“Your boyfriend must be the most exciting person in the world…”

The last season of Man Seeking Woman contained a powerful scene where the show mixed the idea of an ill-advised late night text with that of a police-mediated hostage situation. The moment of ultra-slick writing made me think of how this show never seems to run out of tropes and archetypes to perfectly pair up with dating woes. This season features a cold open that involves a bunch of children playing baseball and their ball gets away from them. The show proceeds to marry the classic idea of the old haunted neighborhood house with that of being in a boring relationship that’s fallen into a rut. It’s pulled off sublimely in one of many perfect pieces of writing from this year. It was with this scene that I realized that Man Seeking Woman is never going to run out of archetypes and rom-com areas to juxtapose against them.

The biggest change in Man Seeking Woman season 3 is that the hapless Josh has found himself in a serious relationship. The very capable Katie Findlay joins the cast as the eponymous “Woman” in the “Man Seeking Woman” equation (this plot point is all over the season’s promos and is far from any sort of spoiler).

The series acclimates to its new perspective and story trajectory shockingly well. I certainly don’t think this show was out of dating stories to tell, but the fresh angle suits it like a whip in the hand of a gentleman adventurer. That’s not to say that the show hasn’t told longer-term relationship stories—the end of last season was especially full of them. This however feels like the show, much like Josh himself, is growing up. Literally, not figuratively, of course. This is still a show where you’re going to get things like Maurice Sendak-esque monsters bitching in therapy sessions.