Lisa Kudrow returns as Valerie Cherish in the third and final season of The Comeback on HBO Max, navigating a Hollywood transformed by artificial intelligence and the historic writers’ strikes.
It took twenty-one years for creators Lisa Kudrow and Michael Patrick King to roll out just three seasons of a comedy that has evolved from an overlooked 2005 satire into a certified cultural touchstone.
The Bottom Line
- Valerie Cherish faces career obsolescence at age 62, reduced to a struggling podcast, unpaid social media management, and minor indie film roles.
- The eight-episode final season deals directly with the rise of AI-generated sitcom scripts against the backdrop of the 2023 Hollywood labor strikes.
- The series finale is scheduled to air on May 10, bringing a definitive close to the character’s erratic television journey.
Twenty-One Years of Valerie Cherish
When The Comeback premiered in 2005 on HBO, the mockumentary-style satire of television ego and industry cruelty found a very small, indifferent audience. HBO swiftly canceled the first season. But time proved kinder to the show than initial ratings suggested. A BBC survey of 206 global critics in October 2021 placed the series at number 87 among the greatest television programs of the century, paving the way for a 2014 revival and this final chapter.
“Sentimos que esta tenía que ser la batalla o el desafío definitivo para Valerie,” Lisa Kudrow explained regarding the new scripts. The actor steps back into the shoes of a veteran actress trying to secure steady work in an industry that has largely left her behind. The timeline of this final season anchors itself in 2023, capturing the eerie quiet of the post-pandemic studio lots alongside the palpable tension of picket lines.
Artificial Intelligence Enters the Writers’ Room
Valerie’s faithful agent, Billy Stanton, eventually surfaces an unusual opportunity: a starring role in How’s That?!, a sitcom written with artificial intelligence for the newly rebranded network NuNet. The proposition forces Valerie into an immediate moral crisis. Accepting the gig risks alienating the community of human writers currently walking the picket lines.
When questioned in executive meetings, NuNet representatives insist two human writers are working on the project. The narrative draws a sharp parallel to the unspooling chaos of early reality television. Kudrow noted that the exact anxiety surrounding AI today mirrors the industry’s panic when unscripted television first threatened traditional scripted formats decades ago.
Familiar Faces and Final Episodes
The production utilized Stage 24 at Warner Bros. Studios—the historic lot where Kudrow once filmed Friends. The eight-episode run features seven standard half-hour installments alongside an extended 45-minute series finale slated for May 10.
Returning cast members include Dan Bucatinsky as Billy Stanton, Damian Young as Mark Berman, Laura Silverman as documentarian Jane Benson, and director Jimmy Burrows. Andrew Scott steps in as the NuNet executive pushing the automated scripts, while cameo appearances feature Jane Fonda, Adam Scott, and Bradley Whitford.
