{"id":600912,"date":"2026-04-13T09:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T09:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/600912\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T09:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T09:38:08","slug":"season-3-episode-4-valerie-does-it-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/600912\/","title":{"rendered":"season 3, episode 4, “Valerie Does It All”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since production on How\u2019s That?! got underway, The Comeback<\/a> has been circling its thesis about why Rome is burning; and it points back to problems Valerie\u2019s been facing her entire career, one she\u2019s been guilty of in the past. Rather than working to make the product as good as possible, the main players on Room And Bored, Seeing Red, and, now, How\u2019s That?! only concern themselves with their specific contribution, not the greater whole. Like last week\u2019s retread of season one\u2019s table read and costume fittings, this latest episode, \u201cValerie Does It All,\u201d reflects episodes we\u2019ve seen in the past. This isn\u2019t Valerie\u2019s, nor the audience\u2019s, first pilot taping, but unlike last time, Valerie isn\u2019t the one holding things up. Josh, whom I wrongly pegged as the more genial and accommodating writer in episode two, has become fiercely protective of the few jokes he gets on air. It\u2019s a microcosm of the attitudes the show accuses of dominating and dooming Hollywood for decades. Instead of showing some humility and respect for the collective, defensive creatives like Josh dig in their heels. What choice does NuNet have but to turn to a computer program that won\u2019t complain?\u00a0<\/p>\n

