We're 23 days into 2019, the government shutdown continues to ruin lives with no end in sight, and racist teens are on our morning shows telling us how nice they are. Mercifully, there's also a really good new comedy series debuting on Thursday, one that deserves to be seen en masse, because ten episodes is not nearly enough of The Other Two for a world that so desperately needs it. Comedy Central is clearly positioning the show as a logical successor meant to fill the hole Broad City will leave after its final season wraps, and the funny, surprising first season of The Other Two suggests that dream may well become reality.

Created by former Saturday Night Live head writers Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider (the latter of whom, full disclosure, I once worked with at CollegeHumor), The Other Two follows Cary and Brooke (Drew Tarver and Heléne York), two siblings in their late 20s whose youngest brother, Chase (Case Walker), becomes an overnight celebrity via a YouTube video. Is he particularly good at singing? Is he particularly interesting? Does he want to be famous? These are all petty concerns in the Instagram celebrity era.

The show toes the line impressively, not allowing itself to get too bogged down in broad lampooning of celebrity or pop star culture (though a running joke involving the family crashing at Justin Theroux's apartment pays dividends again and again). Instead, Cary and Brooke are the focus, and what's more their true affection for their famous put-upon brother is never called into question. It's not that kind of show.

Even Chase Dreams's (yes, that's really what he goes by) inept exploitative caretakers—Ken Marino as a Scooter Braun-esque manager and Molly Shannon as the family's matriarch—aren't burdened with one-note archetypes. There's a soft desperation to Marino's Streeter, who begins most conversations asking outright "are you talking about me? Laughing at me?" Shannon, too, as much as she's caught up in the new lifestyle Chase can afford, has demons of her own. Throughout the series it's long-hinted the deceased patriarch of the family might have died under darker, more unusual circumstances than we're initially led to believe.

As the title suggests, it's Tarver and Yorke who carry The Other Two. There have been plenty of character studies on the struggling actor in New York, but Cary feels new in the hands of Tarver and the writing team. Yorke is the show's secret weapon, gleefully inhabiting Brooke with total commitment. The second episode, in which the two attend a children's movie premiere, desperate for a red carpet photo, is her masterpiece. A few episodes later, Tarver gets a Call Me By Your Name-inspired joke that made me do a literal spit take, and my editor to scream out loud [editor's note: can confirm].

The Other Two has the alchemy of a small but special show: It's funny as fuck (god bless the increasingly relaxed standards of what can and can't be said on cable TV), there's not a weak link in the cast, and, most importantly, for a show so full of jokes, not once does it make a joke out of the people Kelly and Schneider have populated their bizarro New York social scene with. Like so many an ill-advised youth using tech platforms they don't fully understand, let's hope The Other Two blows up too.

The Other Two premieres on Thursday, January 24 at 10:30 p.m. EST on Comedy Central.