If there’s one bit of Hollywood wisdom that The Comeback‘s third season seeks to counter, it’s this: Don’t get stuck in the structure (or don’t allow yourself to become a faceless cog in the machine). The nugget comes from Valerie’s ever-tardy agent and co-executive producer, Billy, who expresses a worldview common on the show. He’s too good for the show he’s on, so the studio might as well reward him for slumming it with a decent parking space. This attitude is all over “Valerie Faces Reality,” from the costume designers to the writers, each arguing that their genius should be upheld and protected regardless of whether it’s right for the show. Even Jane and Mark are out of place professionally, with the former, an Oscar-winner, checking out her onetime stars at Trader Joe’s, while the latter is hanging on the bleeding edge of a reality show called Finance Dudes. The only ones who don’t mind getting stuck in the structure—that is, the machinery of the industry—are the actors, and, surprisingly, Valerie, who finally shows what 30 years in it can get you: experience, wisdom, and patience.
In the season-premiere recap, I wrote that the show was using its tagline, “It’s time to face reality,” as a thesis statement. We’re no longer only seeing a defensive Valerie hoping to protect her image from the army of cameras filming her. We’re seeing her when the cameras are off, and with that, we’re finally seeing some growth. Two glorious seasons of Epix’s Mrs. Hatt notwithstanding, Valerie hasn’t had a diverse career. For all we know, she’s only played landlords or actors who play landlords since the show started. True to its AI origins, How’s That? reads like a reformulated Room And Bored, with Valerie corralling another pack of impossibly hot twentysomethings around her property. But unlike her attempts to steer the ship two decades ago, Valerie arrives on How’s That? with a real sense of how to make a sitcom, and she’s happy to share that experience with whoever will listen. More importantly, she has the confidence to assert her know-how when challenged. It turns out, when she’s not trying to look like a diva, she has a great bedside manner for constructive criticism.
Tonight’s Comeback doesn’t rise to the comedic heights of last week‘s machine-gun joke delivery, but it does find truth in how it depicts the sitcom’s death by a thousand cuts. The spirit of collaboration, which Valerie finds off the bat as she records “Cherish The Time” with Tommy, is in short supply among all competing self-interests of the show. Writers who are too ashamed of the genre to write an “aww-ick” moment, and wardrobe designers too in love with their taste to serve the show’s interests, are examples of a larger problem. Everyone is in it for themselves in a genre that not only depends on a whole team of people to create it but also on a community of people to laugh at it. (Big shout-out to “The Spoonman” Mike Mitchell for providing laughs during rehearsal.) Moreover, sitcom writers have been so ashamed to write “aww-ick” moments, the emotional beats that connect the audience to the characters, that networks have thrown up their hands and are allowing AI to write them instead. Both Room And Bored and Seeing Red aimed for the no hugging, no learning of Seinfeld, but Friends, as the show points out, had plenty of “aww-ick” and just as much success.
Lisa Kudrow and Michael Patrick King aren’t simply using The Comeback to make light of self-absorbed Angelenos still hoping for their big break; it’s about paying tribute to the institutional knowledge that helps these shows get made. Valerie has that knowledge, and The Comeback wants its audience to recognize that. When Valerie says her character is not a joke, that she’s a real person who moves the story, the show is talking about Valerie. Her scene with her costume designer (played by Benito Skinner) was the inverse of the one from 20 years ago, when she was saddled with the tracksuit. Rather than simply taking a humiliating outfit for the sake of her job, she’s arguing for a more human one for the sake of the show. She doesn’t become abusive or difficult; she’s working in the show’s best interests and, in the end, allows that frustrating costume designer some grace and a second chance. Compared to how Josh takes the news that his “Mianus U” shirt got nixed, Valerie has the patience of a saint.
There’s a sincere respect that Valerie offers her fellow actors and crew members this time around. She doesn’t need to give an artificial, canned opening-day speech, punctuated by prayer hands, head nods, and filler “yeah”s. She can just listen to her castmates talk about their lives because these are show-business survivors. Frank (Tim Bagley), from Tom Tom’s kids show, Nicky Nicky Nack Nack, is still out there getting work after he assaulted Tom. PDP’s (Matt Cook) brother shot Valerie’s proof-of-concept pilot for Andy Cohen in season two. Sure, he’s now dead, and Valerie didn’t remember him, but she was able to pull that awkward situation out of a tailspin. It’s indicative of the whole episode: The Comeback has evolved from its cringe-comedy roots and found a more mature and capable Valerie Cherish in the process. If only How’s That?‘s writers, which are stand-ins for scripted television writ large, were more open to their characters’ vulnerability, maybe network comedy wouldn’t be in the shape it’s in.
To that end, there was one thing still holding Valerie back: her grief over Mickey. When she gives Tommy a taste of the old Valerie over her missing wigs, he stands up for himself and gently encourages her to move on from her mourning. Valerie searches for his ashes in storage, where Kudrow delivers a beautiful and heartbreaking few lines about not being able to see Mickey as he died of COVID. She returns to the set with the good wigs, when Tommy finds Mickey’s ornate and oh-so-Mickey ash box in there with them. Valerie and the show’s growth are all over this final scene, with Valerie scattering Mickey’s ashes on the Warner Bros. lot, on the very stage where his favorite film, Now, Voyager, was shot. It’s easy to imagine the earlier, cringier Comeback ending the episode with Valerie covered in Mickey’s ashes. We don’t get that here. Instead, it’s simply a meaningful and poignant farewell to a friend she was never allowed to say goodbye to. She can’t have everything, but she knows what she needs and how to get it.
Stray observations
- • A lot of “structure” talk up top today, but Dan Bucatinsky’s line reading of the button, “I was never supposed to be in the structure,” was spectacular. He’s always great, but he’s been a real standout this season.
- • “Casting, it’s what makes or breaks a show. Vulnerable actors putting themselves on the line. [Looks at vulnerable actor onscreen] Oh, no, not this one. I want the good one.”
- • Barry Shabaka Henley as How’s That?‘s prestige steady hand is a great get.
- • The Friends callout was cute, but maybe a touch too long. We don’t need to linger on whether or not Lisa Kudrow exists within The Comeback universe.
- • It was nice to see Valerie’s $20,000 Buddha statue from season one getting some use.
- • “Are you sure I have it? Because I have a record of everything, and I do not have human remains.”
- • We are going to need to see some clips of Finance Dudes and Mrs. Hatt by the end of this season. Additionally, we’re going to need to hear the joke that got Mark fired.
Matt Schimkowitz is a staff writer at The A.V. Club.
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