42 Thoughts I Had About Season 3, Episode 1 of ‘The Comeback’

I’ve had plenty of fun watching Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette lately, but since that show’s started to get depressing—and Hacks isn’t back on HBO Max for a few weeks—I’m currently revisiting my aughts roots and getting way, way, way too excited about the return of The Comeback, Lisa Kudrow and Michael Patrick King’s sly and brilliant series about a washed-up sitcom actress (Kudrow) attempting to recapture her ’90s magic.

It’s possible that no show can ever really skewer Hollywood as completely as it deserves (truly, everyone here is insane), but The Comeback comes the closest of any I can think of—and now, thank God, we have a third (and final?) season. Below, find every thought I had about Season 3, Episode 1 of The Comeback:

1. God, I missed seeing Valerie Cherish’s deranged grin on my TV screen.
2. She’s going to be in Chicago on Broadway!
3. Just like Whitney Leavitt!
4. Hey, it’s Jane 🙂
5. Of course Jane doesn’t do social media! She canonically has an Oscar for her documentary about lesbians in the Holocaust!
6. I’m pretty sure Valerie isn’t supposed to be hairspo, but I do envy the fullness of her bangs.
7. Absolute taste to have Valerie running the best song in Chicago (which happens to be “We Both Reached For The Gun”).
8. Cutting before the Christine Baranski “Understandable” solo? Unforgivable.
9. I’m so glad I’m not a professional dancer because this shit sounds hard.
10. This random blond girl is making me miss Juna Milken.
11. Hearing Valerie yell “Jane? Jane?” is scratching a specific itch in my brain.
12. Aw, Marky-Mark! Loveball!
13. Glad he’s still around.
14. WGA/SAG strike reference!
15. COVID reference!
16. I love this one sweet gay guy who’s buying what Valerie’s selling.
17. Hey! I’ve been on that picket line!
18. Aw, Fran Drescher.
19. LMAO at Valerie joining the picket line because she’s flopped out of theater.
20. Many such cases.
21. “Well, union. Important. You know?”
22. I do know!
23. Has it really been three years since 2023?
24. I guess that’s…how time works.
25. I’m so Valerie for being disgusted at the concept of anyone being 23 years old in 2026.
26. Valerie’s podcast being called Cherish the Time…I fear I’d be seated and listening.
27. Of course Mark plays pickleball.
28. “Hello, hello, hello” to Billy!
29. I, too, am open to collabs.
30. Need to watch Mrs. Hatt on Epix ASAP.
31. Multicam?? In this economy??
32. Oof, this sitcom being written by AI…
33. “Is that allowed?”
34. Well, yes.
35. Valerie Cherish, anti-AI warrior! We love to see it.
36. I mean, I know she’s just doing it out of narcissism, but still.
37. “I’ll do an AI series next year! When everyone else is.”
38. God, she really does hold up a mirror to Hollywood, doesn’t she?
39. Aw, I miss Mickey 🙁
40. He died of COVID?!?
41. Oh, Val.
42. Oh, the industry.