SALT LAKE CITY — To the surprise of absolutely no one along the Wasatch Front, the Inversion has been renewed for another season, with producers confirming the premiere episode will be identical in every meaningful way to each of the roughly 178 previous installments.
The long-running production, in which cold air settles into the valley and politely holds every tailpipe emission in place like a lid on a pot, is expected to debut sometime in late November with its signature cold open: residents waking to discover the mountains — the entire marketing identity of the state — have been temporarily removed. “We like to start the season by taking away the one thing everyone moved here for,” said the season’s showrunner, the Salt Lake Valley’s geography, which has not attended a notes meeting since the Pleistocene.
Returning cast members include the Red Air Day, the Argument About Wood Burning, and the One Neighbor Who Idles His Truck Anyway, a fan-favorite character critics say “carries every season he’s in.” Viewership metrics remain robust: the AQI chart is expected to be refreshed 40 million times by people who already know what it says.
Network executives dismissed complaints that the show has become formulaic. “Audiences say they want change, but every time we float a spinoff — ‘Wind,’ ‘Storm That Actually Clears It’ — it tests terribly and lasts one episode,” a spokesperson said, gesturing at a skyline that appeared to be loading at very low resolution. “Besides, the season always ends the same way: a storm rolls in, the air clears, everyone forgives everything, and we green-light next year by simply doing nothing.”
Health officials are once again urging viewers to limit outdoor exertion during peak episodes, a warning historically honored by everyone except people who choose the inversion’s worst week to take up jogging “as a personality.”
At press time, residents of Park City were reminding valley viewers that they live above the season entirely and can watch it from their decks, a subplot audiences have rated “insufferable” for the 178th consecutive year.
Photo: Derrellwilliams, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons