The mockumentary’s best. .... She [Kudrow] is, once again, fantastically layered in her portrayal of Valerie. .... Both she and this season of “The Comeback” are made for this moment.

Kudrow, in her element throughout this season, is a tour de force in her final outing as the beloved star, reminding us that at the end of the day, Valerie Cherish has never really needed a comeback: she's been here all along.

The Comeback’s final season is an open-hearted valedictory send-off for Valerie Cherish, stumbling into the sunset as she goes. Despite a bit more bluntness than before, Kudrow and King give it everything they’ve got, capping an exquisite series of television. There’s never been anything quite like it.

Much of this season is shot as a conventional, non-meta television show, allowing us access to private conversations and meetings without having to account for Jane and her crew, or requiring the players to act as if they’re being watched. Paradoxically, without pretending to reality, it makes some things more real.

Not everything works: The series misses the heart it got from Valerie’s friendship with her stylist, Mickey (Robert Michael Morris, who died in 2017), and the season’s efforts to replace the dynamic fall short. But this season ends up doing something devilishly surprising: It makes you feel almost — almost! — nostalgic for the Hollywood it spoofed in the first two.

Valerie is the same, but the show has drastically changed, trading its mockumentary perspective for a somewhat diminished Curb Your Enthusiasm-style meta comedy.

This return is essentially devoid of humour. Our protagonist is no longer monstrous, the satire is toothless and the majority of Cherish’s interactions are exercises in trite sentimentality.