Entertainment
The Comeback Season 3 review: Lisa Kudrow warns us of the AI apocalypse
Lisa Kudrow and Michael Patrick King’s cult comedy gem The Comeback has always been a frighteningly prescient satire of Hollywood.
Season 1, which aired in 2005, was ahead of its time in its portrayal of the manipulative tactics that power reality TV. Season 2, coming almost a decade later in 2014, poked fun at prestige antihero dramedies. Now, The Comeback makes its second (and supposedly final) comeback with a third season that’s all about Hollywood’s hottest topic: AI.
That AI focus lends The Comeback Season 3 an urgency that sets it apart from its prior two outings. Yes, it’s still hilarious, cynical, and a remarkable showcase for Kudrow in her best role. But on top of all that, it’s also something else: a warning.
What’s The Comeback Season 3 about?
Zane Philips, Brittany O’Grady, Barry Shabaka Henley, Lisa Kudrow, Tim Bagley, and Matt Cook in “The Comeback.”
Credit: Erin Simkin / HBO
The warning signs begin early, as The Comeback Season 3 picks up during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.
“AI is coming after all of us,” then-SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher (in one of The Comeback‘s many celebrity cameos) tells a crowd of striking actors and writers.
The Comeback‘s embattled sitcom star Valerie Cherish (Kudrow) nods along, but in true Valerie fashion, she’s more focused on the optics of her presence at the strike than the strike itself. Now trying to master the social media game to stay relevant, she’s too busy directing her Gen Z social manager Patience (Ella Stiller) to truly take in the gravity of the situation. (Kudrow is already on Emmy watch for Valerie’s posing with the picket sign alone.)
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Flash forward to 2026: Valerie is struggling to get a podcast (Cherish the Time) off the ground, and she’s taking bit roles in the lowest of low budget films. But her luck is set to change when she’s offered the lead of new multi-cam sitcom How’s That?!. It’s everything she’s ever wanted, with one huge catch: It’s completely written by AI.
The Comeback Season 3 examines the role of AI in show business.
John Early and Abbi Jacobson in “The Comeback.”
Credit: Erin Simkin / HBO
On paper, How’s That?!‘s showrunners are two humans, Mary and Josh (Abbi Jacobson and John Early). But in reality, their only job is to babysit the AI program that’s actually churning out the show’s scripts, sending the two of them down a disillusioned spiral.
Part of that comes from the fact that The Comeback initially approaches AI writing as somewhat competent. It churns out tens of alternate lines before Mary and Josh can think of one. Its jokes resonate more with How’s That?!‘s live studio audience than the one or two gags Mary and Josh manage to sneak in themselves. In terms of speed and sheer writing volume, it’s impressive, and Valerie certainly seems to agree. That she has to deal less with difficult writer types like her past antagonist Paulie G. (Lance Barber) also seems to sweeten the deal.
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However, as Season 3 continues, How’s That?!‘s shiny new tool begins to lose its sheen. AI hallucinations turn scripts incomprehensible, and the program’s hastily-produced alts prove unsurprising and dull. Of course they would — they’re just scraping other writers’ work for inspiration.
That’s what The Comeback Season 3 hammers home. AI can crank out script after script, but it’s completely soulless. It has no sense of what will truly resonate with an audience. That, The Comeback says, can only come from writers pitching in the crucible of production, grinding it out until they find the perfect one-liner.
According to How’s That?!‘s network’s CEO (played to skeezy perfection by Andrew Scott), the use of AI will help cut costs and optimize the show for maximum audience enjoyment. (Or really, just throwing it on in the background.) Ironically, he asks Valerie to keep it a secret from the cast and crew, a process that requires more effort than simply bringing more human writers onboard.
Valerie has never been great at keeping things to herself, which is why she lets How’s That?!‘s AI use slip to The Comeback documentarian Jane (Laura Silverman). The slip brings Jane back into the fold for a new documentary project: exploring the making of the first-ever AI-written show.
