The Comeback's final season proves Lisa Kudrow's best role isn't Phoebe in Friends

Lisa Kudrow stars in one of the greatest sitcoms ever made, and I'm not talking about Friends.

That's not to say the '90s hit show wasn't special or that Kudrow didn't impress as Phoebe Buffay. There's a reason her breakout role was nominated six times at the Emmys, after all. Plus, it's fair to say that 'Smelly Cat' still remains a banger, three decades on. But if there's any justice in this world, Kudrow's legacy would be defined by another Emmy-nominated role of hers instead.

Following Friends, Kudrow teamed up with Sex and the City creator Michael Patrick King to develop a new sitcom based on a character named Valerie Cherish, who she developed while performing improv comedy in LA. The result was The Comeback, which starred Kudrow as a tightly wound actress who would do whatever it takes to revive her career. No sacrifice was too big in the pursuit of fame, and more importantly, validation.

Season 1 went under the radar at first, as is often the case with shows ahead of their time. Despite Kudrow's considerable fame and status in the world of comedy, Valerie Cherish became an underdog both on and off screen when the show was abruptly cancelled after just one season in 2005.

Mixed reviews and poor ratings didn't matter though when word-of-mouth and a new life on DVD gave the show a comeback of its own nine years on.

After season 1 pre-empted the humiliations of reality TV, following Cherish as she desperately clawed her way back to prominence, season 2 saw Cherish play a fictionalised version of herself on an HBO show based on real-life problems she faced in season 1.

Meta in both narrative and theme, The Comeback has always had an eye on what's coming, tackling insecurities in Hollywood via the world's most insecure actress. Twelve years on, the third and (supposedly) final season confronts what might be Hollywood's biggest threat yet — AI.

Doing all she can to stay relevant using social media and a podcast named Cherish the Time, Valerie gets swept up when execs ask her to front a new sitcom written by AI.

The scourge of artificial intelligence, which first helps then hinders Valerie, proves to be just as unfunny as you'd expect, producing subpar scripts that recycle jokes from decades prior. Thankfully though, the presence of AI doesn't hold back laughs when it comes to comedy in The Comeback itself.

The first episode alone will have you screaming "Emmy" at the screen between chuckles and belly laughs alike until you lose your voice. What other reaction makes sense when you're watching Kudrow pose for cameras with her picket sign while everyone else protests the death of their industry?

Episode two ups the ante even further with a new contender for the show's best meme-worthy moment. That's saying something in a world where Valerie's "Well, I got it" GIF went triple platinum in my house. And the ending? Without spoiling too much, I have never laughed so hard watching someone drive their car as I did here.

I'm as obsessed with The Comeback as Valerie is with her last failed show, Mrs Hatt, which nobody watched because it was on Epix. How Kudrow and King manage to make a show this funny and this relevant in 10 year intervals needs to be studied.

Much of its success just comes from how sharp the writing is. Centring AI provides as much opportunity for satire as it does for comedy, reminding us that "broken, beautiful souls" are what make art special, be it a fictional sitcom or a sitcom about that fictional sitcom.

But there's something extra special about the broken, beautiful soul at the centre of it all.

Valerie Cherish is a comic creation like no other, an oddball funny girl who's addicted to the camera almost as much as she's addicted to herself. Yet even in Valerie's most selfish or manic moments, Kudrow imbues her with an endearing pathos that helps our favourite narcissist transcend caricature.

Through every high and low, we're there with Valerie, rooting for her despite ourselves. And that's particularly true this time around following a tragic loss that impacts the show both on and offscreen.

Robert Michael Morris played Mickey Deane, Valerie's best friend and stylist, in the first two seasons of The Comeback before he sadly passed away in 2017. Season 3 honours his legacy throughout, but in episode three especially when Valerie tries to figure out where to spread his ashes.

Hyper-fixated on the cameras around her and the image she must maintain at all times, Valerie guards herself best she can, but there are slips when it comes to Mickey, cracks that give us a glimpse of the pain she's masking. And that is infinitely more heartbreaking to watch than an actual breakdown.

It's nothing short of award-worthy, especially one tiny grief-induced yelp that conveys more than actual winners do in an entire season of their respective shows.

Kudrow is masterful at navigating that vulnerability and how it juxtaposes with the front that Valerie puts on each day, from the moment she wakes up to the moment she falls asleep. The camera knows this too, often lingering for uncomfortable lengths of time as shades of every emotion flicker across Valerie's face.

But with such vulnerability also comes strength, a newfound confidence in herself that's starting to sync up with the fake confidence Valerie endlessly puts out into the world. What was once desperation has become something bordering on self-respect.

For all the humiliation she has endured — and continues to endure as "a woman of a certain age" in this industry — Valerie's fighting spirit has served her well, proving she does have talent and therefore should demand respect.

A clash with Benito Skinner's costume designer, on the set of her own show no less, pushes Valerie to hold her ground when he patronises her and refuses to listen.

When he says "I won't listen to an actor tell me what another actor should wear," Cherish replies, "That’s not what this is. It’s an executive producer telling a costumer".

That grit embodies Valerie's hustle, that dogged determination to be seen. And after decades in the biz, it's finally paying off. Andrew Scott's character notes early on that Cherish knows more about sitcoms than anyone else around, and he's right to say it. She's put in the time, working tirelessly while other trends and talents have fallen by the wayside.

And the same is true of Kudrow herself.

Just like Cherish could have been defined by her star-making turn in the '80s sitcom I'm It!, Kudrow could just as easily have skated by on the success of Friends and Friends alone. That mega-hit did make her a household name, after all.

Instead, Kudrow outdoes herself time and time again on this lesser-known, but vastly superior show. It's no exaggeration to say that Phoebe Buffay walked so Valerie Cherish could run. That's how special The Comeback is.

It's all the more fitting then that Valerie's new sitcom in the show is filmed on the same stage that Friends once was. The third and final season of The Comeback is a victory lap for Kudrow, one that might win her the lead Emmy at last and will cement Valerie as one of the greatest comedic characters ever conceived.

But even if Kudrow doesn't win all the awards, even if the viewing figures don't soar as high as they should, I for one will cherish this show always.

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