Last night, Showtime debuted Lisa Kudrow’s Web Therapy, or rather imported it. Kudrow’s bite-sized comedy, about Fiona Wallace, a former financial professional who restyles herself as a therapist—dispensing counsel in three-minute video-chat sessions—began online three years ago. The TV version expands the story and fleshes the characters out, but it keeps the structure of segments, a few minutes each, each of which build on the picture of Fiona: needy, passive-aggressive, and determined to establish her quickly-earned psychological authority. (Mostly by throwing around the word “modality,” which she has recently looked up online.)
The improvised comedy isn’t deep, but it’s entertaining, and Kudrow delivers a brilliant picture of Fiona’s brittle, overcompensating character that’s reminiscent of her Valerie Cherish from the underrated The Comeback. Kudrow may not be the most commercially successful of the Friends alums, but she’s the one who has most well developed a distinct voice as a comic actress. Anyone here log on?