It’s clear from the start that Jane understands the existential threat AI poses to the entertainment industry. Things are already awful for the majority of workers in the field. Now an Academy Award winner, Jane’s main job isn’t filmmaking, but rather working as a cashier at Trader Joe’s. Crew members on How’s That?! have worked on films whose production has been drastically shortened due to AI, robbing them of over 10 weeks of pay. Elsewhere, The Comeback populates entire coffee shops with talented writers who have to pivot because the industry is a mess. As one writer notes in the show, the normalization of AI in TV won’t just be an evolution of the form, it’ll be “an extinction event.”
Yet somehow, Valerie is the rare example of someone in the entertainment industry benefitting from AI. It’s given her the job of a lifetime, and in her mind, she’s willing to set aside a lot of her misgivings in exchange for a lead role and a shiny executive producer credit. But really, Valerie is the proverbial frog in a slowly boiling pot of water. She doesn’t realize that the danger is coming for her too, even as The Comeback works its way up towards a Black Mirror-esque conclusion.
The Comeback Season 3 isn’t all AI doom and gloom, though. It’s full of standout running gags, including Valerie’s obsession with her under-viewed show Mrs. Hatt. (Nobody watched it because it was on Epix, a cutting jab at the sheer amount of streaming shows.) It also provides a touching send-off to Valerie’s hair stylists and closest friend Mickey, whose actor Robert Michael Morris passed away in 2017. Trust The Comeback to make me tear up and belly laugh all at once.
Kudrow’s performance remains pure comedic excellence, managing to make even Valerie’s most selfish moments endearing. That The Comeback plays more loosely with its documentary format helps here as well: We tend to see Valerie through the lens of Jane’s camera, Patience’s phone, or security footage in her and Mark’s (Damian Young) apartment. Often, though, The Comeback Season 3 allows us to see parts of Valerie’s life that the cameras don’t capture, a tactic that closed out its touching Season 2 finale. In keeping it up, Season 3 offers up the most humanized view of Valerie yet, and Kudrow is spectacular through each high and low.
Of course, much of those lows revolve around AI. The Comeback can occasionally get uncharacteristically heavy-handed about the subject matter, but then again, in a world where entertainment giants like Disney are investing in OpenAI, it’s not wrong to sound the alarm about something that could so thoroughly decimate the industry.
In The Comeback‘s eyes, bringing AI into TV will result in nothing but lowest common denominator “content,” and that’s about as far from the show’s sharp, superb swan song as you can get.
The Comeback Season 3 premieres March 22 at 10:30 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.
Entertainment
The best early gaming deals to shop ahead of Amazons Big Spring Sale
TL;DR: Ahead of Amazon’s Big Spring Sale, gamers can already score some standout early discounts, including the Samsung 27-inch Odyssey OLED G5 gaming monitor for $349.99, down from $549.99, and NBA 2K26 on PS5, Xbox, and Switch 2 for just $19.93 instead of $69.99.
A quick look at the best Amazon Spring Sale gaming deals:
Amazon’s Big Spring Sale is nearly here, but gamers don’t have to wait for the official kickoff to start saving.
A couple of strong early gaming deals have already landed, and they’re the sort of offers that are great for whether you’re upgrading your setup or you’re just looking to catch up on the big releases of years past without paying full price — with plenty more still to come across PS5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch 1 & 2, and peripherals like monitors, headsets, mice, and much more.
$349.99
at Amazon
$549.99
Save $200
As of March 17, the standout hardware deal is the Samsung 27-inch Odyssey OLED G5 gaming monitor, which has dropped to $349.99 from its $549.99 list price. That’s a 36% discount, or $200 off, on a QHD QD-OLED display with specs that are a lot more premium than this new price would suggest. This is even the OLED G5’s lowest price ever on Amazon, as confirmed via price tracker camelcamelcamel.
