Lisa Kudrow's 'The Comeback' review: Strictly for returning fans

WHAT IT'S ABOUT In the mid-1990s, Valerie Cherish (Lisa Kudrow) was a huge sitcom star, and then after the show ("I'm It!") went off the air, she did what all huge ex-sitcom stars do: collect the residual checks. But she got bored and was hungry for a comeback. She got one -- in "The Comeback," a reality show about her life that she had to shoot as a condition of starring in a new and particularly awful sitcom, "Room and Bored." Its producer was boorish Paulie G. (Lance Barber), whom Val slugged during shooting -- caught on camera, of course. "The Comeback" got renewed.

That's how the first season of this show-biz satire ended. The HBO series (also called "The Comeback") that tracked Val's comeback was -- in real life -- canceled after one season (2005).

Nine years later, HBO's "The Comeback" is back. What's Val been up to all this time? Of course, she's got a hair-color line and infomercials to prove it. One day, accompanied by a behind-the-scenes camera crew, she goes to HBO, where -- surprise! -- Paulie G. is making a thinly disguised account of his disastrous relationship with her, titled "Seeing Red." Long story short: Val gets cast. "I'm gonna do my best," she gamely tells Paulie G. Says he: "You're gonna have to do a lot better than that."

MY SAY Valerie Cherish isn't the only one who's come back for this -- many others from the original series have as well, including her long-suffering (and vaguely amused) spouse, Mark (Damian Young); hairdresser and confidante Mickey Deane (Robert Michael Morris); PR man Billy Stanton (Dan Bucatinsky) and best of all Jane Benson (Laura Silverman), Valerie's ethically challenged "Comeback" director from the 2005 series.

Jane, naturally, won an Oscar in the intervening years (for a short on lesbians at Treblinka). Paulie G. is still an unlovable reprobate -- though trying to stay on the wagon.

And dear befuddled Val: As clueless, bumbling and narcissistic as ever. Nine years haven't added wisdom -- only the sharp reversal of whatever that is.

Hence, "The Comeback" is strictly for "Comeback" connoisseurs -- those who deeply missed this sad/funny mockumentary on the idiocy of show business.

But what's happened in the real world since 2005 will make this all feel a little passe to everyone else. The celebrity/reality show craze has pretty much come ... and gone. Great series have done great work with the reality mockumentary format, "The Office" and "Modern Family," to name two.

Most viewers have simply moved on, even if Valerie hasn't.

GRADE B

By Verne J Gay

Verne.Gay@newsday.com@vernejgay

Verne J Gay is the television critic