The Comeback
Season 3 ☆☆☆☆

Starring: Lisa Kudrow, Dan
Bucatinsky, Andrew Scott, John Early, Abbi Jacobson, Damian Young, Tim Bagley, Matt Cook, Brittany O’Grady, Ella Stiller and Laura Silverman

Created by: Lisa Kudrow and Michael Patrick King

alerie Cherish always appears when television needs her the most. In its first season, The Comeback managed to perfectly satirise reality TV and while the show was cancelled before The Real Housewives of Orange County or Keeping Up with the Kardashians even aired, its story has only made the show’s debut even more brilliant. Nine years later, The Comeback had its first comeback, continuing to address the rise of reality TV (with Valerie now all for that type of series) while also addressing the rise of dark dramedies and miniseries in the 2010s. Now, 21 years
after The Comeback became a cult favourite, the series returns once more for its final curtain call. While its subject matter makes the show bleaker than ever in its look at the reality of Hollywood, it also remains one of the smartest and funniest comedies of the 21st century with this latest instalment. It’s always wonderful to see Lisa Kudrow come back as Valerie Cherish, but in this third and final season, The Comeback is an essential rallying cry for where the entertainment industry is heading.

When we last saw Valerie 12 years ago, she’d won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series and reunited with her husband, Mark (Damian Young). The first episode of Season 3, “Valerie Gets a New Chapter,” reveals that, over the last few years, Valerie has been struggling to find her next big move. She finds out Broadway isn’t for her, she’s confounded by a small role in an indie movie and it takes her a while to realize her new podcast, Cherish the Time, should probably include more guests. She recently starred in the cozy mystery series Mrs. Hatt for two seasons, but it was on Epix, so obviously, no one heard of it.

Valerie gets a major opportunity when new streaming service, Nunet, offers her the starring role in her own sitcom, How’s That?! The head of Nunet, Brandon (played by Andrew Scott), says the show is a throwback to sitcoms of old, complete with commercials. It sounds like a dream come true for Valerie, and the starring role she’s always wanted. But there’s a catch: How’s That?! is being written by AI. Valerie has had her fair share of issues with TV writers in the past, but even this seems a step too far.

Yet Valerie decides to give AI a chance and as an executive producer on the show, she has slightly more say than she has in the past. She tries to push for more human involvement, especially from the two human showrunners (played by John Early and Abbi Jacobson), but even they seem to see the writing on the wall for writers going forward. It doesn’t take long before Valerie and the rest of her cast start to realise the issues with relying on AI for artistic endeavours and how hurtful this evolution of the industry can be for all entertainment.

More than the previous two seasons of The Comeback, Season 3 certainly feels more like a pointed effort to criticise where the state of entertainment is heading. The way The Comeback approaches AI is extremely clever, allowing audiences to see the dangers of relying on artificial intelligence. Instead of just saying why AI is bad, this season shows it in practice: it may be an easy solution, but it lacks heart and can’t match the mind of an actual human writer. As How’s That?! goes into production, it acts as a great example of why this reliance on AI is a terrible idea in practice and really presents how disastrous this evolution is for the future of entertainment.

As one would expect, though, The Comeback isn’t just acting as a warning sign for the entertainment industry’s future; it’s also an extremely funny and meta return for a show that already has knocked it out of the park with its two previous seasons. It’s wonderful to see creators Michael Patrick King and Lisa Kudrow playing within this world again, while also focusing on something more important than Valerie Cherish’s quest for fame. She has popularity, it’s what she does with her status that matters this time around. Within the larger themes, there are still the great, uncomfortable, awkward moments that make Valerie such a fantastic and hilarious character to follow around.

Kudrow, once again, delivers a standout performance, always balancing the line between cringey and genuine in a way that makes her compelling to watch in every scene. Especially in this season, when she’s put in a position of power as the head of this series and as an executive producer, it’s clear to see just how much she cares about the quality of her show and the people on it. In a world where TV often skates by on just being good enough, Valerie aims to make even a series that seems like a Newhart rip-off into something better. By often moving away from the documentary style at times, the series offers a deeper, more human version of Valerie, one that The Comeback rarely focused on beforehand. Season 3, and Kudrow’s performance, make Valerie more well-rounded than she has ever been.

Much like how Valerie is trying to find out who she is in this new position of power, the rest of the supporting cast earn nice little stories of their own. Mark is now out of the world of finance and trying to be a star in his own right, but he struggles with being in the entertainment world in a way he never had to before. His playing in Valerie’s world (albeit in financially-focused reality TV) makes their often-questionable relationship even more intriguing this season. Billy Stanton (Dan Bucatinsky), Valerie’s publicist, also spends much of the season finding himself and figuring out who he wants to be in Hollywood. The Comeback takes the time to try and give these supporting characters much stronger arcs without necessarily focusing on their ties to Valerie, and it works out well.

As opposed to previous seasons, however, The Comeback Season 3 doesn’t give quite as much focus to Valerie’s sitcom co-stars, which include Tim Bagley, Matt Cook, and Brittany O’Grady. They’ve given a trait or two to lean into, but they’re never as fleshed out as someone like Juna (Malin Akerman) in Season 1. Valerie’s new assistant, played by Ella Stiller, is by her side almost the entire series, but there’s not much to learn about her other than that she’s clumsy and always shows up with some new malady. This lack of depth in these characters isn’t a huge deal, but it is slightly disappointing.

The Comeback Season 3 definitely does justice to the characters who have been on this show since the beginning. It’s particularly great to see how the relationship between Valerie and Jane Benson (Laura Silverman) has evolved. After knowing each other for more than 20 years, they trust each other and respect each other in a way that we haven’t seen in previous seasons. There’s very much a mutual love for each other and both want to help the other the best they can. Jane acts as another way for this show to comment on the state of the movie industry, as an Oscar-winning documentarian still has to work a day job to make ends meet. Without spoiling what happens within the season, some of Season 3’s best moments focus on how Valerie’s relationships have evolved with other characters from her past. In fact, Valerie’s friendship with a person who used to be a real antagonist to her ends up being maybe the most impactful, meaningful, and shockingly touching aspect of this final season.

If this really is the very end of The Comeback, Season 3 is a great note to go out on. King and Kudrow created a show that felt ahead of its time 21 years ago and it feels even more integral than ever. The show’s approach to AI is not only an excellent source of comedy, but it provokes an essential conversation about the future of television and media in general. It’s always wonderful to have Valerie Cherish make another comeback, but Season 3 makes for a great curtain call.

– Courtesy: Collider.com