The Comeback

The Comeback is funny -- not in a side-splitting, "ha-ha" kind of way but more in a slow-burning, "yep" kind of way that makes you wince because it's so painfully true. No one's more aware of this, of course, than Kudrow, who makes great sport of playing an exaggerated version of herself (who's, in turn, playing an exaggerated version of herself, and so on). But she also gets props for resurrecting a series that didn't quite catch on when it first aired but is still surprisingly relevant 10 years later -- perhaps even more so.

The Comeback is seriously clever satire, and there's a lot here to get teens thinking about the business of reality television, the desperation of our fame-obsessed culture, and the toll celebrity can take on a person's fragile ego. But what's less certain is whether kids can connect to Valerie and her 50+ problems and take the show's bone-dry humor in the spirit it's intended. So know your teens and the language they can handle, but also know that they might not walk away with the thoughtful takeaways you'd hoped for.