In this piece · 5 sections+
If you only click one thing on this list, make it Planet Earth II on HBO Max. David Attenborough is narrating a sloth swimming across a river like it's the most important thing that has ever happened, and when you're stoned, he's right — it is. Six episodes, roughly 50 minutes each, immaculate 4K, no plot to lose. It's the consensus #1 pick for a reason.
Quick thing before the list, because Google sends two different people to this page and they want two different things. "Shows to watch high" means shows that play great while you're stoned — lush, slow, low-homework. "Best stoner shows" usually means shows that are about weed and stoner life — Broad City, Weeds, Trailer Park Boys. Both are good. They're not the same list. So I ranked the play-great-high picks first, then gave the actual stoner canon its own tier near the bottom. Jump to whichever one you meant.
I've skipped the played-out picks. No Rick and Morty — you've seen it, everyone has seen it, the fandom ruined it and honestly the back half did too. No Family Guy either. Here's what actually works.
Tier 1: Drop everything
The two that convert a skeptic. If you have one session and no plan, start here.
Planet Earth II
Why it works stoned: Every frame is engineered to look like God got a Steadicam. Slow, wide, absurd animal behavior, and Attenborough's voice sits on you like a weighted blanket.
Where to watch: HBO Max · Start with: "Islands," episode 1 — the iguana-vs-snakes chase is the thing your friend was yelling about · Time: 6 episodes, ~50 min, one evening · Status: Ended, complete, nothing to keep up with
Fair warning: it makes you feel like a better person for 50 minutes, so you'll text someone you haven't talked to in a year and consider donating to something before the episode ends and you order food. If you want visuals with zero plot tax, this is the whole ballgame — if you need jokes, skip to Tier 2.
Nathan For You
Why it works stoned: The premise is simple and the execution is deranged. Real small businesses, real people, one Canadian weirdo with a business degree quietly ruining their afternoon.
Where to watch: Paramount+ (it drifts around, check it) · Start with: "Dumb Starbucks," S2E5 — or the finale "Finding Frances," which is a feature-length film and one of the best things made in the last decade · Time: 4 seasons, ~22 min each, a lazy week · Status: Ended in 2017, complete
Fielder operates on a frequency the human ear wasn't built for, and stoned is when you can hear it: the long pauses, the stare, the exact moment a real person realizes they trusted him. If you loved The Office cringe but wished it were real, yes. If you need warmth, this show has none and doesn't want any.
Tier 2: Worth it — the reliable rotation
Not every-single-time picks, but you'll never regret putting one on. These are ranked loosely by how forgiving they are of a wandering attention span.
I Think You Should Leave
Why it works stoned: Sketches are three minutes of small escalating nightmare. Perfect sober, unhinged high.
Where to watch: Netflix · Start with: S1E1, the hot dog car sketch — you already know · Time: 3 seasons, six ~16-min episodes each, about three hours total · Status: No season 4 ordered yet, but it's not dead — Tim Robinson's tied up with his HBO show The Chair Company
Robinson is the only person on TV who seems genuinely insane in a useful way. The show has one volume — screaming — and that's somehow the correct volume for a couch. Watch two episodes; any more and your brain starts rewriting itself.
Joe Pera Talks With You
Why it works stoned: Slowest show on television. A soft-spoken Michigan choir teacher tells you about breakfast foods and the rat race. It is the opposite of anxiety.
Where to watch: Free with ads on Adult Swim (it got pulled off HBO Max — adultswim.com has all of it now) · Start with: "Joe Pera Talks You Back to Sleep," S1E4, or the one where he hears Baba O'Riley for the first time · Time: 2 seasons, ~11 min each, an afternoon · Status: Ended — Adult Swim didn't renew it, because of course they didn't
It's quiet, gentle, and had nothing in it for the engagement metrics, so it had to go. If you liked the calm bits of Bob's Burgers and want the volume even lower, this is it. If you need momentum, you will fall asleep — which, honestly, might be the goal.
The Rehearsal
Why it works stoned: It's Nathan Fielder with an HBO budget and existential dread. He builds full-scale replicas of real bars to rehearse conversations, then it gets much weirder.
Where to watch: HBO Max · Start with: S1E1, "Orange Juice, No Pulp" — start from the beginning · Time: 2 seasons, ~40 min each, a weekend · Status: Two seasons done; a third is up to Nathan, who "has a kernel of an idea," per HBO
Season two has a fake airplane and a genuine cliffhanger about commercial aviation safety, and I am not making that up. HBO handed a man millions of dollars and he used it to stage psychology experiments and sing to a baby. If you're the type who wants craft over comfort, drop in.
The Curse
Why it works stoned: Shot like the camera is watching from across the street through a window. Deeply uncomfortable, weirdly hypnotic, Emma Stone and Nathan Fielder poisoning a town in New Mexico.
Where to watch: Paramount+ · Start with: S1E1, "Land of Enchantment" — commit · Time: 1 season, 10 episodes, ~50 min · Status: Ended, a complete one-and-done story
The final scene will be the only thing you think about for 72 hours, so watch it with someone you can process it with. This is not a traditional stoner pick — if you want your brain rearranged, in; if you want to relax, absolutely not.
