Thursday, March 30, 2006
I (don't) wanna see that!
ENDING! The Comeback, Living TV, 9.00pm
We weren't at all sure about this show the first time we saw it. For a sitcom, it didn't seem awfully funny. It had lots of good actors, good writing and good situations, but no noticeable gags. We thought it might end up falling flat on its face. But we've been slowly watching the entire series, and we've realised as more of it unfolds that it's actually a minor masterpiece. The trick is not to think of it as a sitcom, but as...actually, we don't really know what genre it fits in. But it's definitely not a conventional sitcom.
Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe in Friends, for those of you who've just got back from Mars) plays faded sitcom actress Valerie Cherish, who's been looking for a route back to stardom since her vehicle I'm It! came to an end in 1992. She's taken a thankless role on hideous sitcom Room And Bored as the dowdy old hag Aunt Sassy, while filming a reality TV show called The Comeback about - well, her comeback. The real gems in this show are in the characters - Juna, the sweet but spaced-out star of Room And Bored, who could be an evil genius using her friendship with Val and the subsequent appearances on Val's reality show to boost her own career, but who appears so sweet and innocent that we hardly think it possible; Jane, the line producer of the reality show, who's only willing to get involved in Valerie's life if it means setting up some reality TV gold, but who occasionally gets waylaid by Val's thoughtfulness, on the rare occasions where it manifests itself; Mickey, Val's queeny hairdresser who starts in horror every time someone accidentally outs him on camera (even though he's never really been 'in'), and Paulie G, the writer and exec producer of Room And Bored a man so thoroughly odious that we've actually invented a few new swear words in our attempts to capture how truly vile it is.
In the final episode, called 'Valerie Does Another Classic Leno', Valerie plugs her two new shows on the famous talkshow, but this could be the moment where her extremely fragile temper and sanity snap. On the few occasions we've checked, the ratings for the show on Living TV haven't exactly been stellar, and the ratings on HBO in America were disappointing enough to ensure that there will be no second season, but in many ways it feels right. It can be one of those shows that just runs for one perfect series and never has a chance to spoil itself by going that "series too far". It probably won't appeal nearly as much if you haven't been watching it the whole way through, but if you're even remotely curious, we recommend you check out Lisa Kudrow's performance, because it is one of the best pieces of acting we've seen in ages.
By Steve :: Post link
:: 
::
0 pop-up comments
:: Discuss on messageboard