As in previous seasons, \u201cValerie Does It All\u201d positions sitcoms as a battlefield between writers and actors. Thankfully, the show also has a true-blue, sitcom genius in James \u201cJimmy\u201d Burrows to moderate all perspectives. Al may be able to scrape a joke together from its memory bank of other people\u2019s work, but that\u2019s not going to elicit a new joke that connects people to the show. It wrote a \u201cpretty good\u201d heartfelt scene last week, which only worked because Valerie put some English on lines like \u201cHe died because his heart was too big and filled with love.\u201d This is no different. The magic is in the people and the experiences they bring to the work. As Burrows says, it\u2019s the collection of people who, by bringing their unique perspectives, find truth in comedy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cValerie Does It All\u201d shows two versions of sitcom production: one where the television machine runs smoothly and another where it grinds to a halt. We open on a familiar scene: Valerie practicing her lines in front of the refrigerator. Repeating AI-generated tongue twisters, like \u201cBoone & Beth\u2019s Bed & Breakfast\u2014B&B\u2019s B&B,\u201d can make a girl hungry for brie. But while that tosses a softball toward the show\u2019s oldest and most trustworthy bit, it\u2019s also indicative of AI\u2019s limitations. Al doesn\u2019t know what it feels like to say words and, therefore, struggles to write words for humans to speak naturally. The scene plants the seed for later troubleshooting, but at this point, it\u2019s not a major concern. The pilot is good enough to shoot, and with Burrows directing, there\u2019s no reason to think it won\u2019t work. On set, Valerie\u2019s getting laughs, the effects hit their marks, and Mark brought his new friend and spectacular addition to the show, his doorman, Fernando (Federico Dordei). All told, the only hiccups are the warm-up comedian forgetting Mrs. Hatt and a line in the cold open.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing we can do about society\u2019s shameful lack of respect for Mrs. Hatt, but a new punchline shouldn\u2019t be a problem. But human writers aren\u2019t as amenable as Al. After seeing his best joke tossed in the gutter like so many Mianus U T-shirts, Josh won\u2019t watch another of his darlings murdered. He believes his punchline is structurally sound and thematically resonant and refuses to budge. With nowhere else to turn, Jimmy and Valerie allow Al to generate a list of good-enough jokes that fill the space without draining the scene\u2019s energy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, as all actors-turned-executive-producers learn, TV production is one problem after another. After the episode wraps, Jimmy breaks the news to Valerie that he won\u2019t be back for more because working with a joke generator isn\u2019t how he wants to spend the rest of his life. It\u2019s a sign of things to come. Once How\u2019s That?! lost its key moderators, production quickly goes off the rails. Al hallucinates the second episode, and it\u2019s the crossover Comeback fans have been dying for: Valerie\u2019s character, Beth, is inexplicably sent to prison with Nathan Drake from the Uncharted video-game series.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Years of being on the other side of such problems have prepared Valerie for this moment. Either the actors have received the scripts in the wrong order (an easy fix) or the writers need to come up with a new episode two. But diagnosing the problem is one thing; solving it is another. Valerie gets a crash course in executive producing as she bounces from inexperienced directors to insecure co-stars as she attempts to locate her writers. Outside the soundstage, she finds her producing partner, Billy, who is suicidal for some solo press, preparing for Variety\u2019s \u201c50 Over 50\u201d photoshoot. Useless Billy\u2019s mind is a thousand miles away, so Valerie hops in a golf cart and hightails it across the Warner Bros. lot to the writers\u2019 camp.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Things don\u2019t get much easier after finding Josh and Mary. They\u2019ve moved their many children, executive assistant, personal trainer, and Basset Hound, Ms. Lady, into a house on the lot. Disgusted by Josh\u2019s workout shorts, Valerie locates Mary, who is out back smoking (blech) and channeling her inner Paulie G. as she chain-smokes her way through pages of Inside Out 6: Riley Loses Her Virginity. Mary admits to Valerie that the show is nothing more than a paycheck to her, an opportunity for a life of residuals that could provide her and her family with stress-free income as Hollywood crumbles around her. However, despite her intentions, her passivity is building the scaffolding for her demise. How\u2019s That?! will never be a syndicated hit if they can\u2019t get episode two done. Either Mary underestimates how hard it is to create a hit sitcom (even I\u2019m It, Valerie\u2019s biggest success, only made 94 episodes, six shy of the historically necessary number for syndication), or she overestimates Al\u2019s abilities. It doesn\u2019t matter because Valerie knows that this isn\u2019t going to work and vows to call the studio.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Valerie\u2019s not going to tell the studio herself. That\u2019s a job for Billy. Failing in his duties as Valerie\u2019s human shield, he records her complaining in a voice memo and sends them off to NuNet, enraging Valerie, who has no choice but to tell Billy that he\u2019s let her down. This was a long time coming. People have been ignoring Valerie\u2019s requests her entire career, but now she\u2019s the boss, and she needs them to do their jobs. And Billy\u2019s most important job is keeping Valerie\u2019s relationship with her bosses cordial. He\u2019s the one who is supposed to be breaking bad news to them and telling them what she needs. Instead, Billy delivers bad news to Valerie: They want to fire Mark from Finance Dudes. It\u2019s enough to shift Valerie\u2019s focus and get her to agree to yet another TV show. Old habits die hard.<\/p>\n

Valerie\u2019s evolution continues as she\u2019s tasked with pulling herself out of her malaise and flexing what power she has. It\u2019s often uncomfortable, but it\u2019s been rewarding to watch Valerie, a character Kudrow has been building for more than 20 years, finally show some backbone.<\/p>\n

Stray observations\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2022 Fernando\u2019s reaction to the warm-up comic touching his shoulder absolutely destroyed me.
\n\u2022 This better not be the only time we see Fernando this season. What a ray of Mayan sunshine.
\n\u2022 \u201cNo one listens to voicemails anymore. You should send a voice memo.\u201d \u201cNote taken.\u201d
\n\u2022 \u201cI feel like I\u2019m 50 again! Got any blow?\u201d
\n\u2022 \u201cOf all the dudes in the apartment, Fernando says I\u2019m the only one he\u2019d hang out with.\u201d
\n\u2022 We\u2019re getting closer to seeing some Finance Dudes. I can feel it.<\/p>\n

Matt Schimkowitz is a staff writer at The A.V. Club.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since production on How\u2019s That?! got underway, The Comeback has been circling its thesis about why Rome is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[49,48,75,348],"class_list":{"0":"post-600912","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}