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.

This season was bad, not because there wasnt drama, but more because there was nobody to root for. I like Trinity and Bryce and I am happy they won. We did not see a lot of them, and they relationship was mostly in the background of other things, to the point where even other cast members were questioning why they were popular. It's like... there is this idea of what a love island relationship has to look like, and theres was too queit and simple. I think I could have felt more invested with more moments between them that werent just saying how much they liked eachother. They both seem like very funny people, and I would haev loved to see more of that.

Instead though, what we got was kind of a train wreck season. The men were mostly awful, and the women never really held them accountable for anything. Yes they got mad at them and yelled, they also kept taking them back. The show really shot itself in the foot by losing Bea so early, seemingly the only person who feels like would not have put up with this bullshit. Like where was Liv who was so unapollegtically anti-man? Someone like that in this context would have felt like a hero. I don't have any problem with the man dropping their girls for bombshells, thats part of the show, but it's the weird victim mindset they created to justify why they do it that was so off putting. Not only do they leave cheat on their couples, they dont feel bad about it at all, will let you know they dont feel bad and are right to, and then will also attack your character both before and after they cheat on you. It was all just so weird and aggressive for no reason other than to try and make themselves not feel like bad people. And it's like, you wouldnt be for your actions in this context, but you are for your words.

The women kept throwing around the term "lustful" as a way of condemning how the men (and one woman) moved, and I think that also made this all feel weird. They can be and were very mad at the men, but emphasizing on the "lust" as opposed to the ways they were speaking about them gave the men the ecxcuse to be like "well... we are on love island." And it's true! Lust was just weaponized and thrown around in the same kind of black/white, moral superiority way that the men were justifying their actions. It felt like what I imagine twitter must be like, just watching people argue that they're right without actually addressing if its something worth arguing about, and what the real issue is. It got tedious, it was also just kind of gross and sad.

It was the the Melanie and Sincere show, with a b-side of Anaya and KC. Sincere gives psychopath energy, a perfect example of men weaponizing therapy speak and buzzwords. Melanie should be smarter, but shes a woman of god so I guess she's got a real madonna complex and maybe feels this faith and forgiveness thing is doing soemthing for her. But actually Sincere is BAD. I am curious to see what his life is like outside of thie villa. Anaya always gave the kind of main girl energy, but was just not interesting enough to hold the camera. Her big blow out with KC was needed, and I think in a better season where I was more invested in their relationship, I could have seen that as a really big moment to reinvest in her. I just never cared about them together, I found KC kind of annoying and her kind of boring. Carl really did save her as a presence on the show, and it seems liek production was really invested in them as well knowing that they did not have any strong couples this season. There were some convos that were genuinly cute, I will never get over him teaching her mandarin and I am here for this representation! But like every other couple, the Melanie and Sincere drama just kept over shadowing it. Trinity and Anaya were relegated to just consoling Melanie and telling her that he could shange and really likes her... GET IT TOGETHER LADIES.

Ummm Kenzie. One note, got old fast. She's got the "dumb blond energy' that the US version loves to have, but I just didnt find her likeable from the start. Sol was good, and I hope she really makes a name for herself outside of this. I like TT. Corbin is gross but he's also really young so what can you expect, Zach is annoying af and in some ways I feel more bad for Kayda than I do Melanie. I had the feeling that this season felt so weird and bad that maybe the "After the Villa" life might be more interesting, just seeing them having to deal with how the culture sees them.

I think aside from Severance this is the only Apple TV show I've watched. I just get the feeling that most of them are mid to bad that are just sold on whoever is cast as the lead. The premise for this one seemed fun though and I like Tatiana Maslany's face. And my hunch was right because she is great in this.

It's a soapy thriller that is reall elevated by her performance. She plays a mother in the midst of a custody battle who starts to get blackmailed by a sex worker she had formed an online relationship with. It spirals out of control from there, but mostly because of her dedication to not being a passive victim in any situation she finds herself in. Another person caught in this between all of these conflicts might run or hide from them, but she drives into them head on. The parellel of the custody battle and the blackmail is fun in the early parts of the show. Being pushed around by a shitty ex-husband, the woman he had an affair with, and the this shady organization are handled in a very balanced way where they each bring a unique anxiety. One of these would be bad enough, but all at once? You really feel for her.

Because there is so much going on though, smaller moments end up feeling forced or not given the space for them to feel as meaningful. The relationships to her daughter, her love interest, and her co-workers all feel very shallow. The co-workers especially rubbed me the wrong away. They're performances and banter was so noticeably worse than the lead. You also are not really sold and why she cares so much about having custody of her daughter other than the sort of obvious reason anybody would. We see her being a fun mom, but sometimes it feels like shes more invested in having custody just because she doesn't wanna lose. I like that idea, but you don't really get a clear answer has to how the show understands it.

All of that aside, its a fun and easy show to watch. The compounding twists on the organized crime side mesh well with the family drama stuff and it's all held together by a really great Tatiana Maslany performance.