25 shows that will make you happy to be single this summer

Living Single

I’ll watch anything with Queen Latifah. Period. However, Living Single is a treat unto itself. This show follows the lives of four successful African American women living in a brookstone in Brooklyn and their male, upstairs neighbors.

While there is a consistent on-screen couple, most of the other characters are unattached and dating. Queen Latifah’s Khadijah was the defacto leader of the group, offering the most common sense advice about love and relationships.

Like most of us single folks, Kadijah, Regine, Maxine, and Synclaire, really went through the ringer trying to find someone suitable, not insane, and long-lasting to date. They mostly failed, but the takeaway from Living Single is always laugh at what you can’t control.

The humor is the absolute best part of this show. Watching these ladies laugh off bad dates, sex fails, and untenable personalities is a healthy reminder that we can’t let the absurdity of dating get to us. They can be found sitting on their living room couch, rehashing whatever the latest disaster is, laughing at themselves at each other.

Also, these women are ambitious and professionally determined. Khadijah works for a successful magazine (it was the ’90s after all), Maxine is a fancy-pants lawyer, and Synclair is an aspiring actress. Even when the women aren’t succeeding in their personal lives, they are killing it at work every day. They do it with grace and humor, and I wish I could have as much grit as these ladies do.

Where to watch: Hulu, thankfully has all five seasons of the Fox comedy. Be on the lookout for notable cameos from all sorts of fun guest stars, including Naughty by Nature, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Gladys Knight and Tone Loc. It’s about as ’90s as you can get.