Lisa Kudrow's new series "The Comeback" may be the greatest miscalculation of the year by an actor.
The former "Friends" star heads down the road trodden by former "Seinfeld" stars into television oblivion with a "comedy" that's not funny, original or in the least bit interesting.
And Kudrow pretty much has nobody to blame but herself. She's not only the star of "Comeback" but the co-creator (with "Sex and the City" veteran Michael Patrick King), a writer and one of the show's executive producers.
And this being HBO (it debuts Sunday at 10:30 p.m. on the pay-cable channel), we know that stars and producers get to pretty much do what they want. So they can't turn around and blame network executives.
The concept of "The Comeback" could be funny, but it's not. It is sort of brave, however.
Kudrow, who spent all those years playing ditsy Phoebe Buffay on "Friends," stars as a washed-up sitcom star who's trying to effect a comeback. She plays Valerie Cherish, who had a hit sitcom more than a decade earlier but whose career tanked. She's agreed to appear on a reality show called "The Comeback," which could result in a starring role in a new sitcom called "Room and Bored."
But, it turns out, Valerie is just one of the candidates — she's got to compete against other has-been sitcom stars, such as Kim Fields ("Facts of Life") and Marilu Henner ("Taxi").
So, just to get this straight, real-life ex-sitcom star Lisa Kudrow plays fictional sitcom star Valerie Cherish, who's appearing in a fictional show called "The Comeback" inside a real show called "The Comeback." And the show includes real-life ex-sitcom stars playing fictional versions of themselves.
The problem is . . . Kudrow's Valerie is so unsympathetic, unengaging, uninteresting and annoying it's impossible to root for her. It's hard not to root against her.
There's plenty of room to parody reality shows, but this seems less parody than vindictive diatribe. We already know reality shows aren't real — you don't have to convince us.
It would have been a better idea to make us laugh. (Well, there is the occasional one-liner that will bring at least a smile — and sometimes a laugh — but those are few and far between.)
And, frankly, even the phoniest behavior on the phoniest reality show seems at least as real as the characters on "The Comeback." Kudrow never for one second convinces us that she's Valerie Cherish — it's impossible not to see her as Kudrow playing a character.
Kudrow is sort of equally unconvincing in person. Appearing before a room full of TV critics several months ago, she acted as if the parallels between herself as a former sitcom star and the fictional former sitcom star she plays on "The Comeback" had never occurred to her. "No . . . it was just something that made me laugh, to be honest," she insisted.
I was bored to death after two episodes. I can't imagine sitting through the other 11 that HBO has scheduled.
KUDROW RECOVERED QUICKLY from the end of "Friends." Which is a bit surprising, given that a year ago she was telling us how deeply she was mourning.
"Well, when I was talking with you all, I was already mourning it," she said, "and I pretty much left kicking and screaming.
"And, so, the minute it was over, I was fine. As it turns out, I was fun and I was shocked."
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com