Cats

If you are after a comedy that actually makes you laugh out loud, Cats is available in the US on Netflix right now. It says what it needs to say in one sitting, no filler. With 1,048 viewer ratings on TMDB, this is not a title flying under the radar. Francesca Hayward's performance alone is worth the time investment. There is no real reason to keep putting it off — it is right there on Netflix.

Part of the current wave of titles people are actually watching, Cats earns its spot. Cats does what great comedies rarely manage — it is actually funny, consistently, across the whole run. A tribe of cats called the Jellicles must decide yearly which one will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new Jellicle life. Francesca Hayward and Judi Dench lead a cast that brings real weight to the material. It was released in 2019. The real test of any comedy is whether it is still funny once you know all the jokes, and Cats holds up on rewatch in a way that separates it from one-off curiosities. It knows exactly what it is, and does not try to be anything else.

If you need a comedy that actually makes you laugh, Cats is a strong candidate. It rewards viewers regardless of what else is in their watch history. A contained runtime means every scene is doing real work. Francesca Hayward's comic timing carries it through its weaker moments. The kind of comedy you recommend to someone who claims they do not watch much.