The Comeback (Seasons 1–3)

The Comeback (2005) is an HBO mockumentary comedy you can stream online on iFILM, created by Lisa Kudrow and Michael Patrick King, with Kudrow playing every scene.

Valerie Cherish was famous once. Now she's taking a supporting role on a new network sitcom — the kind she would have dismissed ten years ago — while convincing a camera crew to follow her for a reality show. Two projects, one endless smile, and a capacity for ignoring how other people see her that never quite holds. The cameras catch what Valerie can't: the condescension from younger writers, the small disasters on set, her husband's quiet frustration.

Kudrow builds Valerie on the gap between what she says and what she feels, and that gap is where the comedy and the sadness both live. The show ran eight episodes in 2005, went quiet, and returned in 2014 to a Golden Globe nomination — which feels exactly like something that would happen to Valerie Cherish. Both seasons are on iFILM.