Jane Benson, The Comeback

Jane Benson (Laura Silverman)

On comedy-drama The Comeback, Jane Benson was the producer of a reality show, following sitcom actress Valerie Cherish. The first season was seen through Jane’s eyes as she produced and directed the show; she was seldom seen on camera, but her voice was often heard. In the season finale it was implied that Jane had a girlfriend named Lucy when Valerie came over to her house, angry about how she was portrayed on the reality show.

The Comeback was cancelled after the first season, but HBO revived the series 9 years later in 2014 and aired a second season.

In the second episode of season 2 Valerie sought out Jane to ask her to produce a behind-the-scenes web series for “Seeing Red”, a new show she was starring in. After season one, Jane had gone on to win an Oscar for best short documentary film, “The Hidden Women of Treblinka”, about lesbians during the holocaust. Jane had made the film with her girlfriend Joanne, but after a bad break up, she left Hollywood and moved to the countryside with her dogs and horses.

Jane was reluctant to get involved in the new project at first but eventually agreed. The rest of the season Jane filmed and followed Valeria, leaving all of Jane’s relationships off-screen and with little mentions of her sexuality other than a few jokes.

The second season of The Comeback finished airing in December of 2014 and in summer of 2015 show creators Lisa Kudrow and Michael Patrick King revealed that HBO had ordered a third season of the series but they were in no hurry to have it made and it will happen “when inspiration strikes” and the show “always seems to have its own timeframe”.

Appearances:

• 20 episodes.

Female love interests:

• Lucy (off-screen, unknown)
• Joanne Meyer (off-screen, lesbian)

Relationship story arc with a woman: No

No male love interests

Relationship story arc with a man: No

Male love interest after being identified as a lesbian? No

Filter Relationship Arc:

• None

Storyline during sweeps? No

[1] A relationship story arc is defined as explicit, developed on screen, and lasting more than 3 episodes. It is listed as questionable or subtext if romance is only implied, mentioned instead of shown on screen, part of a dream sequence, or otherwise not explicit for the viewer.
[2] Sweeps episodes air in February, May, July and November, the periods when advertising rates are set. A character is marked as "sweeps" when there is a very limited number of episodes that address their sexuality, all air during sweeps period, and the storyline is otherwise ignore/dropped.