25 feel-good shows to start 2018 off right

Younger

The premise: The 40 year old Liza (Sutton Foster) has to start over after her deadbeat, degenerate gambler husband leaves her, without a way to support herself or their daughter. Liza tries to apply for a few jobs in her previous field, but she has little luck after being a stay at home mother for 20 years. She decides to lie about her age and interviews as a 22 year old intern. She lands a job at a pretty successful publishing house, and has to work to conceal her secret, along with any fine lines or wrinkles that give her away.

Why it’s so good: It’s just downright fun — especially for a woman of a certain age. Watching this character, inexplicably, facing little to no skepticism, pretend to be 20 years younger is the ultimate in aspirational TV. Just think what you could do with a do over.

Liza befriends her colleague, Chelsea, played by Hillary Duff in a role that she was born to play. They buy skirts that are too short, drink weird beer, stay out too late and are generally just living their best twenty-something life. It sounds amazing, but even as I type this, I worry about Liza’s hangover situation, and the status of her under eye bags.

But Liza never really has to sort those kinds of things out, and I am perfectly willing to suspend my disbelief to vicariously relive my 20s with her. Because, let’s face it, I don’t think I would really want to do it all over again, it just seems awesome, in theory. That’s part of the fun. You don’t have to linger too long on the plausibility of it all, because there is so much else to keep you interested: hot, tattooed dreamboats, girlfriend politics, a hunky “older” boss. There’s no time for skepticism.

How to watch: You can catch up on all four seasons on Hulu.