The Comeback - Seasons 1 & 2

Ten years ago, Lisa Kudrow starred in a TV comedy-drama produced by HBO called "The Comeback," but it was cancelled after its first year. Now the series has actually come back again, and for the first time on DVD, you can watch both the first and second season in succession.

Kudrow, the star of the hit sitcom "Friends," created and helped write the series with Michael Patrick King, an executive producer of "Sex in the City" (who also acted the series' lead director). The show takes a scathingly satirical look at the Hollywood television industry in a behind-the-scenes, mockumentary style by intimately following one actress, Valerie Cherish (Kudrow), as she negotiates the ugly ins and outs of being an experienced actress in a culture that doesn't value age or wisdom in a woman.

In the first season, which originally aired in 2005, Valerie lands a role on a multi-camera sitcom, shot before a live studio audience, called "Room and Bored." The star had made a name for herself in a similar sitcom years earlier called "I'm It!" (If the whole thing reminds you of Kudrow on "Friends," you're not on the wrong track.)

But one of the head writers, Paulie G (Lance Barber), has a chip on his shoulder and treats the Valerie abusively, exiling the star into the realm of a two-dimensional character part, the antediluvian Aunt Sassy.

In the second season, nine years later, Valerie tries once again to pitch her life as reality television, and once again comes head to head with Paulie G, who is now developing an edgy, autobiographic HBO series starring Seth Rogen.

"Seeing Red" is a self-indulgent comedy-drama about Paulie G's sex and drug addictions, and Valerie holds some animosity about the whole affair. That is, until the studio realizes that Valerie is the perfect person to play Mallory, the fictional version of herself. At this point, the actress has a shift in her perception.

The autobiographic allusions in this meta-sitcom are so thinly veiled that the series becomes a layer cake of inside jokes. "The Comeback" is not a comedy for the faint of heart. The show becomes so dark in places it is chilling rather than funny.

When it comes to the indictment of sexism in Hollywood, the sardonic setups in "The Comeback" are absolutely scathing. You realize the show is important if unpleasant to watch. Nevertheless, the final episode of the second series is so touching and transformational it makes up for the earlier ugliness.

In addition to every episode of the first and second season, this comprehensive DVD collection contains Valerie Backstage at "Dancing with the Stars," deleted scenes and audio commentaries on some of the episodes by Kudrow, King and Valerie Cherish herself.

"The Comeback"
DVD
Not Rated | 653 minutes
www.hbo.com/the-comeback