The Comeback Brings Out Some Hungry Paparazzi For Latest Teaser

For all my cynicism involving television’s cyclical ways, I couldn’t be more excited about the comeback return of Lisa Kudrow’s stellar HBO comedy series The Comeback. Though its premiere is still months away, HBO released the above teaser to get viewers back into a Valerie Cherish kind of a mood. (Am I saying that right, Jane?)

Granted, the teaser doesn’t really do much beyond flex the series’ muscled acclaim with blurbs, but we do get to see Valerie in action as she walks with a bunch of paparazzi photographers, all aiming their cameras at someone who is definitely not Valerie. (Can anybody read her lips?) While this is happening, the memorable “Give her another take!” chant sequence plays on, coming very close to inspiring me to clap and yell along. After all, it was rather unexpected when HBO and Kudrow announced that this series actually would be given another take for a second season. Celebrations are always in order.

The plotline going into Season 2 is hardly a departure, as it involves Valerie at the center of a reality show that follows her work on a scripted series. Only this time, the former star of I’m It! and Room and Bored will have a role on an HBO series, adding to the already meta vibe the show had going for it back when it first aired. I think all we need now is for HBO to actually develop a documentary series that revolves around The Comeback’s production.

It isn’t clear how she got the job, but Valerie will be playing a version of herself on a drama called Seeing Red, and you can be sure she will try and worm her way to the top of it with compassion and often misguided pride. It’s strange to think that even though reality TV was huge in 2005, it’s only in the past couple of years that “women seeking fame for fame’s sake” have taken over the sub-genre. How glorious would it have been for Valerie to join a Real Housewives-type show? (There’s no sign that she is still a wife herself in the show’s descriptions, though Damian Young is set to reprise his role of Mark Berman.) Still, to see her take on drama over a terribly-written sitcom will be a treat in and of itself, especially if she gets to wear that cupcake costume again.

Co-created by Kudrow and Michael Patrick King, The Comeback is set to return to HBO in November for the first of six episodes, with Malin Åkerman, Kellan Lutz, Robert Michael Morris and more also returning. Let’s hope Paulie G. is dead or in jail, shall we?