For my second favorite new show, I’ve picked one that couldn’t be much more different than Homeland, my pick for first place. Perhaps I should just declare Homeland as my favorite new drama and name this my favorite new comedy. And the show that gets said choice is ABC’s Suburgatory.

While the material has been mined by a good number of shows and movies for comedic value, there’s a certain sense of wonderful oddity and sarcasm at work here. The writers seem to know how to perfectly satirize the material and wink at the audience while doing so. Featuring tons of great dialog and many fun character stereotypes, it lands the vast majority of its jokes.

Add to that a first rate cast and you just can’t go wrong. Jeremy Sisto is great fun as the single father, and is as good as always. The great Alan Tudyk is having a blast hamming it up as well as usual (hey, I’m just noticing that both my favorite and second favorite new shows of this season feature former Firefly cast members). Cheryl Hines is perfectly cast as the superficial and aloof character she’s so good at, and as usual somehow makes it totally likable. Then there’s the fantastic surprise of Jane Levy, the young actress playing the lead role. She completely nails the charm and comedic timing of the role, with razor sharp wit and sarcasm. The rest of the supporting cast is great as well. Even the smaller roles are well filled, by the likes of Jay Mohr and Chris Parnell.

One last bonus of the show is the music score by Jared Faber. His bouncy score lands with such ease and is rather impressive. Not just that, but it actually manages to be musically funny, which is extremely hard to do. There are moments where the music itself generates a laugh, which is particularly rare (and utterly disastrous when done wrong). In the second episode, the music cuts off during one scene with great timing and then slowly spins back up with hilarious perfection.

At any rate, I hope the show will survive. This might not be a particularly great year for quality new shows, but there are certainly a few that are. I consider this to definitely be near the top of that list.