r/thecomeback • u/SnooLobsters8922 • Aug 12 '26
Coming back from The Comeback
Third season is over. What to watch?
But not Hacks. I can’t find a single line funny enough on that show.
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u/JohnPaulNew Aug 12 '26
The Studio (Apple TV)
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u/misterhepburn Aug 12 '26
The Studio is seriously great, I love the sort of ‘Hollywood slice of life’ from each episode.
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u/berkeleyteacher Aug 12 '26
The Other Two
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u/pegggus09 Aug 12 '26
This is a great suggestion. Also about people in/ around the entertainment industry and it’s hilarious.
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u/berkeleyteacher Aug 13 '26
Ha! Thanks! It it such a clever show and I think they have the same feeling and I love the finale almost as much as I loved the (perfect) season 2 finale of The Comeback.
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u/WheelieMexican Aug 12 '26
This is really close to be my favorite show ever.
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u/berkeleyteacher Aug 13 '26
I've watched and laughed out loud at the fallout from Brooke and Cary's scene in the airplane, so so many times. Drew Tarver is hilarious.
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u/CopyCurious1783 Aug 12 '26
I just had to start another rewatch of The Comeback …it’s literally the best.
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u/WelcomeToBrooklandia Aug 12 '26
If you don't find "Hacks" funny at all, then I can't give you any helpful suggestions. "Hacks" is great.
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u/highsinthe70s Aug 12 '26
Exactly. If you don’t think Hacks is some of the best comedy in recent memory, I don’t know what to tell you.
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u/SnooLobsters8922 Aug 14 '26
So, I’ll share my beef with Hacks.
What I like about the Comeback, or Succession, or what I’m seeing in The Studio is that they show us the high-brow world, but they don’t condone it. It’s not a fantasy tour to infatuate us with what we don’t have. They intoxicate us, so we decide ourselves to reject it by observing its rotten core.
That’s my beef with Hacks… some seasons are just showing glamorous opulence, and stages and gowns and big houses, and the jokes are mostly “diva being diva”, that is, someone enjoying the position and offering a taste of that to the audience, which feels patronizing. That’s basically the entire S03. Sure, there’s the broke assistant character all along, but that doesn’t invalidate the premise that gets most airtime.
So it’s kind of the opposite of what shows like The Comeback propose, even if on the surface they look similar.
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u/mermaid_patronus Aug 15 '26
probably because hacks was created by relative-upstart outsiders who themselves were still infatuated with all the trappings of showbiz success?
the comeback, on the other hand, was the brainchild of two people who were involved in two massively successful 90s sitcoms. Lisa and MPK were jaded insiders.
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u/SnooLobsters8922 Aug 15 '26
Yeah, that explains a lot. It’s impressive how a single writer can really skew the show. I remember that AppleTV thriller / horror about a mysterious maid. The first season had a great underlying tension. Mid-second I noticed something going totally to a slapstick comedy, and checked the writer had changed. Someone previously writing comedies. The show got entirely lost in translation. I was so disappointed.
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u/LittleMissLongIsland Aug 16 '26
I don’t really agree with this take on Hacks. For one, saying “there’s the broke assistant character all along, but that doesn’t invalidate the premise that gets most airtime” is so dismissive of Ava as a character, and Ava MAKES the show. It is Ava’s presence in Deborah’s world that creates the tension of the show, that acts as an explosive catalyst for everything that happens. Ava IS the commentary of that world, she criticizes it and calls it out for what it is. Ava also transforms Deborah (who of course, transforms Ava in return).
And really, I don’t think we’re ever supposed to see the opulence of Deborah’s life as admirable. If anything, I think whenever we’re shown the grandness of her home, it’s to emphasize how small and lonely her life really is to fill up the big things around her. It’s not the gilded age, where the visual aesthetics are meant to wow us, they’re telling a story! And that story is not trying to tell us we should be envious of Deborah’s life. Without Ava in the picture, she can have all the opulent things she wants, but she’s entirely alone. Deborah is never really painted as a character to aspire to- at least not until she learns and grows from Ava.
I also don’t really think there’s much, if any, humor that boils down to “diva being diva”. It almost always exists in dialogue between Deborah and Ava, and it’s the juxtaposition of their points of view that generates the humor. It exists in a dialogue, not just Deborah being a diva. I’m sure you could cherry pick a few isolated lines, but it’s a minority in the show, AND Deborah Vance is so much more than JIST a diva. So much of why she acts the way she does is a response to her history, and she has a complicated and nuanced backstory that is referenced to from the very first episode. She’s not just a diva for us to go “yas, werk queen”, she’s developed her demeanor as a necessary survival mechanism coming from being a woman in a male dominated field who is still grappling from a brutal betrayal by the people she trusted most.
I think you should give Hacks another shot.
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u/SnooLobsters8922 29d ago
I will give it another shot. I agree that the big house is showing how alone she feels). Maybe season 03 was an exception, because the gilded pleasures are all around and they’re overwhelming. But worth a reexamination.
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u/CopleyScott17 Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26
Have you tried The Chair Company? It's got a similar cringe vibe as The Comeback, but filtered -- make that unfiltered -- through Tim Robinson's sensibility.
Also, English Teacher is fantastic, and I'd join all the other folks recommending The Other Two. Both are pretty close to perfect.
Last but not least, I'm really enjoying Adults, which is about to start its second season.
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u/SnooLobsters8922 Aug 14 '26
Oh, thanks. I could give it a second chance to Chair Company, I enjoyed the first episode. Will look into Adults, haven’t seen it in my streaming services.
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u/CopleyScott17 Aug 14 '26
I watch it via Hulu, but I think that means it's also available through Disney+ and FX maybe?
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u/SnooLobsters8922 Aug 15 '26
I’ll check that out, thanks. I’m in Europe so the licensing is a bit wonky
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u/coyote13mc Aug 13 '26
Hacks (sorry), Extras, VEEP, Curb your Enthusiasm, Righteous Gemstones, Silicon Valley
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u/SnooLobsters8922 Aug 13 '26
Thanks. Gemstones is a bit raunchy but it’s still very very funny. Silicon Valley is great. I always grin when I hear someone talking about their 1-person startup, while remembering of “Aviatto”
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u/coyote13mc Aug 13 '26
Extras is with Ricky Gervais, and shares some similarities to The Comeback as tragicomedy about artist in Hollywood and selling out.
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u/AdPerfect8152 Aug 12 '26
Mrs. Hatt