The Deep Dive — Aug 30, 2026

Tires Season 3 — Netflix

It is only right to start here. Round of applause to everyone involved in making Season 3 of Tires, especially the people local to Pennsylvania who would not have opportunities like this without the show. That part of what Tires does has never changed and should not go unacknowledged.

That said, Season 3 felt like a new show to me almost immediately. The humor was there and consistent with previous seasons, but the storytelling choices made it clear that new writers had come on board. The storylines go much more in depth than anything in Seasons 1 and 2, and some of the B storylines go further than they need to. The women's get-together that Will attends, the episode where Kilah runs into her high school volleyball team — these feel like filler. They do not add anything to the main plot of saving the tire shop, and they distract from it in a way that the previous seasons never did. It is almost too easy to see what McKeever would have cut. The B storylines, for starters.

The biggest contrast from previous seasons is that two seasons were dedicated to saving the tire shop, and now the show has shifted to focus primarily on Shane's love life. In Seasons 1 and 2, Shane's love life existed to give the character depth and define who he was to the audience. Now it has become the main plot, and the lack of congruency with what came before is hard to ignore. I like consistency. The way the story is being told now is not bad. It is just different.

They did a lot of things right though, and I want to be clear about that. The opening scene is one of the most memorable and unexpected ways to start a new season I have seen in a while. Without spoiling it, someone dies at the very beginning, and the uniqueness of the situation makes it funny in a way you would not expect from an opening scene. That is a hard thing to pull off. The show is also functioning on a noticeably higher budget, which they made clear with fantasy sequences, daydreams, and everything short of CGI. It looks great.

The smaller comics gaining recognition in supporting roles continue to be one of the best things about the show. Steph Tolev, Stavros Halkias, Bobby Lee, Joe DeRosa, Dan Soder, Tommy Pope, Andrew Schulz, H. Foley — the list goes on. Bobby Lee appearing in more than one episode was the most welcome surprise of the season. I knew going in that he would be in the show but had no idea what his part would be. It turned out to be one of the storylines from Season 3 that actually aids the main plot and could easily continue into later seasons. That should be exciting news for Bobby Lee fans. The show won me over the second I found out he would be making an appearance, and he delivered.

Everything I have seen from audiences has been in support of the season, and the number one Netflix ranking for over two weeks backs that up. I think an Emmy nomination is possible next cycle. There are enough standout supporting roles this season to earn at least one. For more on Tires and why it deserves more recognition than it gets, it is already on the site.

Tom Segura and Christina Pazsitzky — A Comedy Divorce

I am saddened by this news. Christina confirmed tearfully on Your Mom's House that she and Tom are divorcing after nearly 20 years together. It feels like my first real celebrity divorce since starting my obsession with comedy, which says a lot about how much their relationship has been part of what I consume.

The podcast naming situation is something I cannot stop thinking about. Your Mom's House when Christina hosts. Your Dad's House when Tom hosts. It is almost like they built the whole thing with this moment in mind, which I know they did not, but the irony is too good. I love this naming wordplay so much that it was almost worth it. They both plan to continue working together, which is probably the right call for both of them professionally.

What I think happens next is interesting. YMH Studios has been building toward something larger for a while now — live shows, acquired podcasts, a model that increasingly resembles its own streaming network. A divorce does not slow that down. If anything it accelerates both of their individual brands and stops forcing them into a single box together. They are both compelling on their own terms. This might be the thing that makes that clearer than ever.

Not Suitable for Work — Cancelled by Hulu

Consider me baffled. After a season I thought had been received well, Mindy Kaling's Not Suitable for Work will not be renewed for a second season. This one genuinely shocks me. It had the energy of the next generation's Girls — largely unknown cast, a relatable story for someone in their twenties, the kind of show that takes a season to find its audience. The characters were wealthy and city-dwelling in a way that can feel unrelatable at first, but that is exactly what Girls did and it worked for the people it was made for.

The difference is that Girls had HBO behind it, and HBO let it breathe. Not Suitable for Work needed that same room for creative development and did not get it. It is flat right now, and flatness on Hulu means cancellation before the story has a chance to build. HBO would have fit the narrative they were building and would have pushed the writing and the script to be stronger and more resonant with the young audience it was going for. Instead it joins a very long list of shows that deserved more time than they got.

The one genuinely interesting development is that Warner Bros. Television is shopping it to potential new homes. That is worth tracking. If it could not make it on Hulu and Disney Plus, the options are limited. Netflix would give it visibility but risk losing it in the sea of content. Wherever it lands, I hope it gets another chance. This is Kaling's first sole creator credit since The Mindy Project and it deserved a longer run.

