Lisa Kudrow is one of the most under-rated and under-used actresses around. She’s likely known as Phoebe by anyone who has watched an episode of Friends in their lifetime, and that’s just sad. Not that we don’t love Phoebe, but her roles in films like Happy Endings and Wonderland are revelations. And her short lived single season of The Comeback was one of the best comedies of my generation.
So I would love to say someone like Lisa Kudrow and her new internet buzzy web series turned TV series Web Therapy would benefit from airing on a network like Showtime. And it probably will. But everyone thought The Comeback would have benefited from airing on HBO, but they cancelled it after one season, which was, and still is, unheard of for that network.
To put it simply, Web Therapy is basically a showcase for Lisa Kudrow to be amazing. She’s on screen for the entirety of every episode, and the premiere was so brilliantly crafted and unique it left me in awe of her ability as an actress to make people laugh. Most people don’t know that she has the dramatic chops as well, but the Lisa Kudrow we love shines unapologetically in Web Therapy. She is, what they call, a natural.
The premise is simple, Fiona Wallice declares herself a therapist and has sessions with people through their computers. These sessions are short three minute rounds because she believes about 57 minutes of regular therapy is nonsense. So far, we’ve seen her chat with her husband, an ex coworker who has mixed signals about their relationship, a receptionist where she used to work, and a guy who finds out he’s actually engaged to his biological sister.
Fiona brings whole new meaning to the word ‘flighty,’ and she’s borderline crazy. The advice she gives these people is often schizophrenic, but always hilarious. It’s like a memory game of sorts, guessing who will pop up next, what their issue will be, how Fiona will see it and solve it, and how often we’ll see them. Web Therapy is one of the most inventive and daring comedies in years. One can only hope people ‘get’ it and Showtime doesn’t pull the plug without giving it a chance. The show is brilliant, and totally deserves not only respect, but most importantly, viewers.
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Watched the first showing of Web Therapy on Showtime. It didn’t seem as funny as everyone seems to think, but I’m willing to give it another chance. It was really hard getting used to listening to Kudrow impersonating Katherine Hepburn…
Lisa Kudrow is indeed an under-rated actress but even after “Friends” I love her!