The Comeback

This show is brilliant and Lisa Kudrow is amazing in it. If you've ever lived in LA, you already know this is closer to reality than any of the shows it satirizes.

Comparisons to the BBC version of "The Office" are inevitable. This show is probably as good as that critical darling, and it might be even better.

I've heard that it hasn't been renewed, which is a shame, as it's certainly much smarter than Darren Starr's other HBO hit, the long-running "Sex and the City.

Kudos to HBO and all involved for taking a chance on this risky and smart and painfully funny show.

Network: HBO; Genre: Comedy, Satire, Parody; Content Rating: TV-MA (profanity, adult content, nudity, sexual humor); Available: DVD; Perspective: Cult Classic (star range: 1 - 5)

Seasons Reviewed: Complete Series (1 season)

In early 90s Valerie Cherish (Lisa Kudrow) was the It girl on a hit sitcom called "I'm It". Now, in the new millennium with the death of the sitcom looming on the horizon and reality shows (band-aids on a problem that are themselves starting to peel off) providing has-been celebrities a temporary life-line back onto TV, Valerie gets a chance to make a comeback in the form of a reality series. "The Comeback", the show within the one we are watching, documents her new career taking a bit role on a network sitcom called "Room & Bored". As the documentary cameras intrude on Valerie's life and her not-so-photogenic real life intrudes on the reality show and "Room & Bored" (plagued with problems from the beginning) itself continues to fall apart, Valerie all the while maintains a phony smile and naively optimistic attitude about the whole thing.

"The Comeback" is a triumph for both co-creators. An acting triumph for Kudrow who explodes in a volcano of talent that laid dormant for 10 years on "Friends". A creative triumph for Michael Patrick King who answers the call to follow up one of TV's all time best shows in "Sex and the City" by making not one new show, but three in one. Now, that mean streak the bubbled under the surface of "Sex", but was forced down by the show's romanticism gets to break out and attack.

Kudrow is absolutely brilliant here, effortlessly carrying the series with naturally comic instincts. As a personality that was associated with everything that is young and hip for so long, it is incredibly bold the way Kudrow fully embraces a role as an unlikable out-of-touch, over-the-Hollywood-hill actress. She disappears into Valerie, who is something like Shelly Long and Katharine Hepburn doing David Brent. "Comeback" is a one-woman showcase, built around Valerie suffering one indignity after another (many involving "Bored's" co-creator, Paulie G, who absolutely hates her) while she smiles for the cameras, pushes her emotions down and explains away every disaster unfolding in front of her face. It is often heartbreaking and painful to watch. When Valerie could just as easily have been a punchline, Kudrow gives her a nuanced depth with layer upon layer of repressed, passive-aggressive behavior. She gets buy out of a sheer single-minded fortitude for attention and "to be heard". So much of this performance is in what she doesn't say, a pain behind her eyes. She was Emmy robbed.

I've always admired King's desire and ability to make TV more than the audience's low expectations allow. He respects his audience and trusts our intelligence to get it. Not many people will be comfortable with a comedy like "Comeback" symbolically structured like a Greek tragedy or take the time to analyze King's endless world of visual metaphors. "Comeback" is a deeply thought out show about shallow TV. Here King breaks apart both the reality series and the sitcom, then cobbles them together flawlessly.

Kudrow and King hopelessly cage Valerie in an entertainment chasm where sitcoms are dying but the quick-fix solution of reality shows turns out to be even more dangerous. Every other show that has poked fun at this genre always does so with an admiring wink and nod. On the contrary, King has no love for reality TV. He shows the clutter of a 3-man camera crew crashing through a room before its subject walks in. He shows the participants editing, re-editing and contriving their own lives for the cameras. He goes beyond showing the participants being manipulated in editing, he shows them being violated by the cameras for cheap laughs that are celebrated by a public that takes pleasure in mocking celebrities. "Comeback" gives us the sharpest and most honestly ugly look at the reality of reality TV you will see. Valerie slowly has the hope that this forum will get her back in the spotlight drained as she looses more and more control over her show.

