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The Comeback
Let me begin
by saying I'm a major Lisa Kudrow fan. Yeah; I know what you're
thinking: Uh-oh! Why would he bring that up at the top of the review? If
you saw HBO's The Comeback, you'd know. Get your spin
doctoring at the ready, Friends fans, because Lisa will need your
help here. Hey now; maybe a sitcom isn't supposed to be funny. Yeah!
That's it. This is a new form of "art" comedy, where the art is in that we are not
meant
to laugh. No? Well, what about a new-age comedy, where we
do not laugh here, but are laughing on some parallel astral
plane. Or...not. In the words of Freud, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
This is simply put not a very funny comedy. Sorry.
The Comeback's
premise is a faux realty TV series about an
actress named Valerie (Lisa Kudrow). Valerie was a big name back in the
day, and now she's trying for a comeback in a
show called "Room and Bored."
The problem: Valerie is used to being the star attraction, back when
she was a young 20-something. Now she's not only playing second fiddle to younger stars, but she plays the role of --gasp!--
their Aunt. I'll admit this much; so far, so good. The premise sounds
interesting, yes?
 Not so fast. This
is one of those shows that bites the hand trying to feed it.
In other words: it wants to be more "real," but the more any
sitcom tries to be real, the less funny it is. Ah yes; making a sitcom is
hard work. Ah yes; an actress' life is not all parties and fun. Ah yes; reality
isn't funny.
I'm reminded of a line in
the 1980's teen comedy, Weird Science. Anthony Michael Hall pines about his fantasy life with
girls in his school.
His practical friend pipes in with a reality booster: nobody
likes them. Chimes Hall: why are you screwing up a fantasy? We know
about reality. This singular line is not only appropriate to that film's
proceeding fantasy story; it's
sound advice for comedy as a whole.
Use real life as
a template for comedy, not a foundation. If your characters are simply going to
frump through their lives doing little or nothing at all, that isn't funny. Unfortunately; that's exactly
what The Comeback is all about.
Perhaps the problem is
how much of a "loser" Valerie is made to appear. In episode #3,
Valerie gets a cute gift for all her co-stars: a fake key labeled
"Aunt Sassy's Condo," the location of the sitcom they are in.
She gives it to one of the actresses, who inexplicably proceeds to use it on her dressing room, only to break the key in the
lock. This is supposed to portray Valerie as a loser, but the moment is too
incredulous. Someone gets a
key to an obviously fictitious location, yet she uses it
on her dressing room door because...well, how about: because she's a total
moron? Yet this is supposed to show Valerie as a loser, so instead
of any comedy that may ensue, Valerie simply sulks away in shame. Where's
the funny in that?
 The
added problem with scenes like this is in how little we know about any
character aside from
Valerie. Even if this was really a "reality TV series" about
one person, there would be interviews with that person's
relatives, spouse, kids, close friends, coworkers, and so on. Yet Valerie is
always on screen, with little input from anyone else
at all. While this is all
well and good if you're a Lisa Kudrow fan it leaves little time for any
additional character development. Even when a well known real-life sitcom
director like James Burrows appears, he is given too little screen time to
make the cameo worth it. With little known about any character besides
"Valerie," each episode plays out like a one-woman stage show where all the
supporting players are cardboard cutouts.
Fanboys of Lisa Kudrow will
still try to defend Comeback, however, and may even tell me I simply "don't get it." No, kids; I
do get it, so
pretty please with sugar on top: don't defend this show by telling
me I "don't get it." Believe me: I get it. It's supposed to be
like a reality show: check. This is the way a sitcom looks
behind-the-scenes, in the real world: check. The real world is rarely funny: check. I get all that. I just don't see why this
"realistic" series is being pitched as a half-hour sitcom,
in the same time slot that used to air campy fun like Sex and the City.
It's being pitched as a sitcom and it's not funny.
You get it...?
Mind you, I don't mind a
half-hour drama. Yet if you're going to go that route you're going
to have to be, shall we say, really real, especially on cable TV. Yes, Miss Kudrow, this means more revealing attire
for you, because no way am I going to believe an actress in "real
life" just came out of bed looking perfect. This is a supposed
real-life actress who has her hair in curls in various scenes, and still
looks perfect! How very realistic. On the other hand, she can be
fictitious and still have a "no nudity" clause in her contract,
but
if you're going to forgo the reality, it's time to bring on the funny.
You're either funny or you're realistic. Choose.
Until that choice is
made, I am simply taping Comeback from now on, and watching it with
the most cursory of attitudes, and possibly, while reading a magazine. It isn't funny,
nor is it real. Call me old-fashioned but my sitcoms must be one or the
other. This series is neither...yet.
---Techtite
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