- HBO
- Valerie Cherish returns with the face that launched a thousand winces.
When the TV series The Comeback premiered on HBO in 2005, its brutally comedic take on an aging Hollywood actress’s return to television found a small, devoted audience but proved too squirmy for the masses. Instead of jokes and punchlines, The Comeback trafficked in full-immersion character work, which was often riotously funny but was always centered on the humiliations willingly endured by Valerie Cherish, the former sitcom star brought to triumphant life by former sitcom star and comedy powerhouse Lisa Kudrow. At the time, its satire was widely seen as “too ugly,” viewers stayed away in droves, and The Comeback was canceled after its first season.
But almost immediately after its cancellation, The Comeback became a beloved cult hit. As reality TV plunged to new depths of degradation, the “ugliness” of The Comeback was normalized, fueling viewers’ willingness to accept the suffering and debasement of reality-TV stars as comedy. (Also helping: the show’s freaky brilliance, from expert casting to the comedic fearlessless of Lisa Kudrow, who deserves every acting prize there is.)
Now it’s 2014, and The Comeback is coming back. Judging from the trailer below, the show’s creators (Kudrow and Michael Patrick King) have again crafted an intricate, up-to-the-minute scenario for getting Valerie Cherish back on TV, and I cannot wait to see how it plays out. (Also, I am so glad the evil, awful Pauly G is still in the mix.) The Comeback returns to HBO on November 9. Until then, you have 19 days to catch up on The Comeback season 1, which is available at all worthy video stores and on HBO Go. For now, here’s the season-two trailer.
