Coming up, in the next season of “Journalism”

Long-time fans thought the show was ending, but “Journalism” is back for another season, and we can’t wait to find out what the writers have in store for us.

What started as a tidy sitcom has morphed into an epic drama that includes dark satire, political thrillers and more recently, sci-fi elements of unreliable narrators. Add a dash of workplace drama, thanks to the union sub-plot, and we have the setup for another great season.

The first thing to acknowledge is that the cast is shifting…again! AI is everywhere. No longer a novelty guest star brought in for the sweeps, this season AI is taking center stage, and the audience is left wondering just how much of the plot this new character will determine. That’s part of what makes this season so different. Whether or not the audience trusts it (and many don’t), AI is now part of the writers’ room.

Plot lines once anchored by institutions and a shared sense of public service seem to be fraying into something looser and harder to follow. Ever since the spinoff series “Social Media” surpassed it in the ratings, audiences are left wondering if this season of “Journalism” will be a full reboot. From the teasers, we can see that “Journalism” and “Social Media” are going to have some great crossovers this season. Guest stars and even notable cast members swapping from one show to the other. It’s messy and at a dizzying pace. But it’s still working — for now.

Still, the biggest plot twist this season might be who’s missing.

Public Trust hasn’t been seen since the accident last season. Are they still in a coma? Will the doctors ever find a cure? And if they awaken…will they remember the ones who never stopped loving them? Especially NPR, still hovering by the bedside with a microphone and a soothing whisper.

This season won’t be defined by a single protagonist. The show has developed a deep cast, and they’ve done an amazing job weaving subplots.

The nonprofit subplot will thicken this year, as even the largest support organizations begin to feel the squeeze. They’re part backbone, part bottleneck, and we still aren’t sure just where the chips will fall. We expect to see a lot of swooning at conferences and cocktail parties to secure their spot. This dovetails nicely with the development of the Product Lead and Audience Specialists. Those quirky dorks from season 2022 are starting to evolve and come into their own. Will they hitch their fate to the nonprofits or strike it out on their own? Who can forget their monologue last season about treating the work not as a string of isolated stories, but as a portfolio of public-service products — tools, services, data interfaces, and personalized experiences built to address ongoing information needs. Will this be the season of a breakout experience?

Another storyline is that of Legacy News Organizations, which are being reimagined by the writers. Their sprawling roles are narrowing, their mandates becoming sharper and more intentional. It’s not a collapse so much as a character reboot, and viewers are waiting to see if a tighter, more purposeful role will give these long-running institutions the storyline they need to survive another season. The push towards focus will battle with the pull of Audience Scale. We haven’t seen Audience Scale as a character since the raucous days of BuzzFeed and its Pivot to Video finale. With the Subscription arc dominating the last few seasons and the script getting stale, we can imagine a swing back to Scale. Not the old chase for virality — that’s for the “Social Media” spinoff. Rather, we expect something more calculated.

We are all still watching, for now, and the writers are giving no hint as to how the season will end. The unpredictable triangle of shifting alliances between platforms, publishers, and audiences should make for an exciting ride. And all of that ignores the political thriller storyline. Can journalists speak truth to power when power is staring them down blankly? Who won’t make it to next season? Maybe that feels like a trite setup, and so “Journalism” could zag into unpredicted territory. Beneath the fatigue, I guess all the fans are hoping “Journalism” still has something to say. That the reporting can find footing again. That the next season doesn’t just chase plot, but remembers its purpose.

Despite everything, many of us still believe in the show.