Finished ‘Bait’? These Hollywood comedies are next
Finished ‘Bait’? These Hollywood comedies are next
From industry satire to deeply personal stories, each one hits a different side of what makes ‘Bait’ work.
All episodes of “Bait” dropped at once on Prime Video, which means there’s a very real chance you burned through the whole thing in a week. It’s only six episodes, they move fast, and once you’re in Shah’s world, it’s hard to look away. What starts as this exciting “maybe my life is about to change” moment turns into a full-on spiral, with everything hitting him at once — the industry, the internet, his family, and his own internal struggle. It’s funny, but it’s also really tense.
And that’s the tricky part after you finish it. You don’t really want to jump into something totally different. You want something that lives in that same space: a little uncomfortable, a little self-aware, and still actually funny. So I pulled together a few shows that tap into different parts of what makes “Bait” work so well. Here’s what to watch next if you loved it.
Bait
Shah Latif is a struggling actor on the cusp of landing the role of a lifetime, only to find himself thrust into a full blown existential crisis and trippy conspiracy thriller all at the same time.
Loved ‘Bait’? Watch: ‘Ramy’
If what really stuck with you in “Bait” was how personal it felt — like you were inside Shah’s head watching him try and fail to be the version of himself he thinks he’s supposed to be — then “Ramy” is the closest match. It follows Ramy, a first-generation Egyptian-American guy trying to balance his faith, his family, and just… being a person in the modern world. It sounds simple, but it gets complicated fast because he’s constantly making choices that don’t line up with who he wants to be.
Where it lines up with “Bait” is that willingness to let the lead be messy. Both shows are funny because they’re honest about the gap between intention and reality. Ramy wants to be a good person, Shah wants to be the “right” kind of actor, and both keep falling short. The difference is the arena. “Bait” is fast, loud, and built around show business pressure, while “Ramy” slows things down and focuses on faith, family, and community. It’s quieter, more reflective, but it’s exploring the same kind of self-scrutiny in a completely different setting.
Ramy
Ramy, the son of Egyptian immigrants, is on a spiritually conflicting journey in his New Jersey neighborhood, pulled between his Muslim community that thinks life is a constant test, his millennial friends who think life is full of endless possibilities, and a God who’s always watching.
Check out: ‘The Studio’
“The Studio” was my favorite new show of 2025. It follows a newly appointed studio head (played brilliantly by Seth Rogen) trying to balance creative ambition with corporate pressure, which quickly turns into a nonstop panic loop of decisions, deals, and trying to keep everyone happy at the same time. If your favorite parts of “Bait” were all the industry stuff, the auditions, the meetings, the sense that there’s this invisible machine constantly judging you, this show is going to absolutely work for you.
The overlap is in how both shows treat Hollywood. It’s not glamorous — it’s stressful, chaotic, and absurd. And where “Bait” puts you inside one person’s spiral, “The Studio” zooms out to the entire ecosystem. It’s bigger, louder, and leans into farce with awesome set pieces (the oners are actually impressive). But the core idea is the same: everyone is performing, and every decision feels career-ending. If you liked watching people navigate pressure while being constantly judged, this hits that same nerve.
The Studio
Desperate for celebrity approval, the newly appointed head of a movie studio and his executive team at Continental Studios must juggle corporate demands with creative ambitions as they try to keep movies alive and relevant.
Watch next: ‘The Comeback’
“The Comeback” is one of my favorite comedies ever, and if you’re watching the final season on HBO Max right now, you know why. Co-created and starring Lisa Kudrow, it follows Valerie Cherish, an actress (of a certain age) trying to revive her career while being filmed for a reality show, which basically turns her entire life into content. Every conversation, every decision, every awkward moment is captured, and you can feel how this constant pressure to perform slowly crushes Valerie… even as she smiles through it.
This is where it lines up really cleanly with “Bait.” Both shows are about what it means to exist in public, and how exhausting that can be. In “Bait,” Shah is dealing with media, fans, and cultural expectations. In “The Comeback,” Valerie is dealing with cameras that literally never leave her side. Where these two shows differ is in pacing and style. Where “Bait” is fast and compressed, “The Comeback” is slower and more drawn out, with embarrassment building over time instead of exploding all at once. And it uses that mockumentary style masterfully to make the camera feel like part of the pressure, which is brutal in its own way. If you liked the meta, performative side of “Bait,” this is the blueprint.
The Comeback
For Valerie Cherish, no price is too high to pay for clinging to the spotlight. Desperate to revive her career, she agrees to star in a reality TV series, allowing cameras to follow her every move as she lands a part on a new network sitcom.
Wildcard pick: ‘Starstruck’
Tara and I stumbled onto this show by accident, but it’s become one of my favorite rom-com TV shows and is a great follow-up to “Bait.” “Starstruck” is a London-set rom-com about Jessie (Rose Matafeo) who realizes her one-night stand is a movie star, Tom (played by Nikesh Patel), and then has to figure out what that relationship even looks like in real life. It’s way lighter than “Bait,” and the vibe is much more relaxed, but there’s still some shared DNA.
The overlap is in how fame affects everything around it. In both shows, the celebrity kind of warps reality. It changes how Jessie acts, how their relationship could even work, and even how Jessie sees herself when put up against a famous, gorgeous mirror in Tom. Now, the difference is that in “Bait,” that pressure feels overwhelming and constant, while in “Starstruck,” it shows up in a rom-com wrapper, less about survival and more about figuring things out. It trades the anxiety and satire of “Bait” for warmth and romance, and that’s what I like about it.
Starstruck
A drunken New Year’s Eve hook-up becomes far more complicated for Jessie when she discovers her one night stand is actually a film star.
More to watch after finishing ‘Bait’:
‘Hacks’ | HBO Max
Hacks
Explore a dark mentorship that forms between Deborah Vance (Jean Smart), a legendary Las Vegas comedian, and an entitled, outcast 25-year-old (Hannah Einbinder).
‘Barry’ | HBO Max
Barry
A hit man from the Midwest moves to Los Angeles and gets caught up in the city’s theatre arts scene.
‘Party Down’ | STARZ
Party Down
A group of struggling actors and dysfunctional dreamers wait for their big break while they are stuck serving hors d’oeurves for a Hollywood catering company ‘Party Down.’
Canceled too soon, this workplace comedy features a stellar cast (Adam Scott, Lizzy Caplan, Ken Marino, and Martin Starr) with a different guest star each episode. Cameos include Kevin Hart, J.K. Simmons, Kristen Bell, Jennifer Coolidge, Matt Walsh, Patrick Duffy, Josh Gad, George Takei, Rob Corddry, Paul Scheer, Steve Guttenberg, Steven Weber, Rick Fox, Enrico Colantoni, Ed Begley Jr., and Ken Jeong. It’s rare you’ll see a show where every actor is having this much fun.
‘Extras’ | Peacock
Extras
Andy Millman gave up his day job five years ago in the hope of achieving the big time, but he’s yet to land a speaking part, let alone saunter down the red carpet to pick up an Oscar. He remains optimistic however, as rubbing shoulders with the A-list on-set only serves to reinforce his belief that the big time is just a job or two away.