Move over, shadowy corporations and corrupt politicians - TV has a new favorite villain, and it runs on large language models. According to Vanity Fair, shows like Hacks, The Comeback, and The Pitt are weaving artificial intelligence directly into their storylines this season, and spoiler alert: the tech is not exactly coming out looking like a hero.
Art imitates the anxiety we all have
This is genuinely interesting because for years, Hollywood's relationship with AI has been... complicated. The industry was busy fighting over AI's real-world encroachment on writers and actors while simultaneously having to figure out how to write about AI as a cultural force. The result is apparently a wave of prestige TV that is finally ready to stare the robot elephant in the room directly in its algorithmically generated face.
Hacks - already one of the sharpest comedies about the entertainment industry - is digging into what AI means for creative work and artistic identity. If you have ever worried about what happens to human creativity when a machine can approximate it for a fraction of the cost, congratulations, your anxiety now has premium cable representation.
Even the doctors aren't safe
Then there's The Pitt, which takes the conversation somewhere even more unsettling - medicine. Because if there is one place where the "move fast and break things" philosophy should absolutely not apply, it is probably the emergency room. The show reportedly examines what AI's growing influence looks like in high-stakes medical settings, which is the kind of storyline that will have you both gripped and quietly terrified.
The Comeback rounds out the trio, continuing its tradition of being painfully, brilliantly aware of how the entertainment industry chews people up and spits them out - now with an AI-flavored twist.
Why this actually matters
Here's the thing about fiction tackling AI right now - it works as a kind of cultural processing mechanism. We are collectively trying to figure out how we feel about this technology reshaping creative industries, healthcare, and basically every corner of modern life, and sometimes the clearest thinking happens through storytelling rather than op-eds or Senate hearings.
The fact that multiple prestige shows are independently arriving at "AI is complicated and kind of scary" as a plotline suggests this is not a coincidence. It is the cultural temperature being taken in real time.
So settle in, because your comfort TV just got a lot more existentially relevant. Popcorn optional. Mild dread included.
