By admin 
Meta commentary and humor aren’t exclusive to the world of television, but the medium is an undeniably good one for featuring that kind of thing. Broadly speaking, if a TV show has self-referential humor, commentates on the industry it exists within, or contains characters who seem aware (even partially) that they might be in a TV show, it’s probably qualifiable as a meta show.
Most of the time, meta elements are humorous, but on occasion, a show can have meta commentary of a more serious nature, usually through being introspective or self-critical. For one reason or another, the following TV shows qualify as meta ones, sometimes having most of their meta commentary limited to a batch of episodes within a season, or containing that sort of commentary/humor throughout their entire duration.
10
‘Arrested Development’ (2003–2019)
Created by Mitchell Hurwitz
Admittedly, with Arrested Development, the meta humor isn’t a constant presence, but it’s certainly there. Part of that has to do with the fact that, as a show, Arrested Development just has so many different types of humor. It’s got sharply written and witty dialogue, there’s physical comedy, some of it’s satirical, parts get absurd/surreal, and then the show does also find the time to comment on itself.
When the show started getting particularly close to cancellation in season 3, for example, there were gimmicks introduced to “make the Bluth family more likable” within the context of the show, but such attempts were also making fun of gimmicks a show could use to seem more broadly appealing at the same time. And then you have little one-off moments spread throughout, too, like Henry Winkler jumping the shark for a second time on a TV show (after infamously doing so in Happy Days, coining the term).
9
‘WandaVision’ (2021)
Created by Jac Schaeffer
One key way to have some meta commentary is by having a show within a show, and WandaVision does so in more ways than one. It’s kind of an exploration of grief, centering around both Scarlet Witch and The Vision, with the former creating a series of fantastical situations for her to live in, almost like an escape from reality, with most episodes referencing/satirizing a different sitcom, or style of sitcom.
It doesn’t stick the landing, getting a little more generic and superhero-y (for lack of a better term) near the end of its single season, but at least the first half of WandaVision is genuinely intriguing. Some later Marvel TV shows didn’t even have very good hooks (and most end on whimpers, truth be told), so for WandaVision to do something unique with the TV format for a good chunk of its run was worth celebrating.
8
‘Seinfeld’ (1989–1998)
Created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld
The fourth season of Seinfeld is the show at its most meta, and kind of inadvertently changed how the show is seen or spoken about, at least sometimes. Like, you’ve probably heard it described as “the show about nothing,” which is frustrating, because it’s actually a show about every(little)thing… though the show within a show is pitched, famously, as a show about nothing.
It’s something of a throughline for the show’s fourth season, with a decent number of episodes revolving around Jerry and George pitching—and then writing for—a show that itself is a little like Seinfeld. This meta commentary made Season 4 easily the strongest season of Seinfeld up until that point, and you might well still find some people who consider this season to be the darkly funny (and surprisingly insightful) show at its absolute peak.
7
‘Nathan for You’ (2013–2017)
Created by Nathan Fielder and Michael Koman
Nathan for You is a complicated show to talk about, especially if you want to break down what might be real, what might not be, and why such a binary may not matter. Nathan Fielder demonstrates here (and in another soon-to-be-mentioned show) how he’s willing to play around with the fourth wall and breaking it… or not breaking it. It’s an unreal reality TV show. It could be everything or nothing.
Is this all vague? Yes, and it’s going to get worse when talking about Nathan Fielder’s other show in a bit. But it’s worth singling out the feature-length series finale, “Finding Frances,” as an episode where any walls around Nathan for You well and truly come down, and things get surprisingly moving, existential, and thought-provoking, even more so than any of the other (already very interesting) episodes did.
6
’30 Rock’ (2006–2013)
Created by Tina Fey
At its core, 30 Rock has Tina Fey playing a character who is overall fairly similar to her, at least in terms of the experience she’s had in the world of television. Fey worked as a writer and cast member on Saturday Night Live, and 30 Rock has her playing Liz Lemon, who’s the lead writer on a sketch comedy show called TGS with Tracy Jordan. Oh, and Tracy Morgan plays Tracy Jordan.
There are more shows within this show, as well as fake movies that exist within 30 Rock, and so much of it pokes fun at the behind-the-scenes chaos that unfolds when working on a show like Saturday Night Live… or, well, when working on Saturday Night Live, given Fey’s past experiences. As far as recent sitcoms go, few are more frequently meta than this one.
5
‘Rick and Morty’ (2013–)
Created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon
Sure, Rick and Morty might have fallen off a little, compared to what it used to be, but for a while there, it was exceedingly clever, creative, funny, and even moving at times. It began as something silly and sci-fi-focused, with an often drunken grandfather taking his grandson on a series of traumatic adventures through space and time, but it morphed into something a little grander and more complicated as it went along.
