Steven Prusakowski
The Comeback season three premiered its eight-episode final season on HBO, and the dark Hollywood satire is some of the scariest television you will watch this year. Probably not what you expect to hear when reading about the mockumentary style comedy featuring Lisa Kudrow as Valerie Cherish, a faded TV sitcom actress who seems to be endlessly trying to find ways to revive her career, but I stand by it. The series co-created by Kudrow and Michael Patrick King has found ways to reinvent itself season after season, even if it takes decades to do so, but never feeling as existentially threatening as this third and final season.
The history of the series is interesting in itself. The Comeback premiered in 2005 with a series-within-a-series approach, as reality TV was reshaping the TV landscape as networks shifted from scripted television to reality programming which makes acting gigs increasingly sparse. To stay relevant Valerie agrees to document her TV comeback on a sitcom titled Room and Bored and uses that footage as the basis of the docuseries, The Comeback, shot by producer Jane (Laura Silverman). Valerie loves what she does, believes in herself and is desperate to keep her career from sputtering out. After gut punch after gut punch, the first season ends with a glimmer of hope after an offbeat Tonight Show appearance reignites the flame of this phoenix.
Shortly after this semi-triumphant finale, the real-life The Comeback series was cancelled by HBO.
The End.
Oh no…wait a minute… that is not how Valerie Cherish operates. If you tell her no she finds a hilarious and cringey way to find another shot. Nine years later in 2014, long after fans thought they saw the last of the fame-obsessed actress, season two comes out of nowhere, again rising from the ashes. The series is much more meta than before and has Valerie starring in a dramedy titled Seeing Red, a semi-autobiographical series, produced by Paulie G, (Lance Barber) that covers the toxic environment of working on Room and Bored, with Valerie playing a fictionalized version of herself.
In other words we’re watching an HBO show about a fictional HBO show about the making of a sitcom that was the subject of a reality show that’s the premise of the actual HBO show we’re watching. The second season has a darker edge. Seeing Red does not paint Cherish in a good light, it exposes her insecurities, desperation, and often makes her the butt of the jokes. It is as uncomfortable for the viewer at times as it is for Valerie.
Again, the series surprises, giving Valerie what looks to be a moment of true positivity moment, at the Emmys as a nominee, only to have it cut short. The series abandons the mockumentary approach as she leaves mid-ceremony, missing her category so she can rush to the bedside of her loyal friend and hair stylist Mickey (Robert Michael Morris) who is in the hospital. It is there that she watches her name called as the winner, while she holds the hand of her seriously ill friend. A beautiful close to the series… or so we thought.
Back to the scariest television you will see this year. What could be so scary about a sitcom about an actress fighting to stay relevant? The answer is the relentless force that has the potential to destroy the industry as we know it. AI.
Season three updates the found footage documentary approach to help convey the more complex themes. This time around relying less on the handheld camera feel and settling on a hybrid solution that incorporates a social media approach (courtesy of Patience, her Gen Z social media assistant played by Ella Stiller) along with additional conventional single-camera scenes. It is a welcome change that flows naturally and feels more modern.
The season begins with some par for the course Valerie Cherish as she cannot get out of her own way abandoning her lead role on Broadway’s Chicago: The Musical in classic Cherish style, one part chaos, one part cringe and a large dose of funny. Just as it seems like we may be in for more of the same for Valerie, the series makes another bold move taking on the subject of AI and how it could gut the creative fields if not kept in check.
The rest of the season revolves around the new sitcom, How’s That?! which feels like your standard Valerie Cherish vehicle besides the fact that it is written by an AI program nicknamed AL Assist. Besides the showrunners Mary and Josh (played by Abbi Jacobson and John Early) and Valerie, almost the entire rest of the crew are left in the dark. This of course leads to a slew of awkward and morally challenging situations for Valerie. While I will not reveal the details, I will say the weaving the subject into the sitcom while always staying true to this being Valerie Cherish show is done masterfully, keeping Valerie at the forefront.
