Lisa Kudrow's The Comeback is finally getting the ending it deserves.
HBO announced that the cult-favorite comedy will return for a third and final season, premiering March 22. It's been nine years since Season 2 aired, and 21 years since the show first premiered to audience indifference and critical confusion. That it exists at all—let alone gets to end on its own terms—is a minor miracle.
For those unfamiliar: The Comeback is a cringe comedy before cringe comedy was ubiquitous. Kudrow plays Valerie Cherish, a washed-up sitcom actress desperate to reclaim relevance by starring in a reality show about her "comeback." It's excruciating, brilliant, and way ahead of its time.
The show premiered in 2005, the same year The Office debuted and reality TV was reaching peak saturation. Critics praised it, but audiences didn't get it. HBO canceled it after one season. Then, in 2014, the network revived it for a second season that was even darker and more meta—Valerie returns to play a version of herself in an True Detective-style prestige drama. It was painfully funny and, again, largely ignored.
Now, in 2026, when reality TV has devoured all of culture and everyone is performing a curated version of themselves online, The Comeback feels prophetic. Valerie Cherish was doing Instagram influencer narcissism before Instagram existed.
Details about Season 3 are scarce, but the logline suggests Valerie is attempting yet another reinvention—this time via a podcast and a limited series for a streaming platform. The show's ability to skewer the entertainment industry's constant churn of new platforms and formats remains unmatched.
Kudrow is one of the most underrated actors of her generation. Friends made her famous, but The Comeback showcases her range—the desperation, the obliviousness, the flashes of self-awareness that make Valerie tragic as much as comedic.
That HBO is letting the show end properly, rather than just fading into obscurity, is rare. Most shows don't get closure. Most shows just... stop. The Comeback gets to finish the joke.
In Hollywood, nobody knows anything—except that Valerie Cherish will never, ever give up. And honestly? We shouldn't either.