This model packs a 180Hz refresh rate, a 0.03ms response time, Nvidia G-Sync compatibility, and AMD FreeSync support, which is a strong mix for anyone who wants smooth gameplay without moving into the much more expensive OLED monitor tier. Samsung also highlights glare-free tech, HDR10, and Pantone validation, so this one looks particularly appealing if you want your games to pop as much as your frame rates.
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$19.93
at Amazon
$69.99
Save $50.06
Mashable Deals
As for cheaper games, though, NBA 2K26 is down to just $19.93 from $69.99 on PS5 — its lowest price ever, as confirmed with camelcamelcamel, as well. That’s 72% off the full game that includes ProPLAY-enhanced gameplay, MyCAREER, MyTEAM, and MyNBA modes, giving basketball fans plenty to dig into whether they mostly play solo or jump online with friends.
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Entertainment
20 fitness tracker deals to shop ahead of the Amazon Big Spring Sale
Table of Contents
Amazon’s third annual Big Spring Sale kicks off next week (officially running March 25 through 31), but deals are already starting to roll in. You can find deal stamps across Apple products, robot vacuums, speakers, and even high-end fitness trackers, including Garmin, Google, and of course Apple Watches. Whether you need a new watch to track that 5K you’re training for or simply monitor your sleep habits, there will surely be a fitness tracker deal for you during the sale.
Deals are starting slow, with the biggest discounts so far on last-gen Garmin watches, but we’ll be updating this list as new price drops appear. There are a few big names that seem to be holding out until the official sale, like Whoop, Fitbit, and Oura. So we’d hold off on buying those brands until the Big Spring Sale commences.
Below, we’re tracking all the best fitness tracker deals at Amazon leading up to and throughout the official Big Spring Sale 2026.
Best early Amazon Big Spring Sale fitness tracker deal
$174.28
at Amazon
$299.99
Save $125.71
Why we like it
While it’s since been replaced with the newer vívoactive 6, the Garmin vívoactive 5 is still an excellent choice. It’s a perfect all-rounder for someone who wants a fitness tracker with plenty of smartwatch features. It can track everything from long runs and rides to stress, sleep, and body battery, has a bright and responsive AMOLED display, and boasts 11 days of battery power (Apple could literally never). I personally gifted this watch to my boyfriend (he loves it) after snagging an epic Black Friday discount, but it’s now even cheaper. At $174.28, it’s over 40% off and is down to the lowest price we’ve ever seen.
Best Apple Watch deal
$299
at Amazon
$399
Save $100
Why we like it
If you’re looking for a solid Apple Watch deal, this $100 price drop on the Series 11 makes it a pretty stellar value. It’s been chilling at this price for awhile now, so we’re hoping to see the Big Spring Sale drop it down even lower. But even if it doesn’t, $299 for the newest Apple Watch ain’t bad. It brings significant battery improvements over its predecessor, which alone makes it worth the upgrade. It also has a tougher design with more durable glass that’s twice as resistant to scratches, 5G capability for seamless connectivity, and a Sleep Score and hypertension tool for flagging high blood pressure.
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Garmin
Google / Fitbit
Nothing
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Entertainment
Netflix Just Released An Episode So Bad I’m Now Embarrassed I Ever Recommended This Show
By Joshua Tyler
| Published
One of the funnier scenes ever to make it into a movie happens in the classic Chevy Chase/Dan Aykroyd comedy Spies Like Us. The duo, playing inept spies, arrives at a Doctors Without Borders camp, and all it takes for them to convince the people there that they belong is to call everyone “Doctor” over and over and over again. It’s a fun, silly way of poking fun at pretentious PhDs and also the limited intelligence of our heroes.
Now imagine that sixty-second scene stretched over sixty minutes, played seriously instead of as a joke, and with Chevy Chase’s character replaced by a badly rendered miniature reindeer in a top hat. That’s what happens in season 2 episode 7 of Netflix’s pirate adventure show One Piece. Aptly titled “Reindeer Shames,” it may be the single worst hour of programming ever released on streaming, and somehow it’s the penultimate episode of the streamer’s new flagship show.
