Tag

Tag has quietly become one of the more dependable comedies currently available in Australia on ABC iview, and in the UK on Amazon Prime Video. A tight runtime that never overstays its welcome. A 7/10 rating says what the writing already makes obvious: this one works. Watch it for Ed Helms — stay for everyone else around them. Start it on ABC iview whenever you need something guaranteed to land.

Tag arrived without much fanfare and built its audience the hard way — through word of mouth. The jokes in Tag land because the characters underneath them are worth caring about. For one month every year, five highly competitive friends hit the ground running in a no-holds-barred game of tag they’ve been playing since the first grade. This year, the game coincides with the wedding of their only undefeated player, which should finally make him an easy target. But he knows they’re coming...and he’s ready. The chemistry Ed Helms and Jon Hamm bring to it does a lot of the heavy lifting. It hit screens in 2018. The real test of any comedy is whether it is still funny once you know all the jokes, and Tag holds up on rewatch in a way that separates it from one-off curiosities. It delivers reliably on what it promises, which is more than most of its competition manages.

Comedy fans looking for a reliably funny watch will find it in Tag. It rewards viewers regardless of what else is in their watch history. Best experienced as a single, sustained watch from start to finish. Ed Helms anchors an ensemble with real chemistry. Genuinely funny, consistently, across the whole run.