The comeback's final act: a hollywood mirror cracked wide open
Lisa Kudrow’s Valerie Cherish is back, and she’s more gloriously, unsettlingly herself than ever. After a thirteen-year absence, Michael Patrick King’s The Comeback returns for a third, reportedly final, season, picking up where the previous installment left off—in a state of near-total professional and personal disintegration. And thank heavens for that.
A return to the madness
The premiere, “The Hollywoodland,” is a masterclass in cringe comedy, immediately reminding viewers why this show remains a singular, often uncomfortable, achievement. Valerie Cherish, perpetually teetering on the edge of sanity, is now attempting a Broadway run in Chicago. The sheer absurdity of the premise—a faded sitcom star reinventing herself on stage—is immediately undercut by the show’s unflinching gaze at the realities of Hollywood ambition and the crushing weight of public perception. It's a place where success and failure are measured in social media metrics and fleeting viral moments.
The episode is riddled with knowing winks at current industry trends. A subplot involving Valerie’s podcast, “Cherish the Time,” is both hilarious and deeply unsettling, a satirical commentary on the desperate need for relevance in the age of influencer culture. The references to the WGA and SAG strikes, and even a throwaway mention of COVID, ground the narrative in our present moment, proving that some things—the exploitation of talent, the relentless pursuit of fame—remain tragically constant.
But it's not just the topical references that make The Comeback so compelling. It's the show’s willingness to expose the raw, ugly truth about the entertainment industry—and, by extension, ourselves. Kudrow’s performance is nothing short of breathtaking. She embodies Valerie Cherish with a manic energy that is both mesmerizing and deeply disturbing. The supporting cast, including the ever-reliable Jane Adams as Jane, is equally brilliant, each character a caricature of Hollywood eccentricity.
The decision to introduce AI-generated sitcom scripts adds another layer of satirical complexity. Valerie's defiant stance against AI—