Having not seen episode 7 yet, and having previously enjoyed season one and all six previous episodes of season 2, I’d been recklessly recommending One Piece to everyone I know. Now, not only am I rescinding that recommendation, I’m not sure I have the strength to continue on and watch the second season’s final episode.
One Piece Fans Waited More Than Two Years For Time Wasting Filler
A quick positioning statement: I love anime and watch a lot of it. Like 99% of the people watching the Netflix show, though, I’ve never watched the anime version of One Piece. I’ve avoided it largely because there are thousands of episodes, and that seems daunting, but also because even its most ardent defenders often admit that many of those episodes are actually time-wasting filler.
The One Piece anime’s predilection towards time-wasting filler episodes may explain the presence of “Reindeer Shames” on the Netflix version, the plot of which involves none of the show’s actual cast. The story also has basically nothing to do with any of the narratives being developed in the rest of the season.
That might be an acceptable side trip in a series with thousands of episodes, but in the modern era of lazy streaming production, we only get eight episodes every two or three years instead of an annual two-dozen. Wasting one of those precious episodes on anything not directly relevant to what’s happening on the show would be a bad idea, even if it were somehow good. When it’s this bad, it feels almost criminal.
A Blatant Cost-Cutting Measure From Netflix
“Reindeer Shames” tells the story of a Doctor on the run in a country where Doctors are being rounded up for weird anime doctor-hoarding reasons. The Doctor encounters a tiny, talking reindeer who looks like he just fell off a Toys R Us plushy shelf during the Christmas holiday rush of 1997. Or he would look like that if the CGI used to animate him didn’t also look like it came from 1997.
It seems clear that at least part of Netflix’s motivation in making this episode was as a cost-cutting measure. The show’s other episodes look fantastic, with high-level special effects and large-scale action sequences. However, “Reindeer Shames” largely takes place in either an unremarkable bush or a single hut and offers only a few, half-hearted seconds of action at the end. And again, it doesn’t involve any of the show’s actual cast, which probably means Netflix only paid them for seven episodes while still producing eight.
Netflix Has Opened Its Own Learing Center
This has all the earmarks of a scam. Making your subscription-paying audience wait two and a half years for eight episodes and then cheaping out on one of them is the streaming version of a Minnesota Learning Center.
The talking reindeer is named Chopper, and I’m told by Jonathan Klotz, who I consider an expert in all One Piece matters, that this character is a beloved figure in the animated version of this tale. Maybe he’ll grow into that over the course of Netflix’s live-action series, assuming the awfulness of this outing doesn’t cause the show to be canceled. Still, he’s garbage in this episode, and plays out like a clumsy, half-baked attempt to create the next Baby Yoda in a world where everyone’s sick to death of Baby Yodas.
Stop Watching One Piece Unless Supervised By A Doctor
Instead of delivering the kind of pirate adventure One Piece viewers are tuned in for, the episode meanders around, fixating on endless speeches about how amazing and important Doctors are. Doctor this and Doctor that, and oh, aren’t Doctors incredible angels who totally aren’t doing this job just because they like buying Corvettes and hanging out at country clubs.
Sitting through “Reindeer Shames” made me wish One Piece was on YouTube instead of Netflix, so it could be interrupted by an Incogni ad. In that worse-than-streaming-sponsorships environment, I guess Chopper, since he isn’t a Doctor and only wants to be one, is the least worst thing about it. That’s a hopeful point for his continued Doctor presence on the show, which seems like something I’ll have to endure if I ever again work up the doctor-like courage to watch another One Piece episode. I probably won’t, at least not without the supervision of a Doctor.
“REINDEER SHAMES” REVIEW SCORE
The Comeback Season 3 review: Lisa Kudrow warns us of the AI apocalypse
The best early gaming deals to shop ahead of Amazons Big Spring Sale
