The Comeback: Nine Years Later

After nine long years, Valerie Cherish is back on our screens. The TV gods have answered our prayers.

Back in 2005, Lisa Kudrow starred in thirteen episodes of The Comeback on HBO. The show followed sitcom actress Valerie Cherish who was trying to revive her flagging career by filming a behind-the-scenes "reality" show about her life while she embarked on a new role playing Aunt Sassy in a broad network sitcom. It's a lot of shows within shows, and it's complicated to explain but fascinating to watch. 

The first season was a superlative example of cringe comedy. Valerie would routinely suffer humiliation at the hands of her younger co-stars, bemused camera crew, and horrific writer Paulie G. (Lance Barber), who did everything he could to debase her on the sitcom and in everyday life. The second season picks up nine years later: Valerie has had a failed stint on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, flirted with Botox, done some independent student films and is generally getting by. When she finds out that Paulie G. is out of rehab for his heroin addiction and has sold a show to HBO that sounds suspiciously like his life story as a writer on a sitcom starring a lady named "Mallory Church," she gets sucked back into the drama. 

The second season is filled with just as much cringe-inducing comedy as the first and most of the original cast are back. It also features new characters, including Seth Rogen in a very endearing role as Valerie's new co-star. Paulie G. might be off heroin but his relationship with Val is just as fraught as ever. Valerie is sweet and clueless, desperate for fame and insecure about aging in Hollywood. Her patient husband Mark (Damian Young) is still tolerating her craziness, even after production invades his house when the show's budget gets slashed. It is shocking to think that this show hasn't been on the air for nine years because they haven't missed a beat. 

The Comeback is alternately hilarious and awkward, sweet and awful, a perfect send-up of fame, Hollywood, and actorly desperation. Lisa Kudrow is a wonder to behold; she turns Valerie into a sort of female Michael Scott who does really stupid things and yet remains a likable character that the audience will earnestly root for. So tune in to The Comeback's triumphant return, and discover if Valerie's finally going to make her dreams come true.