> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.layeredentertainment.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The Deep Dive — Sep 13, 2026 - URL: https://www.layeredentertainment.com/the-deep-dive-september-13-2026/ - Published: 2026-09-13T18:42:16.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-13T18:42:16.000Z - Description: A weekly roundup of everything worth watching, talking about, and paying attention to in entertainment right now. - Author: Alivia Arliss - Tags: the-deep-dive, Thinking About, its-always-sunny, tires, next-gen-nyc, kill-tony, sex-lives-of-college-girls, Bravo, netflix **It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia — Season 18, FXX and Hulu** Twenty-one years in and they are still doing it. Season 18 of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia premiered on August 17th on FXX, FX, and Hulu, and it is off to an incredible start. The show has held a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes through its early episodes this season, which says everything about the consistency these people have maintained across two decades. This season expanded to ten episodes, up from eight in the previous three seasons. The pacing feels consistent with what the show has always done — a new scheme per episode, the Gang being terrible, everything falling apart in exactly the right way. The extra episodes are a welcome addition. The only thing the expansion has me thinking about is whether this is the final lap. The show was renewed through Season 18 back in 2020, and while it has not been presented as the final season, ten episodes instead of eight feels like it could be a send-off gesture. I hope I am wrong. The longest-running live-action comedy in television history deserves to keep going as long as they have material this good. --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ab/e4/abe46c16-d00d-48eb-a4c3-4d0258671c94/content/images/2026/09/TIRES_301_260116_JK_00232_R-e1788147951958.webp) Photo by Variety **Tires Renewed for Season 4** After hitting number five on Netflix's Global Top 10 English TV list the week of August 17th and accumulating more than 45 million views across three seasons since its 2024 debut, [Tires](https://www.layeredentertainment.com/the-deep-dive-august-30-2026/) has earned an early renewal for Season 4\. The numbers are impossible to argue with. What I will argue with is the direction the show is heading. I wrote about this in detail after Season 3 dropped, and I am doubling down now. The production quality shift is real. The original low-budget feel that made the show what it was is gone, replaced with fantasy sequences, upgraded locations, and a more polished look throughout. Did the better production lead to more people watching? Probably. Did good marketing also play a role? Almost certainly. But a bigger budget does not automatically mean a better show. Tires built its audience on authenticity and specificity, and now it needs to earn its viewership back through storytelling rather than production value. Season 4 is the test. I will be watching closely. --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ab/e4/abe46c16-d00d-48eb-a4c3-4d0258671c94/content/images/2026/09/next-gen-nyc-season-2-bravo_3e93ca.webp) Photo by Deadline **Next Gen NYC Is the Best Thing on Bravo Right Now** This show does not have much competition at the moment, but every episode has me more excited for the next one. Next Gen NYC has found its footing faster than almost any new [Bravo](https://www.layeredentertainment.com/bravo-changed-my-mind-on-reality-tv/) franchise I can remember, and the season finale proved why. Two moments stand out. First, Charlie pulling Ariana in for what can only be described as a full rom-com moment. Fast, unexpected, bold in a way we have not seen from him all season. For as chaotic as Ariana has been leading up to that scene, it landed as one of the most genuinely romantic things to happen on a Bravo show in recent memory. Nobody saw it coming and that is exactly why it worked. Second, Charlie comparing his life to Curb Your Enthusiasm and the editors actually dropping the Curb theme music and tag into the episode. This is the comedy and reality TV crossover we needed. It is the kind of self-aware moment that elevates a franchise from fun to genuinely interesting. The reunion is going to be a lot. The speculation around Ava Dash and Kyle Cooke has been everywhere, and my honest take is that Ava is in it for the publicity and the clout. [Bravo](https://www.layeredentertainment.com/the-deep-dive-august-13-2026/) should not take the bait by giving that storyline more airtime than it deserves, and I really hope Summer House does not become the vehicle for it next season. Some things are better left off camera. --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ab/e4/abe46c16-d00d-48eb-a4c3-4d0258671c94/content/images/2026/09/Tony-Hinchcliffe-Kill-Tony-Netflix-2.webp) Photo by Variety **Kill Tony Is Bringing in Older Comics and It Is Working** There has been a noticeable trend on [Kill Tony](https://www.layeredentertainment.com/kill-tony-comics-to-watch/) lately. Maybe younger comics are realizing the show will highlight how bad they are. Maybe people are sick of waiting at the bar waiting to be pull. I do not know, but at least one bucket pull per episode has been landing on an older comic. Someone who has already lived their life and is showing up to the Comedy Mothership to try something new. The September 7th episode featured Yakov Smirnoff and Ari Matti as headliners, and somewhere in the bucket pulls that night was the moment that crystallized this trend for me. An older gentleman, bow tie and all, got up there with a confidence that had nothing to do with needing the moment to go well. He was a scientist by trade. Stand-up was something new he was trying. And he was genuinely funny in a way that felt completely effortless. What makes these older comics so compelling is exactly what you would expect. They are not trying to change their lives with this appearance. They are not desperate for the exposure. They get up there, tell some jokes, give an interview that is authentic to who they actually are, and leave. That lack of desperation is its own kind of comedy. It is a different energy entirely from someone who needs this moment to mean something, and it makes them immediately more likable and more watchable. Kill Tony has always been about discovering what happens when you put someone in front of a microphone with a minute to prove themselves. Turns out it works just as well when that person has already lived a full life and is just showing up to try something new. --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ab/e4/abe46c16-d00d-48eb-a4c3-4d0258671c94/content/images/2026/09/Sex-Life-of-College-Girls-Season-2-What-We-Know-01.webp) Photo by US Weekly **The Sex Lives of College Girls Landed on Netflix, and I Regret Not Watching Sooner** All three seasons of The Sex Lives of College Girls dropped on Netflix on August 31st, and I am very much in it right now. The show originally premiered on HBO Max on November 18, 2021 and ran for three seasons before being cancelled in March 2025\. I missed it entirely the first time around. That was a mistake. Created by Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble, the show follows four college roommates at the fictional Essex College navigating hookup culture, dorm life, sports teams, fraternities, and the overwhelming experience of figuring out who you are when you are surrounded by that many other people all at once. The accuracy of those storylines is what gets you. The sports storylines, the fraternity dynamics, the specific chaos of trying to juggle everything while still figuring out your own identity. It all rings true in a way that most college-set shows do not bother to get right. Reneé Rapp left after Season 2 to focus on her music career and was only in the first two episodes of Season 3\. That transition is noticeable. The show tried to fill her absence with additional subcharacters and subplots that did not all earn their screen time, and you can feel the gap she left. It did not ruin the season but it disrupted the rhythm of the original four in a way that took some adjusting to. Contrary to Kaling's most recent project, the writing here is impeccable. This show is part of what I think of as a loose trilogy Kaling has been building. Never Have I Ever covers the high school experience, The Sex Lives of College Girls draws on her time at Dartmouth, and Not Suitable for Work was meant to be the early career chapter. That framework is ambitious and worth appreciating. But it also says something bigger about Hollywood. Kaling can build this trilogy because she has earned the right to make what she wants. Someone else could pitch these exact same shows and never hear back from a single network. The content is not the variable. The name attached to it is. That is worth sitting with. If you have a Netflix subscription and have not started this show yet, I highly recommend it.