toledoblade.com --

For a decade, she was Phoebe Buffay, the young, blond bubblehead on TV's hit sitcom Friends. Now, barely a year after Friends disappeared from the prime-time schedule, Lisa Kudrow is back, this time as 40-ish redhead Valerie Cherish, a washed-up TV star who agrees to do a reality show in hopes of resuscitating her dead-as-a-doornail career.

Kudrow's new show, logically titled The Comeback, premieres Sunday at 9:30 p.m. on HBO. Created by Kudrow and former Sex and the City producer Michael Patrick King, The Comeback aims to go behind the scenes of network television to reveal some of its cruelty, shallowness, and penchant for humiliation.

Hmm. A TV show about a former sitcom star who's desperate to get in front of the cameras again. Do you suppose … no, wait, before you ask, Kudrow - who happens to be 41, believe it or not - insists that The Comeback is not a case of art reflecting life - at least not her life.

At any rate, Valerie, Kudrow's character in the show, has been off television for 13 years, but she's finally up for a part on a second-rate new sitcom called Room and Bored, about sexy singles who are sharing a condo. But to land the role, she must agree to allow cameras to trail her around the clock for a reality TV show called The Comeback.

During the audition for Room and Bored, Valerie's inflated expectations are burst when she discovers that her co-stars are much younger then she is, and that her role has been downgraded to that of a supporting character, the matronly "Aunt Sassy." But she swallows her pride and plays along, and is thrilled when Room and Bored is picked up for the fall season. Maybe she can get the writers to beef up her role, she reasons.

And then there's that other show-within-a-show, the reality thing. Valerie finally realizes that its intrusive cameras really are with her 24/7, capturing her every disappointment, snub, and humiliation, and there are plenty of those. But painful as it all is, Valerie is seemingly willing to suffer any degradation if it means a return to the celebrity spotlight she once enjoyed.

Though much of the HBO show appears improvised, it's actually tightly scripted - even the "reality" parts, with their awkward moments and intentionally clumsy camera work, which certainly create an effective illusion of spontaneity.

The Comeback does manage to avoid being too "insider" to appeal to a mass audience, and it shows flashes of dark humor, but for the most part, it falls short of the level of cringe-inducing comedy that makes HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm such a delightful hybrid of reality and fiction.

Still, Kudrow deserves credit for being the first Friends alum to return to the small screen with an ambitious attempt at something a little different. And no, we're not forgetting that Matt LeBlanc has a little something called Joey going on over at NBC.

Contact Mike Kelly at: mkelly@theblade.com
or 419-724-6131.

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