In her struggle to balance work and family (a long-suffering, disaffected husband; a spoiled, contemptuous step-daughter; and a disaffected housekeeper) and friend (her closeted hairdresser and stylist who loves Bob Mackie without an ounce of irony), Valerie makes constant errors of judgment—personal, sartorial, and professional. Kudrow, a gifted actress who looks wonderful and also looks her age in the age of Botox, fearlessly inhabits a character who elicits considerable unease in viewers. Indeed, this unease elicited criticism from some reviewers who found the show unwatchable. Interesting, since Hollywood likes to reward beautiful actresses who hide or distort their beauty (see, most recently, Halle Berry in Monster Ball and Charlize Theron in Monster). Yet Kudrow in The Comeback does something a bit different and less readily acceptable for female performers. She plays a beautiful, stylish woman who is rather unpleasant and unpleasing on the inside . . . but Valerie is no monster. Indeed, the audience is still asked to root for her . . . because of her flaws. She is not the female satellite circling a male protagonist; the beautiful, young, unattached female protagonist; the earth mother/wife; the ugly yet entertaining villain; or the lovable yet flawed sidekick. Valerie Cherish is a fully realized female protagonist/star, warts and all. We have too few of those on the screen, both big and small, which makes the loss of this character all the more unfortunate.
Ultimately, the show pivots upon Cherish’s increasingly acrimonious relationship with her sitcom Room and Bored’s co-head writer Paulie G., played to loathsome perfection by Lance Barber. Cherish’s successive attempts to augment and shape her role as Aunt Sassy antagonize the angry, overweight, and misogynistic Paulie G. who believes that Room and Bored is beneath his talents and that Cherish is a foolish has-been to be humiliated. Acclaimed television producer, director, and writer James Burrows appears to great effect as a version of himself who attempts to set Valerie straight about her place on her new sitcom—she is Aunt Sassy, the rather pathetic comic foil to the show’s four hot, young stars. Aunt Sassy pops up only now and again to be mocked for her age, appearance, and single status (think Mrs. Roper from Three’s Company). But Burrow’s efforts are to no avail; Valerie is determined to recapture her place in the sitcom sun.
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