Will Forte's Mom Has a Sketch Show

This is the kind of project that reminds you why the entertainment industry is worth paying attention to. Will Forte spent years receiving sketch ideas from his mom Patti while he was at SNL — ideas he politely set aside but never forgot. Now he has built an entire show around her and her 82-year-old best friend Carol, giving two people with no formal entertainment background the spotlight in a six-episode sketch series filmed last summer.

He debuted a clip on Jimmy Kimmel Live in March. Tina Fey called it potentially the most important comedy show of the 21st century on The Kelly Clarkson Show. Fey is being hyperbolic in the way only Tina Fey can get away with, but I agree with the spirit of what she is saying. In a sea of high-concept, high-budget productions fighting for attention, this is something different. Wholesome, authentic, unpolished by design. Forte compared it to Between Two Ferns, which is exactly the right reference point — the women's enthusiasm is the whole point, not despite their inexperience but because of it.

The show is currently looking for a distribution home. My guess is Netflix if Tina Fey's name stays attached to the project, but I would not be surprised to see other networks make a run at it first. Wherever it lands, it will stand out. There is nothing else like it on television right now.

Ali G: Who Iz I? — In Theaters October 23

After more than 20 years, Sacha Baron Cohen is bringing Ali G back. The trailer for Ali G: Who Iz I? dropped this week and the internet has not stopped talking about it. Distributed by Amazon MGM and hitting theaters October 23, the film is Cohen's feature directorial debut and was shot in secret the same way Borat was — real people, real situations, no one knowing they are being filmed for a comedy.

The premise has Ali G discovering his girlfriend Julie is eight months pregnant and heading to America to reclaim his former glory. The mockumentary format is still as effective as it ever was in Cohen's hands, and at this point nobody else can make a blockbuster film this way. That is just the truth. The trailer is stuffed with exactly the kind of absurdist, confrontational comedy that made the character iconic in the first place, updated for the TikTok and podcast era in ways that feel fresh rather than forced.

The backlash has already started — Ali G's fake dreadlocks and Rastafarian hat in the trailer have drawn criticism for cultural appropriation. It is worth acknowledging briefly, but it also feels completely consistent with who Cohen is as a comedian. It is almost like he searched for the thing most likely to provoke the most reaction at this specific moment in time and built the character's look around it. That is not a defense of the choice, but it is an accurate description of how Cohen operates. His brand of ragbait comedy feels like exactly what 2026 needs after a year that has been a lot. The film opens October 23. Plan accordingly.

Brothers — Apple TV+, Premieres September 23

Apple TV has done it again. Brothers premieres September 23 and stars Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as fictionalized versions of themselves who discover they might actually be real brothers. The showrunner is Lee Eisenberg, who wrote for The Office from seasons 2 through 6. That combination of powerhouse leads with a writer who understands exactly how to navigate the line between reality and fiction in a sitcom format is genuinely exciting. Apple is rounding out the show with serious talent both in front of and behind the camera, which is exactly the pattern they have been following with everything that has earned them Emmy nominations this cycle.

Lisa Gilroy appears in the trailer, though her role has not been confirmed. Her presence alone is worth noting. She was just named the rising comedy star of the year at Just For Laughs in Montreal, and after appearances in Wingman and other 2026 projects, she is clearly having a moment. Whatever her role turns out to be, seeing her alongside McConaughey and Harrelson signals that the supporting cast is going to be worth paying attention to. This might be the show that finally gets me to subscribe to Apple TV. Eight episodes. September 23.

Rest in Peace, Dolly Parton

This one cuts deep.

Dolly Parton passed away on August 25th in Nashville after a brief battle with cancer. She was 80 years old. Her husband Carl Dean had preceded her in death in March 2025. The world lost something real this week and it is worth taking a moment to say so.

I grew up with Dolly Parton. That is Hannah Montana's godmother. The episode where she helps Miley win over Jake is one of the best episodes the show ever produced — the all-black outfits, the sky-high leather boots she insisted were essential for their stakeout plan. She showed up for that show with genuine love and care for Miley, and you could feel it. She was this enormous star who somehow never lost her connection to what actually matters, especially in the life of a kid. That is rare and it does not go unnoticed even decades later.

Her appearance in the Grace and Frankie series finale is one of the most powerful things I have seen on television. She played an angel — which feels right, because Dolly Parton was an angel in real life. The connection between her and Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin goes back to 9 to 5, so when she appeared at the end of that show it was not just a cameo. It was another layer on a legacy that had been building for fifty years. She was not in many television shows in her time, but the ones she touched are significant and lasting.

The world is less bright this week. Put on her music and remember what it felt like to hear it for the first time.