I know what you’re thinking. “I can’t bear to live in this meaningless abyss called ‘life’ after Insecure Season 2”. Same. Everything about Insecure feels like perfect timing. Lena Dunham’s Girls has left 20-something women having their own existential crises needing a fuck up to look up to, the world has had a shitty year and needs to laugh, and black people needed to see someone winning, finally. Issa Rae is that person. TV is embracing the self-described awkward icon, a relatable black woman who isn’t the tired sassy trope. She’s not at all cool  – and that kind of makes her even edgier.

This season has covered everything from (black) women feeling undervalued and underappreciated at work, open relationships, threesomes, the fetishisation of black men, the way Bloods replace words beginning with “c” with “b”, jizz eye, and stalking your ex’s new girlfriend on Instagram. In between the cutaway raps and dating apps, viewers were treated to newly single Issa and Lawrence’s sexual escapades – and it was sexy without being hypersexualised. It also got us thinking without being overly intellectual. What more can you ask for?

The show is setting the tone for the next era of sitcoms so now it's over for now here are some of the show's inspirations and rivals you need to watch or rediscover:

AWKWARD BLACK GIRL

It wouldn’t make any sense to watch Insecure without watching the web series that propelled Issa Rae into the spotlight. Originally released in 2011, the show followed J, an awkward protagonist who navigates her way through life by dealing with one uncomfortable scenario after another. J’s lack of social skills, her passion for rapping, and her inability to connect normally with the opposite sex are all building blocks for what would go on to be a successful HBO comedy and you can see the spark from the first episode. She eventually Kickstarted the fund for another series which Pharrell Williams aired on his i am OTHER site.

ACKEE AND SALTFISH 

British filmmaker Cecile Emeke directed the second-ever episode of Insecure, but she is better known as the brains behind the online comedy series Ackee & Saltfish. Like Rae’s first prolific works, Awkward Black Girl, the web series was originally published on YouTube. It stars two friends who live in London and appear to annoy the hell out of each other. It’s a refreshingly funny Black British comedy and explores topics both intimate and political while remaining light in tone and highly relatable. The newest episode aired on BBC as a part of their Comedy Feeds series.

MOESHA

OK so if we’re really going to talk about black sitcoms are we going to ignore the contribution of Brandy? Rae has already spoken on numerous occasions citing the 90s show as an inspiration and also recently said it was the character on TV she had most identified with. Speaking on the Hollywood Reporter roundtable, she said: “She was just a regular black girl going to high school having a crush on two guys (...) and then black people disappeared from television.” The show dealt with teen issues like pregnancy, drug use, and family drama while also being a positive representation of black family life. Also, the theme tune was absolutely lit.

CHEWING GUM

For all the cringeworthy moments you may think you’ve endured while watching Insecure, Chewing Gum will times that by three. Although they are worlds and continents apart, both shows do something television has failed to do for decades: get the non-conventionally attractive and kind of weird black girl laid against all odds. Michaela Coel plays Tracey the sexually repressed protagonist whose Christian and Ghanaian background has left her conflicted and horny. The comedy gained new notoriety once it was published on Netflix and gained a cult following overseas which has led to Coel and Rae becoming vocal fans of each other’s work.

GIRLFRIENDS

If you listen closely enough to the dialogue between the women in Insecure, you’ll be privy to a number of pop culture references. The TV that they watch is the TV that most black women remember watching, whether that’s I Love New York (Tiffany Pollard at her best) or Girlfriends. The show was fronted by Tracee Ellis Ross, daughter of Diana, and is one of the last shows to focus on black female friendships. It follows that Sex and the City-esque format whereby there are four females each of which play a particular role in the group and represent a certain type of woman you may come across in your own friendship circles. Nevertheless, it remains a classic.