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...HBO series Unscripted (Sundays, 10 p.m. E.T.) looks at the lives of entertainers in Hollywood, with celebrity cameos and show-biz humor. That may remind you of another current HBO comedy. Actually, it may remind you of every other current HBO comedy. Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage are also insider takes on Hollywood. And Lisa Kudrow is preparing an HBO sitcom about--surprise!--a washed-up actress making a comeback...
...shows about the same subject is a coincidence. Three is a theme. Four, you're bordering on mania. After the election, we heard about TV executives seeking to sign up shows about the flyover red states. But HBO remains the bluest of the blue networks--as blue as the Pacific, a Santa Monica bus, a Dodgers cap--confident that its subscribers are unendingly interested in the angst unique to those poor souls unfortunate enough to have a SAG card. Nor is it alone. In March Showtime will debut Fat Actress, starring Kirstie Alley in a fictionalized version of her travails...
...Unscripted's case, Improvise what you know. The half-hour dramedy comes from producers George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh, who gave HBO K Street, an ambitious improv fiasco about Washington lobbyists that threw together actors and real political players. Here the stars are Krista Allen, Bryan Greenberg and Jennifer Hall, who play three actors--Krista, Bryan and Jennifer--who take advice from a pretentious acting coach (Frank Langella) and try to find fulfilling work and/or pay the bills...
...Mendes--are used to Hollywood fakery. It does, however, dip into show-biz-is-a-bummer clich??s, especially with Jen and Bryan. One story line has another actor horning in on Bryan's auditions, a plot recently explored on NBC's Joey--not the kind of comparison HBO generally angles...
Sophisticated and sympathetic, Unscripted has a lot going for it, including a crisp v??rit?? look from Clooney, who directs the first five episodes. But it also finds HBO--the network for people who disdain formulaic TV--falling into a formula. The network could argue that formulaic works as long as it's entertaining. But it wouldn't hurt also to remember that although all the world may be a stage, the stage is not all the world...