Community
Why it works stoned: Dense jokes, deep character work, whole episodes that are parodies of other genres. The paintball ones. The Dungeons and Dragons one. Comfort food for people who used to post on Tumblr.
Where to watch: Peacock and Hulu (all six seasons landed on Peacock this year) · Start with: "Modern Warfare," S1E23 — if you love it, restart from the pilot · Time: 6 seasons, ~22 min each, a real commitment · Status: Ended in 2015; the long-promised movie is still "not dead" at Peacock but has no release date and a budget problem
The first three seasons are a masterclass, season four is the dark year, five and six pull it back. Six seasons and a movie — and the movie remains a rumor, which is funny, because the joke was always that it would never actually happen.
Adventure Time
Why it works stoned: An 11-minute cartoon that looks like a kids' show and is secretly about mortality and the end of the world. The world-building is absurdly deep, the colors are great.
Where to watch: HBO Max · Start with: S1E1 — it gets weirder and better as it goes · Time: 10 seasons of ~11-min episodes, snackable forever · Status: Main series ended in 2018; the Distant Lands specials wrap it up
A cartoon about a boy and his dog becomes, over ten years, a post-apocalyptic epic about what's worth preserving — made on a Cartoon Network budget while the executives weren't looking. If you liked Over the Garden Wall, easy yes.
BoJack Horseman
Why it works stoned: Background visual jokes in every frame, a world where everyone's an animal and nobody mentions it, and a slow slide from silly cartoon into one of the most honest depictions of depression ever animated.
Where to watch: Netflix · Start with: the pilot — season one is slow, push through · Time: 6 seasons, ~25 min each, a couple of weeks · Status: Ended in 2020, complete and stuck the landing
By season four it's doing things no other animated series has: the underwater episode, the eulogy episode, the one that's just a monologue. One real warning — do not watch the last three episodes high. You will not recover.
Our Flag Means Death
Why it works stoned: Gentle pirate comedy. Taika Waititi, Rhys Darby, lush costumes, bright colors, jokes that land on a six-second delay.
Where to watch: HBO Max · Start with: S1E1, "Pilot" · Time: 2 seasons, ~30 min each, a weekend · Status: Cancelled after season two — no season three is coming, so know that going in
Max made a show, found an audience, built goodwill, then a guy in a suit decided a line on a spreadsheet was wrong and killed it. Watch it anyway — it's one of the warmest shows of the last five years. If you liked What We Do in the Shadows' softness, you'll be fine; if you need a resolved ending, the cancellation stings.
Tier 3: The stoner canon — shows actually about weed
This is the tier you meant if you searched "best stoner shows" or "best stoner TV shows." Weed-forward, stoner-coded, built for a session. Ranked by how well they hold up when you're actually in one.
High Maintenance
Why it's the stoner show: Literally built for this. Each episode is a vignette about New Yorkers, tied together by a weed delivery guy on a bike. No plot carries over, stakes stay low, and it's funny, sad, and human.
Where to watch: HBO Max · Start with: the HBO pilot — or the original web series, free on Vimeo · Time: 4 HBO seasons of ~30-min episodes, dip in anywhere · Status: Ended — HBO didn't renew after 2020
The thinking person's stoner show, and I mean that as a compliment. It's about loneliness and connection in a city where everyone's on their phone, framed around a guy selling weed. Nobody yells, nobody gets a monologue, it just is. If "best stoner shows" was your search, start here and thank me later.
Broad City
Why it's the stoner show: Abbi and Ilana getting high and failing upward across New York for five seasons. It's the modern stoner sitcom — chaotic, warm, weed woven through every plot.
Where to watch: Hulu and Paramount+ · Start with: S1E1, but the show levels up around season two · Time: 5 seasons, ~22 min each, a comfortable week · Status: Ended in 2019 on its own terms, complete
If you liked Workaholics but wanted actual characters, this is the upgrade. It's low-stakes on purpose — nobody's building a meth empire, they're just trying to make rent and get to a party. Perfect half-attention viewing.
What We Do in the Shadows
Why it's the stoner show: Clueless vampires sharing a Staten Island house, filmed like a mockumentary, running at a permanent low simmer of absurdity. Not about weed, but stoner-brain catnip — the energy vampire alone justifies a session.
Where to watch: Hulu · Start with: S1E1 — but "Werewolf Feud" (S1E4) is the one that sells people · Time: 6 seasons, ~30 min each, easy to binge · Status: Ended in December 2024 after six seasons, a complete run
Matt Berry pronouncing ordinary words like they owe him money is a genuine reason to be alive. If you liked What We Do in the Shadows the 2014 movie, obviously; if you need continuity and stakes, this happily has neither.
The Midnight Gospel
Why it's the stoner show: A space-caster travels psychedelic dying worlds while having real, unedited podcast conversations about death and meaning. The visuals are a lava lamp, the audio is a philosophy seminar. Made for exactly one state of mind.