Part of that involved it getting more meta, which is something that co-creator Dan Harmon likes to do on the shows he writes for (another very meta show of his will be mentioned in a bit). Rick seems to believe he’s in a TV show at some points, or maybe it’s just delusional on his part. Eh, give him the benefit of the doubt. It’s a Harmon show, there’s chaos, and if the characters can jump through space and time, then who’s to say they can’t blast their way through the fourth wall, too?
4
‘The Studio’ (2025–)
Created by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Peter Huyck, Alex Gregory, and Frida Perez
This might be a little bit of a stretch, seeing as The Studio comments upon the film industry more than it does the world of television, but the humor is still of a distinctly self-aware and meta kind. Perhaps that’s got a good deal to do with plenty of actors (and some celebrities playing themselves) here being best known for their film work, rather than anything they’ve done on television.
As for the premise of The Studio, it’s a comedy series about the conflict between being artistic and commercial, with the head of a long-established movie studio facing continual (not to mention chaotic and comedic) dilemmas. You know you’re in for something meta when there’s a oner used to depict the attempts of a director to nail the perfect oner (a very long take, essentially).
3
‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ (2000–2024)
Created by Larry David
Larry David was a key creative mind behind most of Seinfeld, though he left the show for its eighth and ninth seasons, only coming back to do the rather infamous finale. Then, after that, he moved on to Curb Your Enthusiasm, which felt like an evolution of Seinfeld, having David playing himself instead of getting Jason Alexander to play someone similar to him.
But, also, Jason Alexander appears in Curb Your Enthusiasm at one point, as do the other main cast members of Seinfeld, with one season of the show being particularly meta by revolving around a (fictional) Seinfeld reunion. But, also, it kind of works as an actual Seinfeld reunion. Oh, and speaking of that infamous Seinfeld finale, of course, Curb Your Enthusiasm can’t help itself by making a pretty, pretty, pretty good attempt at commenting on that episode of TV during its own series finale.
- Release Date
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2000 – 2024-00-00
- Network
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HBO Max
- Showrunner
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Jeff Schaffer
- Directors
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Robert B. Weide, Larry Charles, David Steinberg, Bryan Gordon, Alec Berg, Andy Ackerman, David Mandel, Barry Gordon, Cheryl Hines, Dean Parisot
2
‘The Rehearsal’ (2022–2025)
Created by Nathan Fielder
Nathan for You got pretty meta at points, and got very meta in its finale, and then The Rehearsal kind of takes things up to a whole other level. Nathan Fielder goes to some uncomfortable places in both the show’s first and second seasons, creating a sense of unease by breaking down the barrier, once more, between what might be real and what might be staged.
Of course, the whole show is about the way people perform in real life, and how real-life situations themselves might be able to be “rehearsed” as a way to minimize the impact of unfortunate or unexpected things from happening. In the end, The Rehearsal does kind of have to be seen to be at least a little believed. Even seeing it won’t make you believe. But believing a little… that’s enough. That’s something. Take it.
- Release Date
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July 15, 2022
- Writers
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Nathan Fielder, Carrie Kemper, Eric Notarnicola
Created by Dan Harmon
Like Rick and Morty, Community is a show with Dan Harmon’s fingerprints all over it, and a character who seems aware that he’s on a TV show: Abed Nadir. Abed is the source of a good deal of meta humor and commentary in Community, but not all of it, with the whole underdog nature of Greendale and its students/staff kind of standing in for how Community itself was a bit of an underdog show, always at risk of being canceled the same way Greendale was continually at risk of being shut down.
And that’s before getting to all the movie and TV references, too, with there being entire episodes of Community devoted to replicating the style of—or parodying—entire movies/genres/types of TV shows. There’s just so much to it all, and it feels more or less safe to assume that Community could well be the most meta show of all time.
- Release Date
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2009 – 2015-00-00
- Network
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NBC, Yahoo! Screen
- Showrunner
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Dan Harmon
- Directors
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Tristram Shapeero, Joe Russo, Anthony Russo, Rob Schrab, Jay Chandrasekhar, Adam Davidson, Justin Lin, Steven K. Tsuchida, Kyle Newacheck, Victor Nelli Jr., Nat Faxon, Michael Patrick Jann, Anthony Hemingway, Ken Whittingham, Steven Sprung, Tricia Brock, Jeff Melman, Gail Mancuso, Duke Johnson, Fred Goss, Bobcat Goldthwait, Richard Ayoade, Seth Gordon, Beth McCarthy-Miller