‘Maggie’ review: When ‘Friends’ meets ‘How I Met Your Mother,’ but there’s a psychic who can see the future

An ensemble comedy about relationships that’s actually funny, “Maggie” on Hulu follows in the footsteps of so many sitcoms that have come before it, from “Living Single” to “Friends” to “New Girl.” But it is “How I Met Your Mother” that comes to mind most insistently, because there are constant hints of a future outcome placed like a breadcrumb trail.

So much so that the first season of “Maggie” is a better successor than the official spinoff “How I Met Your Father,” which is aggressively fine and also on Hulu, ironically. Who knows why these things turn out the way they do. But when comparing the two, “Maggie” is superior in look and execution.

And it has jokes upon jokes. When a character brings home a guy she’s dating and introduces him to her parents (“So, this is my mom”) her mom bashfully replies: “Oh, please — Mom was my mother’s name.” It’s small, it’s silly, but it made me laugh. Those kinds of comedic grace notes are fundamental to the show’s sensibility.