New York City-based comedies are nothing new — see Friends, How I Met Your Mother, Sex and the City, and oh-so-many more — and in the last year, three more titles have been added to the list. But rather than being unique concepts based in the same city, they are near-carbon copies of each other.

2 Broke Girls, which debuted last summer, HBO’s new Girls series, and ABC’s Don’t Trust the B— in Apt 23 are half-hour comedies that all revolve around the same basic concept: a pair of Caucasian 20-something women, living together and struggling to make it in the city of New York. It’s a common concept which resonates with thousands of women (this writer included), but why is it that television networks insist on repeating the same concept over and over again until it’s so overused that even the best show feels reductive?

Thanks much in part to Bridesmaids and mainstream female comedians like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, female comedy is on the rise. But shouldn’t more gender equality in comedy be an empowering thing for women? Instead, writers seem to think that women can only be funny if they’re making graphic sex jokes every 30 seconds — as is the case with 2 Broke Girls — or being humiliated and laughed at in the case of Girls.

I encourage more writers, as they welcome female comedy to the mainstream, to allow women to be hilarious in their own right. The best example of this is ABC’s Apt 23, which gives Krysten Ritter and Dreama Walker the opportunity to be truly entertaining, without crossing the line into crude jokes or humiliation.

To save you the feeling of déjà vu that comes with watching all three shows, I’ve decided to lay down the pros and cons of each one, summing up what makes each unique and what makes it worth — or not worth — watching, based on my opinion of what’s aired so far.

2 Broke Girls:

The Basics: 2 Broke Girls is the story of two Brooklyn waitresses — one who has always been poor and one who recently lost her fortune — trying to save up to open a bakery. The comedy is mostly sexual and not very creative, but the two lead characters, Max and Caroline, are fun and play well off each other.

Pro: Kat Dennings is hilarious. She and Beth Behrs have great chemistry, and almost make the show worth watching. The comedic timing is good, the jokes are just bad.

Con: CBS doesn’t post episodes of the show anywhere: not on CBS.com, not on Hulu and not on Netflix. So if you haven’t watched so far, it will be pretty difficult to catch up on the first season. Also, the comedy relies heavily on racist and sexual jokes — the latter of which can be funny at times, but is incredibly overused and often feels forced.

Girls:

The Basics: A pair of roommates, Hannah and Marnie, are living in Brooklyn when Hanna’s parents cut her off. Both have boy troubles: Hannah’s friends-with-benefits situation is pretty terrible and while Marnie’s boyfriend seems like a great guy, she’s not in love with him. Their wild card friend Jessa returns from France because she’s pregnant. Hanna loses her unpaid internship and life happens. Reviews for Girls have been incredibly polarized, with some critics lauding it as the best show in years, and others calling it narcissistic, racist, degrading to women and just plain dull.

Pro: It may very well be the most realistic of the three shows, relying heavily on dark humor and satire to mock the characters and comment on the irony of their “miserable” yet privileged lives.

Con: The characters aren’t particularly likable and are more pitiable than relatable. For a comedy called Girls, the female characters have a shocking lack of self-worth and are, on the whole, devalued by their male counterparts. There is almost no cultural diversity, and it focuses on crude stereotyping — the only African American character is a homeless man and the only Asian is a girl who’s skilled with computers.

Don’t Trust the B— in Apt 23:

The Basics: June moves to New York in pursuit of her dream job, but her job and her apartment plans fall apart so she moves in with Chloe, a con artist whose best friend is James Van Der Beek. There’s a pervy guy across the street and a creepy neighbor, and between all the fighting and scheming, the two girls become friends. Chloe is a bit of a sociopath, and their back-and-forth friendship is sure to continue on through the antics of many episodes.

Pro: Krysten Ritter is charming as always, Dreama Walker is entertaining enough as a straight man for Ritter’s jokes, but the real star of Apt 23 is Dawson’s Creek alum James Van Der Beek. Much like Neil Patrick Harris’ character in Harold and Kumar, Van Der Beek portrays a hilarious caricature of himself as an actor, living in the shadow of his Dawson days.

Con: At only two episodes in, the storyline and some of the jokes already feel played out, and the series could easily become repetitive and boring. However, it has a lot of potential and is currently standing as my favorite of the three shows.

Have you watched any of these three NYC comedies? These evaluations of each show are based completely on my opinions: do you agree? Disagree? Tell me which is your favorite and why in the comments below, or give me a shout on Twitter @smaloy!