Okay, since Get Religion has broken the ice, in a way, I guess I can start talking about the new HBO show The Comeback, created by Michael Patrick King (Sex and the City) and Lisa Kudrow (Friends), the latter of whom stars as Valerie Cherish, has-been former 40-ish sitcom star, who’s been hired as a fifth wheel in a ghastly new sitcom full of sexy young things ("Room and Bored"), and is having the comeback attempt filmed for a reality-tv series.

I’m thinking I’m loving this show.

I didn’t expect to, and in fact hadn’t really planned on watching it at all. I mean…can HBO please try to think of a sitcom that doesn’t involve Hollywood? Please?

But I did watch it. And then I watched that first episode again later in the week.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Kudrow (whom I never saw in Friends because I never saw Friends) is brilliant. I heard the Fresh Air interview that Doug mentions and she describes the genesis of the character – whom she had created long ago, in improv. Just a completely self-deluded woman who is constantly humiliated, but who just comes back, stiff-upper lip intact every time. The detail in the performance is marvelous. In the second ep, she’s going to the network upfronts in NYC, gets to the ticket counter and finds that her hairdresser, Mickey, has no seat, and the only seats are in coach or first class. You can see her mind working, and of course, Mickey’s devotion requires no less than first class, and her final, lip-biting, bravura yet extremely reluctant  waving of her credit card and statement of "Let’s do it. Let’s have a treat!" is just perfectly delivered.

(The title of this post, by the way, is a quote from Mickey, who cheerfully yells it while climbing the stairs to Valerie’s-dressing-room-in-exile, far away from where the Sexy Young Things are hanging out)

The themes? Well, it maybe an HBO-Hollywood sitcom, but it’s about enough more to give it a poignancy and heft way beyond the meaningless sitcoms on network broadcast television. Valerie is ridiculous, but she is determined to maintain her dignity, and, up to this point, she doesn’t seem as if she’s got it in her to hurt anyone else in the process. It’s not just about the vacuousness of popular entertainment – it’s about the potential vacuousness of any of our earthly endeavors, and, perhaps unintentionally, forces us to ask the question…why do we put ourselves through this? What is it that we need from our "accomplishments," anyway?

Plus, Kudrow is fascinating to watch, and the supporting cast is crackerjack, as well. Oh, and the villains of the piece? The writers. The television writers.

Heh.

(Oh, and long-time readers may be wondering why I’m not talking about Six Feet Under…)

Boy, I really liked the first episode, but since then, I can honestly say…I care more about what happens to Valerie Cherish than I do to any one of the characters on 6FU this season.

Oh, there have been great moments – I love Ileana Douglas, and rejoice at her brief return, and her scene standing in front of the vending machine with Rico (what are Funyons, anyway?). Umm….poor George. The Catholic Singles scene in the last ep wasn’t offensive, and "Haven’t I seen you at the 10 o’clock Mass?" captured a lot. But…I just don’t know so far. Et vous?