Where to watch: Netflix · Start with: S1E1, but episode 8, "Mouse of Silver," is the one people never shut up about · Time: 1 season, 8 episodes, ~25 min, a single evening · Status: Cancelled after one season in 2020 — animation was too expensive, per the creator
From the Adventure Time guy and comedian Duncan Trussell, and it feels like it. If you want visuals that melt while someone talks you through mortality, this is the purest hit on the list. If you need a plot, there isn't one, and that's the point.
Trailer Park Boys
Why it's the stoner show: Ricky, Julian, and Bubbles running low-rent schemes out of a Nova Scotia trailer park, permanently three steps from disaster. Dumb in the way that's actually smart, and weed-soaked throughout.
Where to watch: Netflix (seasons 1–12) · Start with: S1E1, though the show finds itself by season two · Time: 12 seasons of ~22-min episodes, an ocean of content · Status: Ongoing — a 13th season lands in 2026, but on the creators' own TPB+ platform, not Netflix
Twelve seasons is a lot of trailer park, so pace yourself. If you liked It's Always Sunny's cast of idiots with a plan, you're home. If you need production polish, this is filmed like a home movie on purpose.
That '70s Show
Why it's the stoner show: The circle. That's the whole pitch — a rotating camera around a basement full of teenagers who are visibly, famously high, in a warm 8-season network sitcom.
Where to watch: Peacock (all 8 seasons) · Start with: S1E1, or any circle scene to sample the vibe · Time: 8 seasons, ~22 min each, a nostalgia sink · Status: Ended in 2006; the That '90s Show sequel lives separately on Netflix
Bail before the final season — Topher Grace leaves and it never recovers, a fact everyone who watched it agrees on. If you want cozy, familiar, half-watched comfort weed-TV, this is the network-sitcom version. If you want anything edgy, look up a tier.
Also in the canon
If you've cleared the above: Weeds (Prime Video) is the suburban-mom-turned-dealer blueprint — bail after season five, seriously. Atlanta (FX on Hulu) runs on dream logic and a stoner friend group, and it's a genuine great. Disjointed is Kathy Bates running a dispensary if you want pure background sitcom. And Twin Peaks: The Return (Paramount+) is what David Lynch does with $80 million and no supervision — not relaxing, but nothing else on TV melts a room like it.
FAQ
What are the best stoner shows?
For shows about weed and stoner life: High Maintenance (HBO Max), Broad City (Hulu / Paramount+), Weeds (Prime Video), Trailer Park Boys (Netflix), and That '70s Show (Peacock). For a show that just plays incredibly high without being about weed at all, What We Do in the Shadows (Hulu) and The Midnight Gospel (Netflix) are the picks. Full tier with starter episodes is above.
What's the single best show to watch high?
Planet Earth II on HBO Max. It's the universal answer: slow pacing, immaculate 4K visuals, Attenborough's voice as a controlled substance, and no plot to track. Want comedy instead? I Think You Should Leave on Netflix — short sketches, insane escalation, zero homework.
What's the difference between "stoner shows" and "shows to watch high"?
Stoner shows are about weed or stoner culture — Broad City, Weeds, Trailer Park Boys, That '70s Show. "Shows to watch high" is broader: anything that plays great while you're stoned, which is mostly slow, visually rich, low-homework TV like Planet Earth II, Joe Pera, or Adventure Time. Plenty of the best high-viewing has no weed in it at all. This guide ranks both, separately.
Are there good shows for a first-time high?
Yes, and avoid anything with heavy plot or psychological horror — your brain is working harder and also not at all. Go visually lush and low-stakes: Planet Earth II, Joe Pera Talks With You, or The Great British Bake Off. Do NOT start with Twin Peaks: The Return, The Curse, or the last season of BoJack, or you'll have a bad night and blame me.
Any good anime to watch high?
The canonical pick is Mushishi (Crunchyroll): episodic, painterly, folklore vibes, nothing bad really happens. Samurai Champloo holds up for the hip-hop score alone, and Mob Psycho 100 is visually out of its mind. Skip the long shonen stuff unless you're already deep in — nobody wants to start One Piece at 11pm on a Tuesday.
Are there any new shows worth watching stoned right now?
The Rehearsal season two if you want to feel unhinged; The Curse if you want to feel worse. Otherwise the streamers are in a slump and most new stuff is algorithm slop, which I write about weekly as a coping mechanism. The classics on this list are classics because they were made back when people still tried.
One more thing
So tonight: put on Planet Earth II, episode 1, "Islands" on HBO Max — that's the whole assignment. If you searched for stoner shows specifically, start High Maintenance instead. And if you liked this, I write a newsletter called The Drop every week covering what's new on Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, Prime Video, Apple TV+, and Disney+. It's honest, it's mean when it needs to be, and it will save you from accidentally starting a 10-episode limited series about a cult that turns out to be the worst thing you've ever seen. Subscribe. Your couch time is valuable, and someone should be looking out for it.
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