separately. Aniq and Yasper try to prove his innocence by finding the real killer, getting themselves in all sorts of hilarious situations.
It’s not only a very funny story because of Aniq and the trouble he gets himself in, but it’s also a very original set up. Each episode is told from a different perspective, aka a different suspect. The evening is seen through their specific, unreliable point of view and, this is the brilliant part, each episode is shot in a different movie style. Danner uses the Mind Movie concept, where everybody’s memories about what happened are played out in a movie and everyone has a different style movie because of their personality. From a romantic comedy, an action movie, a musical, a psychological thriller, a cartoon to a buddy-cop movie. This makes the series unique and very entertaining. The final reveal is a clever one and invites you to rewatch the whole series again to pick up the clues.
The second season is as funny as the first one, but now Aniq goes to a wedding party with his new girlfriend. Zoë’s sister is getting married with a very rich guy, who is not only quirky, but his whole family is quirky as well. When the Groom gets murdered, Danner shows up at the scene in unofficial capacity to help Aniq solve the murder. This season also has different perspectives and Mind Movies, like a rom-com sequel, a period drama, a film noir, a Wes Anderson homage, a heist film, a found footage and a 1950’s psychological drama and finally an epic movie.
Again the unreliable characters with their own stories about what happened keep setting you on the wrong path. With a very clever outcome.
Only Murders in the Building (2021-) 5 seasons
Stars: Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez. Created by Steve Martin, John Hoffman. (50 episodes, 26-40 min)
Genres: murder mystery, comedy
When artist Mabel Mora renovates her aunts apartment in the Arconia, the fire alarm goes off and everyone in the building is evacuated. She goes to a cafe and meets Charles-Haden Savage a misanthropic actor who flourished in the nineties with his detective series and Oliver Putnam a struggling Broadway director, both living in the Arconia. All three of them are listening to the same true crime podcast and when they learn that during the evacuation somebody has been murdered, they decide to make their own podcast about the event and start sleuthing to find out who the killer is. Mabel has her own motive because when she was young she often stayed at the Arconia with her aunt and became friends with three other kids who lived there. One of them is now the victim of the murder they’re investigating.
All three characters have their own problems and issues and are lonely, but how different they may be they find a true friendship with each other, with murder that binds them. Throughout the story we get to know them very well and also some other residents of the Arconia, each of them are very quirky characters. The whole show is full of colorful characters, some of them will become murderers, some of them will be murdered and others become closer to the sleuthing trio acting as sidekicks.
Every season there’s a different murder, but all in the Arconia. Even in the third season when somebody seems tho get murdered in a theater, but dies in the Arconia. Each season adds new characters, some stay, some get murdered, but we also get to know the main characters better and the main residents as well. And we learn more about the Arconia itself. There’s even an outing to L.A. when they are offered to make a film about their podcast.
Each season is cleverly written, with red herrings, twist and turns, new characters and settings. It not only keeps it interesting but it also keeps you guessing who the killer is this time and what the motive is. All the while with the trio getting themselves into some very funny situations. Their chemistry is amazing and results in a very fun and entertaining watch.
This series might be the most popular and well-known of this list and rightfully so. It has set the tone and standard for the series that came after and made this genre very popular.
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