Well, There’s No Coming Back From That

Valerie Cherish is one of those impossibly fully formed characters that TV magic is made of. Crafted, at least in part, by the exceptionally talented Lisa Kudrow, Cherish showed up on small screens in 2005 as a recognizable somewhat yutzy actress trying her hand at the world of reality television. The Comeback first season chronicled her as a disrespected and aging new sitcom cast whose professionalism is at times the only thing keeping her new show together, so her fully formed backstory as a sitcom darling perfectly set the stage. Between seasons- an entire decade- her life went on and she returned after reeling from reality TV humiliation and a sprint through indie horror to a new world of the prestige miniseries in. For her latest and final return, a Valerie who spent some time on a mystery series, comes into a world of actor and writer strikes, new rules about comedy, and the rise of AI. This season plops the professional actress and now executive producer into another “just ahead of its time” reality wherein the TV star has to work around the limitations of starring on the first all AI written series. With their beloved series now ending, Kudrow, Michael Patrick King, and their presumed gamut of real human writers have posited what the future of television will look like. And it’s grim. And probably pretty accurate.

After watching Val toggle the interests of her show’s staff, the media, writers, and her own moral code, her quandary finally boils over during a heated discussion with the studio’s boss (Andrew Scott). Arguing after the well-meaning Val lets out to the press that a writer saved their show when compute tokens were used up, NuNet’s idea-guy blasts Valerie that sitcoms might be better when they’re written by real writers, but they don’t have to be. They just have to be good enough. And while a woman who made her career in sitcom television, an art she has always been shown to take incredibly seriously, is insulted by such a proposition, she is ultimately bested. Maybe sitcoms do need to be just good enough, to have on where people are “doing whatever.” As Valerie Cherish goes forward, she has a new job as the lead in a show by a well-regarded comedy writer, and “How’s That?!” continues with an AI Val in her place.

And that’s probably the future. I’ve this core memory of when The Cloverfield Paradox landed on TV immediately after the Superbowl. Buzzfeed posted an article titled “A Netflix Movie Doesn’t Need to be Good- It Just Needs to be There.” This was early in 2018, and the piece made compelling points about the changing landscape of digital and streaming releases. Since then, we’ve seen years of Netflix (and other streamers) pumping out low quality “content,” and many of us have consumed it and brought it to the watercooler the next day. Last year saw many conversations about whether streamers were dumbing down movies and shows to be watched while audiences looked at their phones. AI sitcoms, as posited in the universe of The Comeback, are potentially the next evolution of that. Though the in-world writers describe AI as something different from streaming (calling it an “extinction level event”), the show ends on the note that prestige television and trashy sitcoms can co-exist. And they probably will.

What ends up being special about Val’s place in all of this is her status as a sitcom maven. Sitcoms aren’t slop to her; they’re her entire career and Valerie has always been a professional.

So while she was the right conduit for the confusing nature of the future of her craft, there is something inauthentic with how the series tackles her sendoff. In the finale, everyone speaks to Valerie like she is “finally,” getting what she wants as she leaves behind her AI sitcom for a better one with a special writer. But while we all know the reality of moving goal posts, Valerie already got a messy version of everything she wanted. It was even the title of the second season’s finale. An Emmy and recognition as a serious actress and her saved marriage gave Valerie the accolades of her dreams. Her previous stories had Val desperately navigating her way into the spotlight, from being disrespected and made fun of while holding together a sitcom and being an early adopter of reality television, to fumbling with a horrific showrunner while boosting a crappy prestige show with her talent and getting herself an award. The AI fight feels more like a side quest than a new story for her, like she was taken off of ice for a “what if” scenario that felt like a writer’s crusade and not a fully fledged story for the iconic character, one that ultimately ends on a staunch prediction while manufacturing a warm ending for the lead.

The Comeback’s third season just felt incomplete in its manner of trying to tackle the ills of the 2026 media landscape. Whether it was Billy’s (Dan Bucatinsky) desire to be a red carpet star in skirts for men, Val’s new hairstylist sexually harassing a castmate, Valerie trying out social media, or Mark losing his job for a “#MeToo,” violation, each bit ends in a throwaway happy ending (Billy goes off to a fashion show, The stylist comes back like nothing is wrong, Val gets an endorsement, and Mark gets his job back along with Val’s trust) making the show seem ill-equipped to handle these common beats. Maybe it’s a statement on everyone getting away with everything but it feels more like the show stuffing in modern concepts to insist it’s Valerie tackling more of the decade’s media conundrums.

I’m sad to see Valerie go. For its missteps, the final season stayed true to the authenticity of the character as a bit of a yutz with a strong work ethic and a good heart. She cares about her work and her colleagues, but she’s vain and out-of-touch, which is how she finds herself slipping up and trying to make great TV. Today’s audience likely leave on their (now precious) 26 episode seasons of Friends in the background, shows like The Comeback demand their attention. Lisa Kudrow and Valerie Cherish want both of those things to be as good as they can be.

All episodes of The Comeback are streaming on HBO