In the first two seasons of “The Comeback,” sitcom actress Valerie Cherish was defined by her almost panicked need for publicity. In season one, which debuted in 2005, she was thirsty to reignite her career with a role in a new sitcom, “Room and Bored,” and a foray into the pre-“Real Housewives” era of reality television.
In the second, which arrived in 2014, her desire to stay relevant led her to portray a barely veiled version of herself in an HBO series based on her experience on “Room and Bored.” That project put her in front of the camera in a prestige dramedy for the first time, which obviously outweighed the fact that it forced her to revisit some traumatic experiences that were exaggerated for dramatic, unflattering purposes. That’s because Valerie Cherish’s life mantra consisted of just seven words and an ellipsis: “Attention must be paid … to Valerie Cherish.”
Twelve years later, Valerie is back in a third season of “The Comeback” that, to my deeply pleasant surprise, is the mockumentary’s best. As co-created by Lisa Kudrow, who brilliantly brings Valerie to self-absorbed life, and Michael Patrick King of “Sex and the City” and “And Just Like That…”, these eight episodes play like a time capsule of what it feels like in 2026 to work in Hollywood, or in any creative field, really.
Where the previous two seasons emphasized how desperate Valerie was to get and keep a good job, the third season of “The Comeback” understands that literally everyone in Hollywood is now equally desperate to get and keep a good job. It doesn’t matter if you’re above the line or below it. Everyone can sense that the business is on the verge of hitting an iceberg and doing whatever they must to get their ass into a deck chair, no matter how nonsensically it’s been rearranged.
Jane (Laura Silverman), the Academy Award-winning filmmaker who produced Valerie’s reality show, also called “The Comeback,” now works at Trader Joe’s to make ends meet, but nevertheless agrees to start shooting behind-the-scenes footage of Valerie again. Sharon, a casting director played by actress and actual casting director Marla Garlin, quite literally trips over herself in a restaurant while trying to ask Valerie if she can get her some work. Even Mark (Damian Young), Valerie’s chill, non-showbiz husband, is currently appearing in a reality show about finance dudes, a gig he took after being dismissed from an actual job in finance. Once upon a time, Valerie Cherish seemed uniquely shameless. Now, having a sense of shame is a luxury that no one can afford.
“I’m just trying to get me and my kids out of this town before it explodes,” a veteran TV writer named Mary (Abbi Jacobson) tells Valerie. Unfortunately, Mary and her husband Josh (John Early) are the showrunners on Valerie’s new streaming sitcom “How’s That?!,” a show that the head of the network (a perfectly blasé Andrew Scott) insists will be scripted by Mary and Josh, with occasional help from artificial intelligence. But A.I., the unabashed villain in season three of “The Comeback,” turns out to be more “in charge” than Valerie anticipates, a fact that she is told to keep secret from the rest of the cast and crew.
That set-up enables King and Kudrow to create some very funny gags—“I’m pretty sure I did this sheriff’s joke way back on ‘Mama’s Family,’” says one of Valerie’s puzzled co-stars upon receiving a new script—and generate moments of genuine drama. “This is an extinction event,” legendary showrunner Jack Stevens (Bradley Whitford) tells Valerie regarding the rise of A.I. That reality is palpable in almost every scene of “The Comeback.” You can practically smell the fear emanating from Valerie and everyone else in her L.A. orbit through your digital device’s connection to HBO Max.
Of course, Kudrow is still the ringmaster of this studio lot circus; she is, once again, fantastically layered in her portrayal of Valerie, whose persistence feels less like a character flaw in this media landscape and more like a superpower. Valerie is still privileged, self-involved, and obsessed with putting herself out there. But where Valerie seemed like a try-hard striver in previous seasons, those qualities now underline how much of a fighter she is. An often inept fighter, but still: a fighter nonetheless. There’s a set piece in the fourth episode that involves Valerie trying to navigate the Warner Bros. lot in a golf cart while Doechii’s “Anxiety” plays on the soundtrack that ranks right up there with the “Get On Your Feet” ice-skating rink scene from “Parks and Recreation.”
Kudrow is surrounded by an extremely talented cast of familiar regulars, including Young, Silverman, and Dan Bucatinsky as her manager, Billy, but the absence of Robert Michael Morris, who died in 2017, as Valerie’s hair stylist and head cheerleader, Mickey, is certainly felt. (Valerie explains that Mickey died of COVID; in one shot of a dressing room she briefly occupies, there are two photos on her make-up table: one of Mickey and one of Lucille Ball.)
The series also boasts an impressive array of guest stars, including Jacobson, Early, Whitford, Scotts both Andrew and Adam, and James Burrows, the revered sitcom director who worked with Kudrow on “Friends.” He plays a version of himself, a celebrated TV director who advises Valerie that only real, flesh-and-blood writers can make the kind of television audiences will want to watch. “Val, those beautiful, broken souls are what make something great,” he says.
In many ways, “The Comeback” comes across as both a love letter to and a eulogy for the television comedy. It can also been seen as a TV-focused complement to “The Studio,” Seth Rogen’s Apple TV+ series about the insanity of working in the modern movie business, except “The Comeback” does an even better job of reflecting the panicky energy that has become the norm for anyone who makes a living in Los Angeles—or anywhere, for that matter—trying to tell stories. Valerie Cherish has always been panicked. Her default setting has always been “survival mode.” Or as she puts it: “I think you have to agree to be humiliated, and I never signed up.” Both she and this season of “The Comeback” are made for this moment.
All eight episodes were screened for review.
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