The First Commandment: Watch The Comeback (2005)

“Time to focus on what’s really important: me.” –Valerie Cherish

Since my friends find it super annoying when I spend hours on end talking about amazing shows that no one has ever heard of, I thought that I would vent my frustration/push my TV crack here. Today’s drug of choice? HBO’s The Comeback, from executive producers and writers Michael Patrick King (Sex and the City, 2 Broke Girls) and Lisa Kudrow (from a little show called Friends).

So why the commandment from atop the thing? Check it out:

Quick plot summary: Our “heroine” is one Valerie Cherish (played fantastically by Kudrow), a former 90’s sitcom star who struggles to regain her spotlight on a new sitcom and her own reality show, The Comeback. What the audience sees is the “raw footage” that the reality show crew tapes as they follow her around at home and at her sitcom.

What first drew me in to this show was that it is one of the only shows that has used the “mocumentary” format to its fullest potential. As much as I love (the early seasons of) The Office (US), Parks and Recreation, and Modern Family, I have always had a problem with the fact that there is never any mention of or allusion to the documentary nature of the programs. Who is watching this footage? What is it being used for? And more importantly, how do these projects affect the characters? Not answering these questions seems like wasted opportunities to me. The Comeback, however, not only shows how and why this footage is being compiled, but folds this very reality structure into the overall conflict of the show. Valerie is always aware of the fact that cameras are not only following her, but that there are editors and producers out there who want to use her for their own story, and she is determined to maintain strict control of how she presents herself to her audience.

I should warn you: this is one of the darkest comedies I’ve watched, and is a paradigm of the cringe-comedy genre. It is a lot like Extras, which premiered the same year, in that both strive for and definitely earn big laughs, but oftentimes those laughs come at the expense of the mental and spiritual well-being of their protagonists and rarely bring their audiences to catharsis at the ends of the episode. Both shows are grounded in central characters who are aware of the cynical and often soul-crushing nature of commercial filmmaking but still dive in anyways in order to sate their obsession with fame. Valerie Cherish has been through the experience of being on top of the world as a television starlet and quickly taken down due to cancellation, yet she still willingly and knowingly jumps back into another sitcom.

What keeps me watching is how well-written and -acted it is. Lisa Kudrow lives and breathes Valerie. She never lets Valerie get boxed into one stereotype, when it could be so easy to do so. Kudrow is able to express the vulnerability and insecurity Valerie feels as the oldest member of her cast on Room and Bored, her new sitcom, without turning her into a victim. With a single glance and shrug at one of the writers on her sitcom, Kudrow shows that Valerie can actually read the tension and brewing troubles that plague their show, but is able to flip it within seconds by having Valerie directly point out her “wisdom” to her reality show/audience. Valerie may be addicted to fame, but Kudrow never lets her strictly defined by it.

The same applies to the other characters in her world, and for this I credit the writers. It would be easy to surround Valerie with competitive self-obsessed twenty-something actors and a hostile reality crew. Instead, the star of Room and Bored, Juna (Malin Akerman, who I actually think does a good job here), looks up to Valerie earnestly as a mentor and takes her side on the show. The other cast members may not necessarily like Valerie at first, but they quickly come around and take her in as one of her own. Even the producer of her reality show, Jane (Laura Silverman), comes to care about Valerie despite having her own agenda.

The villain of the show is the odious Paulie G. (Lance Barber), one of the writers on the sitcom. What is compelling about him is because we can understand why he is such an ass towards Valerie, but his responses are so far out of line and cruel. He and the other head writer, Tom (Robert Bagnell), are often the characters who encounter and have to deal with Valerie when she is being particularly aggressive and pretentious, and yet Tom is at least considerate enough, or maybe just professional enough, to at least pretend to consider or care about Valerie’s suggestions or comments. Paulie G., however, at his nicest, is wholly indifferent, and openly mocks and tears down not just her efforts but her as a person. And the result is a character that is wholly human and is relatable in theory but is just easily and eagerly despised by the audience, exactly what a villain should be. And I give major kudos to the writers, for finally giving Valerie her well-deserved and -executed revenge in the penultimate episode, but also for quickly undercutting it with a double-vomit. ‘Cuz you gotta have a double-vomit.

I got the DVDs for this show a couple weeks ago and fully intended to marathon the entire series over a couple of days. I ended up only watching one episode each day, not only because one episode was about all my embarrassment quotient can handle, but because I wanted to savor all of those small details that make this show so great. I have already started re-watching it, and am picking up on moments and lines that I missed the first time. I think that speaks volumes about this show. It may be a tough show tonally at times, but it is crafted with such care and heart that it is absolutely worth looking up and watching.