The third season of The Comeback reintroduces Lisa Kudrow’s manic, image-focused Valerie Cherish into a Hollywood caught between nostalgia and technological upheaval. From a structural standpoint, the series keeps its mockumentary DNA while stretching the frame to examine how artificial intelligence reshapes writers’ rooms, production calendars, and daily livelihoods. Early moments place Valerie amid the fallout of the 2026 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, which are treated not just as background, but as a lived reality that colors every career decision made on screen and off.
Valerie remains the same mixture of vulnerability and self-promotion fans have come to expect, yet this season lets her vantage point illuminate broader shifts. The storytelling alternates between Jane’s documentary lenses, social media footage from Valerie’s young assistant Patience, and candid security-camera clips, creating a collage that highlights how modern celebrity is both mediated and manufactured. In doing so, the show uses its format to ask: what gets lost when speed and efficiency are prioritized over human craft?
A return that builds on what came before
Rather than undo what audiences learned in previous seasons, this new installment treats Valerie’s past growth as an asset. Her experiences—an Emmy nomination, a strained marriage, public missteps—aren’t erased; they inform the choices she makes when presented with an unprecedented offer. The writers refuse a simple reboot formula and instead let history weigh on present decisions, which gives the satire more emotional heft. At the same time, the series preserves its appetite for humor, finding absurdity in publicity stunts, outdated network executives, and Valerie’s relentless appetite for visibility.
AI at the center of the story
The central plotline revolves around a revival multi-cam sitcom called How’s That?!, an ostensibly retro project whose scripts are produced by a proprietary AI platform. On paper, human showrunners Mary and Josh shepherd the project, but their job quickly becomes one of mediation—curating and policing machine output rather than composing original material. The program initially impresses with pace and volume: it generates alternatives and punchlines faster than any human team could, and live audiences even laugh at lines it produces. Yet the veneer of competence begins to crack as the AI’s work reveals familiar limitations.
How’s That?! and NuNet’s experiment
The network backing the sitcom, a rebooted entity often referred to as NuNet, touts the platform as a cost-saving innovation calibrated for broad appeal. Its CEO, portrayed with slippery charm, insists the system follows union agreements even as the production keeps the technology’s role under wraps. Valerie, hungry for a leading role and an executive producer credit, signs on despite warnings. The secrecy around the show’s writing process becomes a narrative engine: the ethical questions and PR calculus that follow are as important to the plot as any joke landing in front of a studio audience.
The human cost beneath the experiment
As the season progresses, the shortcomings of relying on machine-generated material surface: hallucinations render scripts incoherent, patterns of repetition make jokes stale, and the lack of lived experience robs scenes of resonance. Crew members who once earned steady weeks on a production find schedules shortened or eliminated entirely; writers who used to collaborate in the messy, generative space of a room are displaced. The show populates coffee shops and side gigs with displaced professionals, underscoring the point that this is more than a creative debate—it’s a labor and survival story.
Kudrow’s performance and the series’ tone
Lisa Kudrow delivers a performance that balances exasperation, vanity, and surprising empathy. Valerie’s appetite for attention produces both comic spectacle and moments of real tenderness, especially in scenes that pull away from the camera’s practiced gaze. The season leans into its darker implications without abandoning the running gags that have always powered the series; callbacks to Valerie’s lesser-seen projects and her relationships with longtime allies provide emotional ballast. Ultimately, the season functions as both a farewell to a singular character and a timely critique of how technology intersects with culture.
For viewers who follow industry conversations about automation, the season reads as a cautionary tale: while AI can replicate form and speed, the show argues that it cannot fully reproduce the unpredictable human instincts that drive great comedy and storytelling. The season closes on a tone that feels equal parts warning and elegy—an appropriate note for a series that has always walked the line between laughter and discomfort. The Comeback season 3 premieres March 22 at 10:30 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.