What to Watch While Your Favorite Shows Are On Hiatus

FOX Broadcasting Co.

The holiday season may mean peace, love, and joy to most, but to TV devotees it signals a dearth of our favorite shows. Everything seems to go off the air from early December to January! Alas. But no need to pine away any longer – we’ve found some great alternatives to your favorite shows.

New Girl

New Girl’s been in reruns since their Thanksgiving episode – sigh. They’re set to return on January 7, but until then, curb your appetite for female-driven situational comedy with The Mindy Project. This isn’t to lump them together – they each have their (very) original characters, after all. It’s just that they share a lighthearted bent, and both have enough lovable sitcom tropes to fill that void in your heart.

Sleepy Hollow

Now, if you’re a fan of supernatural/police procedural/Revolutionary War mash-up hit Sleepy Hollow, you’ll do well to check out the ’90s favorite The X-Files. Aside from the supernatural aspect (switch “demons” for “aliens” and you’ve got a pretty solid match), “Ichabbie” shippers are sure to love “MSR” (Mulder Scully Romance): their respective believer/skeptic stances, witty banter, and vast height differences make for a strikingly similar dynamic.

Plus, you’ll find equal levels of delicious camp in each show.

How I Met Your Mother

HIMYM will be missed – it gallops ever closer to its series finale (which is set for March!). It also happens to be on a break until mid January. So, what to watch instead? Arrested Development. It’s not really very similar to HIMYM – sitcom hall-of-famer Friends is actually much closer – six (or five, as the case may be) late twenty-somethings hanging out in a coffee shop (or bar) as they fall in love with each other? Hmm. But though not as outwardly alike, Arrested Development and HIMYM both share an almost-unparalleled devotion to callbacks and long-running gags, and that alone is worth the cross over.

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