2026

I guess there’s an irony here that Something Very bad is Going to Happen is really a lot of just waiting for the bad thing to happen… at the expense of a strong narrative with interesting characters. A pretty not great show that kind of reminded me why im hesitant to try any Netflix narrative. It’s a fun premise that really falls apart if you think about it at all, but the show is also so invested in bringing up it's premise over and over as opposed to just letting it linger as a creepy motivational thing. I like the idea of getting married being literally a life or death thing, but it is also a made up practice that no one is forced into (aside from societal pressure yada yada). So I was left thinking, if you’re worried marrying him will kill you, why get married? And then just warn people to not get married? You can spend your life together with someone and love them without getting married… then you can make it be about how harmful the institution of marriage actually is instead of that sentiment being brought up as a punchline in the last episode. There’s so manny better versions of this set up and I guess part of my frustration comes from this kind of being one of the worst ones.

Premise aside, the characters we’re supposed to care about have little to no backstory or internal world. The show does so much telling, but also none of it really matters because characters just get over things in the next scene and change their minds to fit whatever has to happen next. That being said, I did want to finish it. So I guess it got me. Very easy to put on and just let play. The actors are all doing a good job, and it’s kind of got a campy element to it sometimes. Maybe a great show to fold laundry to?

It was a multi-year long project to get through Mad Men, and I was really ready for it to be over by the end. I don’t really know what I was expecting going in, but it is just a very strange show that I found myself really struggling to feel invested in. Partially, I think, because the show itself never really feels invested in its characters or storylines. It’s more interested in bigger or more abstract things. It’s about a time-period, or about mysogyny, or it’s about the idea of family, or it’s about nihilism, or it’s about capitalism, or it’s about America. And yes that could be interesting, but it never felt like it had anything to say about those things other than “isn’t that interesting?”

The Wire does this also, with each season centering on a distinct issue in our society but it feels meaningful because it’s not just about acknowledging that issue, but about seeing the real damning effects of them on the lives of everyday people. Betty Draper is the character that gets closest to this kind of thing. She is the most empathetic out of the core cast, even though she is regularly sidelined throughout the backhalf of the show. She is a caged bird, but she’s also so emotionally stunted. She doesn’t know what she wants other than to not be in the cage. And that’s very real for the time period that it takes place in, but also our current day. She macabre sometimes, and you don’t agree with the way she treats her kids or husbands most of the time, but you understand why she is the way she is and feel bad for her. Pete Campbell is also good, but for much different reasons. He is just an entertaining character that really grows on you because he actually kind of gets his shit together over the course of the series. It’s conventional but very entertaining. Megan is also good and had potential, but she is just given much less screen time on her own.

Every other character in the series though… I never really understood their motivations or reasoning. Things just happened, but then are forgotten about almost immediately. It feels like seeing them learn the same lessons over and over again. It get’s exhausting, and whatever abstraction of American Society it is alluding to doesn’t make it any better of a viewing experience to me.

Maybe at the time of airing, this all felt more rewarding. I can understand the period quality doing something for people but I just found it used as a crutch. (EX: This is happening within the backdrop of the JFK assassination so!!! This is a real ad that aired so!!!) And it’s like yes… I know people were alive then and things happened. Its total lack of engagement with racial politics during these periods also feels incredible negligent. I don’t really know what I was expecting or hoping, but I am left feeling frustrated more than anything. I’m glad that at least Kiernan Shipka still has a career.

I first watched the series when Season 2 was airing back in college. I rewatched all of it to get ready for this new season and I found myself appreciating it a lot more. The jokes feel funnier, and its meta quality has only gotten more interesting as the state of television and the media industry continues to change. Season 1 had its eyes set on reality tv in 2005, and look at the state of that now. Season 2 was on commenting on the prestige television era that redefined show watching culture. And now season 3 tackles AI.

Initially I wasn’t sure about this third season. Season 2 felt like the perfect ending for Valerie Cherish, and I was worried how season 3 would treat her with this new problem. After the initial set up is out of the way and once there’s more flames to put out, you start to learn how different this show is from other seasons. Valerie’s bottomless optimism and hope aren’t a source of comedy, but necessary in order to survive in this new world.

In a world and industry that has only more paranoid and anxious since the last season, Valerie Cherish is now seemingly the most grounded one. Mark-Mark was the stable one with a successful career but is now having a mid-life crisis and seemingly alluding to the male “lonliness epidemic.” Jane is an Oscar winner director but she now works at Trader Joes and turning her back on the industry because of how little it values the stuff she’s interested in. Valeries new cast is both fresh faced and gullible, and also old and jaded. The season is about Valerie reminding everybody that they have to keep trying to do better, to want more for themselves, and to be kind to each other a long the way. What used to be pitiful and embarrassing is now deeply integral in navigating these moments where people feel so uncertain about anything. She becomes an inspiration this season, not the butt of a joke. She didn’t change, the industry and us as viewers watching her have. Valeries has always been laser focused on her job, and never let anybody or anything get in the way of making a good show. And AI isn’t about to stop her.

The shows handling of AI and the multiple ways it effects an industry I thought were also handled very well. It does make it a villain, but also still isn’t afraid to make fun of the industry and players that existed before it. Actors and writers are poked fun at because they are still here. It doesn’t end with anyone smashing a motherboard or beating up a CEO, instead choosing to end on something more realistic. The reminder that regardless of all this, people still want to write and act and make good tv. Valeries sells her likeness, is literally replaced with AI on her show, and yet she persists because what else is she supposed to do. It’s the hope that things can get better and will get better, and not letting go of that no matter how annoying it can be to others.