When season three was announced I was a little torn, while I would love to see more of Valerie, maybe it is better to let the ending of season two be the perfect closure it was. It only took a few minutes of the first episode before I changed my tune, welcoming her back with open arms. This is 100% credited to Kudrow’s ability to slip back into the character as if she never left us. She is still the bumbling, quirky, awkward, cringy, beautiful character she has always been, but there is more to her. She has evolved, though often subtly, to be more self-aware, while still painfully focused on her career, she also seems to have come to terms with her place in the industry.
Kudrow is brilliant, delivering her best work since Friends, frequently reminding why Valerie Cherish is one of TV’s most fascinating characters of the last 25 years. She layers her performance with such sincerity and vulnerability that absolves her of all of her sins. This time around she is a little older and more mature as if the character evolved with the time that has passed.
While she can certainly rub some people the wrong way with her lack of filter and seemingly self-centered ways, Kudrow makes it impossible not to root for Valerie. She is driven and resilient almost to a fault, armed with an almost oblivious faux confidence. Where others would be crushed by the endless setbacks and humiliations she has faced, Valerie is strangely fueled by them. Her persistence makes her admirable, imperfections and all.
If her career is like riding a bike, she has fallen off more times than anyone can count, dealing with broken chains, flat tires, and worse. Now in her early sixties, long after most would have given up, she simply gets back up, brushes herself off, and keeps pedaling. Bumps, bruises, and humiliation are just an afterthought.
The layers to Valerie Cherish are plentiful. In between the cringe and her oblivious Teflon exterior are glimpses of a person who hides her pain and needs others, even if she forgets their names (a running gag that is both painful and hilarious).
Quiet moments with her husband (Mark, played by Damian Young) as they continue to repair their relationship, with her longtime documenter Jane, and a particularly raw and moving scene in episode 3 with her new hair stylist Tommy (an eccentric, lively, and very funny Jack O’Brien) where we watch her still processing the loss of her beloved Mickey, she proves she is far more vulnerable than she usually lets on. Her chipper, everything-will-be-alright shields do come down, if only briefly.
The Comeback has beaten out other fictional series to the punch when it comes to the subject of AI and the writers’ satirical approach is much more hard-hitting than a comedy deserves to be. The approach is smart, fair, and measured – one that feels like both a celebration of the art of television storytelling, while at the same time a cautionary tale that cannot be ignored.
The writing avoids tearing the technology to shreds mercilessly, giving a voice to just about everybody in the industry from the actors and crew to the executives, putting the technology on trial in a way that is much more thought provoking than I expected. At times, I was a bit perturbed to find some of the arguments in favor of it to be stronger than I would have hoped. But, like the technology itself, those arguments lack a soul and quickly were exposed as such.
This season, in addition to the return of some familiar faces from Valerie’s past (which I will save for you to discover), she is also surrounded by a strong supporting cast that adds plenty of humor as well as depth to the AI conversation. The How’s That?! co-stars including Brittany O’Grady, Tim Bagley, Matt Cook, Barry Shabaka Henley, and Zane Phillips are a treat to watch, adding lots of laughs. Andrew Scott, Fran Drescher, Adam Scott, Justin Theroux, and Bradley Whitford provide sharp cameos that elevate the satire even further.
When all is said and done, the season and the series pulls off a series of incredible feats, mainly over the course of 22 years to deliver a sharp, resonating commentary on Hollywood that grows with the series. Kudrow and King nail it season after season.
The most recent season takes on the biggest threat to the art of television (and so much more) with a sense of responsibility, knowing that if we stay quiet, we will be replaced, because at the end of the day, money and greed talk. In other words, we’re doomed. Sure that’s dark, but these are dark times and we should be scared. Thankfully, Valerie Cherish is here to temporarily distract us from some of the worst. And while she doesn’t exactly nail the landing in terms of AI, she never lets us lose hope.
The Comeback, like Valerie is a singular comedy, it may have you crying in laughter or from its poignant, bittersweet soul.
Either way, you will cherish your time with Valerie Cherish. And while this is her swan song and the phoenix will not rise again, the season closes out on its terms and burns brightly. It is as deeply human as television gets.
I’m going to miss her.
SCORE: ★★★★1/2 out of five stars
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