Movies and TV Shows

What We Do In The Shadows

Both the movie and the series.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Probably the most wholesome and positive of all the Treks. There's a reason it's so loved

Ted Lasso of course!

• Paddington / Paddington 2
• Kiki's Delivery Service

The recent series Jury Duty was hilarious and surprisingly wholesome and showed how there are actual good people in the world.

I know it’s kinda corny and basically a big ad for Google but I low key love The Internship. Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn are hilarious together and the movie is about how it’s never too late to change your life and it always just makes me feel good.

The Good Place is overall pretty positive. Same with Parks and Recreation as well as Abbot Elementary.

Bobs Burgers is hilarious and chaotic, yet simultaneously wholesome and positive comedy. The earlier seasons definitely lean more into the chaos, but even then, the family is such a positive example of semi-dysfunctional people loving each other to the max. Very few couples in TV or movies have anywhere near as good of a relationship as Bob and Linda, and their kids have some of my favorite sibling dynamics of any show I’ve ever watched.

Here's something nobody has seen, but is sweet despite the premise: Brigsby Bear https://letterboxd.com/film/brigsby-bear/

I think this fits, too: Moonrise Kingdom https://letterboxd.com/film/moonrise-kingdom/ If you have my sense of humor, you'll also find this one rather funny.

I know this is a pretty popular one but I don't think I've ever not felt better after an episode or two (or 6) of Futurama. As for movies, Hot Fuzz always has something new and funny you hadn't noticed before on each watch.
I also think many of the studio Ghibli films give off some pretty good vibes (emphasis on the word 'many' though, there are some pretty gut-wrenching ones). Any of the Mr Bean movies or episodes also cheer me up pretty well. ETA: for shows that leave you feeling positive, many of the Star Trek series focus on the good aspects of humanity, and present very meaningful ideas on how to achieve a positive outcome for all. My personal favorites so far are Deep Space 9 and the Next Generation, although Voyager and many of the others are just as good.

Malcolm in the Middle

Everything Everywhere All at Once

Home Movies

The Detectorists (available free on freevee) is my current go-to for when I need some chill positive vibes. Everything about it just feels like a warm hug.

For movies, you can't go wrong with a low-stakes slice-of-life comedy. Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret and You Hurt My Feelings are two recent ones which I loved.

• Pushing Daisies,
• Gravity Falls,
• Amphibia,
• The Good Place,
• Strange World (2022),
• The Lost City (2022),
• "Confess, Fletch",
• The unbearable weight of massive talent,
• Everything everywhere all at once,
• Lightyear,
• Warm Bodies,
• Ghostbusters: Afterlife,
• The secret life of Walter Mitty,
• Don Jon,
• Oscar (1991, I love this one),
• What we do in the shadows,
• Paul (2011),
• Hitchcock (2012),
• Logan Lucky,
• Good Omens,
• Bird on a wire,
• Miracle Workers,
• Stranger than fiction (2006),
• Lars and the real girl,
• Hot Fuzz,
• The King's Speech,
• A beautiful Mind,
• The eternal sunshine of the spotless mind (warning: see the comment ) ,
• Groundhog day,
• What dreams may come (warning: deals with loss and mourning),
• Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001),
• Contact.

Look into these and see if they might interest you:

• Schitt’s Creek
• Ted Lasso
• Bob’s Burgers
• Community
• Comedians in the car getting coffee

Pushing Daisies is a really wholesome show, funny and what I found to be an interesting plot too.

Series:
It's always sunny in Philadelphia
Trailerpark boys
Arrested development
East bound and down

Anime:
Golden boy
Great teacher onizuka

Movies:
What we do in the shadows
Austin Powers trilogy
Superbad and other Seth Rogen movies of that era
Early Adam Sandler movies
Clerks and some other stuff from Kevin Smith
Who killed captain Alex is more of a non stop action packed movie but it's definitely hilarious
Kung pow

K-dramas like What's wrong with secretary Kim, Hometown Cha-cha-cha and Romance is a Bonus Book. Start-Up and Search WWW are about people running businesses and are not so sappy, but nothing much tragic. It's OK not to be OK, SKY Castle, Move to Heaven and Extraordinary Attorney Woo have some dark stuff, but balance it with some really funny and heartfelt stuff and end up on a positive note.