Matt Schimkowitz: The Comeback didn’t waste time rehashing what The Comeback was or is this season, and that premiere, which bobbed and weaved around the season’s themes and style, heralded a season of change for Valerie Cherish. Ditching mockumentary was a risk worth taking because Kudrow and King found new places to take Valerie, before leaving her story at a hopeful moment. Your mileage may vary as a whole, but as someone who wants to leave their characters better off than when I met them, the finale hit all the right beats. The Comeback made the right call and returned to a slightly better status quo in its finale. Most of the story wrapped the week prior, so we see characters like Mark and Billy moving to the next phase of their lives, while Valerie has the confidence and brains to walk away from How’s That?!. Her final talking-head interview about humiliation, coupled with the frame-widening and transition to color, put a heart instead of a period on the show. Kudrow and King have spent the season getting us to see Valerie differently. No longer the buffoon in Jane’s lens, this is the real Valerie Cherish, and she’s actually pretty great. Aww.
Drew Gillis: I’ve always admired the nuance The Comeback is able to bring to its characters and plotlines, so I’m not surprised that it ultimately has a pretty measured take on AI. The scene where Valerie confronts Brandon in his office was infuriating and my heart broke for her, but I do think it hit on an important if disappointing truth: There are plenty of people who will happily (or at least passively) consume “good enough” slop, and people who want to monetize that can do it easier than ever. Valerie choosing to walk away from that doesn’t feel as triumphant as previous season finales, but it is definitely the victory that she was able to eke out here. I do absolutely love her monologue at the end of the episode, which distills who Valerie is as a person. She is nothing if not resilient. It is the thing that makes her both so frustrating and inspiring, so for her to walk away from How’s That?! is bittersweet growth for her character. The part that sticks for me a bit is that she doesn’t actually walk away from TV; she gets a better part for standing up for herself. I understand the message there, but it’s a very Valerie-specific solution. She is now an Emmy-winning actor with a 30-year career, not the average Hollywood dayplayer who’s most at risk from AI. Of course, I don’t expect The Comeback to solve the great problem of the era, but that element doesn’t totally land for me.
Saloni Gajjar: Valerie Cherish is a lot of things: tenacious, hilarious, considerate, and just the right amount of self-obsessed so you don’t feel bad about rooting for her. I was nervous that The Comeback would also turn her into a shill for AI, considering how much she championed an algorithm writing jokes for her, even though she knew those one-liners sucked. It’s believable that Valerie, who is desperate to stay relevant, would look at AI as the future if it gave her a shot. So it was thrilling to watch her finally (albeit reluctantly) go off on studio exec Brandon (Andrew Scott) about how crafting TV comedies is no laughing matter, and people are responsible for culture-defining sitcoms, not any form of tech. The finale is realistic in that she doesn’t magically fix her problems, and neither does Michael Patrick King offer a solution to AI, like Drew noted, but I am glad that The Comeback made it clear in many ways how relying on it over humanity and artistry could be catastrophic. It’s a terrific way to close The Comeback‘s journey of capturing the industry’s inner machinations (network sitcoms, reality and prestige TV, and now this), with Valerie Cherish—and a truly remarkable Lisa Kudrow—as the anchor.
Danette Chavez: Given how things went the last time Michael Patrick King helped send off a self-involved (but, for a while, likable) lead, I was a bit trepidatious going into this finale. But series co-creator and series star Lisa Kudrow proved there’s no better steward for the character of Valerie Cherish, the faded sitcom star turned reality TV pioneer turned reluctant bulwark against artificial intelligence in the TV industry. There are several note-perfect moments in “Valerie Cherish,” like when she reassures P.D.P. that breaking her Emmy is no big deal because it’s mostly a symbol, then immediately perks up after learning it can be restored to its former glory. Her tête-à-tête with The Big Three—Bradley Whitford, Justin Theroux, and Adam Scott playing the handsomest TV writers ever—is exquisitely uncomfortable; Valerie’s always had a complicated relationship with scribes, and she lapses into self-deprecating mode even as it becomes clear that they need her to stave off this “extinction event.” What comes next is so in tune with the character, her faults and her evolution, that I don’t mind the bit of wish fulfillment via another Emmy-winning role. Valerie spent the entire series to date contorting herself to please writers, executives, and viewers, but it’s when she finally stands for something that she gets everything she ever wanted (including a Mrs. Hatt shout-out).
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