That same downward glare is applied to sitcoms. As the other show within the show, "Room & Bored" is a perfectly awful parody of every youth-pandering network series that is fun to rip on but would probably be a solid hit if it was really on NBC or Fox. The sheer straight-faced nature of everything and the intricate detail King puts into making "Bored" believable makes it all the funnier. Just about every joke here works. From Juna (Malin Akerman) the sexy break-out star whose popularity swallows up the show to a retooling attempt that jams 2 new characters into an already crowded mix, "Bored" appears to Jump the Shark several times. A combustible piece of fitful hilarity, "Valarie Hangs Out with the Cool Kids" maybe my favorite episode.

To the outside observer Lisa Kudrow's appearance as a once-sitcom star might make it look like "The Comeback" is sponging off her own sitcom. No, "Comeback" is a dark series, raw, messy and miserable. Valerie Cherish will probably scare the bejesus out of the average "Friends" fan. The laughs are found in humiliation, awkward silence and King's pension for injecting real world details everywhere. If there was any thought that the cringing humor of "The Office" couldn't be replicated in America, "Comeback" busts that up.

More consistent than "Curb Your Enthusiasm", a better Inside Hollywood show than "Entourage". King has laser-focused "The Comeback" as a contemporary satire about its specific time and place in the television timeline, yet the show so richly satisfying, complexly rendered and its breakout classic lead character is so unique that it is hard to forget or easily dismiss. A TV show for TV fans, "Comeback" is audience-challenging, utterly hilarious and very highly recommended.

* * * * / 5

Lisa Kudrow truly shines in her new HBO vehicle, "The Comeback." Playing Valerie Cherish, a former B-list sitcom star, Kudrow injects her outstanding comedic timing and delivery into every joke, whether it be an embarrassing situation or a humiliating video confessional. The former Friends star has surrounded herself with very little big names, leaving Kudrow herself to carry the show. While the world of failed actors and actresses in Los Angeles will probably not take too kindly to this, one who truly understands the inner- workings of pilot season and the Hollywood community will find the jokes hit their target dead-on. HBO has found their next hit in this dramedy, and pairing it with Entourage makes perfect sense. Be sure to check this out.

I have finally finished The Comeback. I started it because of the raves I heard about Kudrow, and let me tell you, they are completely deserved. Kudrow is magnificent here, she not only handles the comedy perfectly with the unique touch that she also had in Friends, but she develops Valerie with many different layers. It's not until the series goes by that those layers are peeled away, and we really truly understand Valerie as a whole. In the pilot episode, one is ready to say that Valerie is a little too full of herself, or naive. Her flaws are recognizable, and yet as more episodes go on, you not only learn to recognize her flaws clearly, but also learn to accept her as a human being. It's very easy to empathize with her, and Kudrow is completely mesmerizing in her most vulnerable moments.

Take a scene in the 12th episode where she tells the audience and the crew about her experience when she was younger, as a girl with a back brace. Kudrow plays it amazingly, with her character's usual sugar tone and with her deep sadness and hurt rising to the surface. But most importantly, she plays it all with her eyes. Moments like these are crucial to her character, and Kudrow is dynamite when it comes to playing the most hilarious moments and also the darkest. The show is pretty great, but it's great because Valerie Cherish is an expertly- written character, and because Kudrow gives one of the best comedic performances I have ever seen, both on the small and big screen. Anyone who hasn't seen this, do! Such a shame it only ran for one season, especially because the ending promised even more interesting things to come.

Why do more people not know about this show!? This is honestly one of the best comedies out there and nobody seems to care. Lisa Kudrow is beyond amazing, not only as an actress, but a writer too. She should have won Emmys, golden globes, sags etc for both instalments of this masterpiece! She literally predicted what was to become of celebrity culture and then came back and somehow not only matched but exceeded the brilliance of season one after a nine year absence. Well the next nine years are almost up and I wouldn't be mad at the prospect of a season 3 Lisa Kudrow, just saying...