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is, in a word, stressful. The FX show’s third-season premiere just broke with 5.4 million views in only four days.

swept the 2024 awards circuit, winning Outstanding Comedy Series at the and , and cemented its leads as critical and media darlings. The show is acclaimed for its writing and directing as well. I love it.



My expectations were so high, I was almost too nervous to watch it. Critics I trust panned the new season for stagnating and trying too hard. Still, in the 37 minutes between the time I pressed play on the first episode of the third season and the time the next episode started, I knew I’d seen one of my favorite television episodes ever.

Bracing myself for stress and disappointment didn’t prepare me for that first episode of the season, titled “Tomorrow.” The show typically involves a lot of screaming, poor decision making and the miscellaneous loud sounds of a busy restaurant kitchen. This episode is quiet, peaceful and melancholy.

The first line of dialogue isn’t uttered until nearly five minutes in, at which point in a typical episode, my nerves would have been fried. Through a series of interwoven flashbacks, we follow chef Carmy ( ) as he navigates key moments throughout his life. He is shown struggling with the guilt of leaving his family behind to pursue his dreams, the pain of falling short in his pursuit of greatness and the grief of losing his brother to suicide.

We don’t glean much new information from these flashbacks; instead, we rely .

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