In the summer of 2005, The Comeback ran on HBO for 13 incisive, prescient, hilarious, quotable, perfectly performed episodes. Lisa Kudrow, who co-created the show with Michael Patrick King, played Valerie Cherish, a faded TV star who was being followed by reality cameras as she made her "comeback" playing Aunt Sassy on a mess of a sitcom called Room and Bored. Kudrow had just wrapped Friends, and King had recently finished overseeing Sex and the City — but viewers expecting anything like either one got a surprise while watching the sometimes excruciating Comeback. Though the show had its passionate champions, and Kudrow was nominated for an Emmy, it was canceled after one season.
But HBO seems to be living by a Game of Thrones mantra these days: What is dead may never die. At the beginning of May, after months of rumors, the network announced it was renewing the show, which has become a cult classic in the nine years since it ran. The world had finally caught up to The Comeback. And on Nov. 9, we will get eight more episodes of it.
The new plot is shrouded in mystery. But we know that Lance Barber will return as Valerie's nemesis, Paulie G.; Robert Michael Morris will again appear as Mickey, Valerie's loyal hairstylist; Damian Young returns as Valerie's husband, Mark ("Marky Mark"); and Laura Silverman is back as Jane ("Jane! Jane!").
Hello, hello, hello.