Welcome to a new Sitcom Tuesday! This week, we’re continuing our coverage of Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000-2011; 2017-2024, HBO), which is currently available on DVD and MAX.

Curb Your Enthusiasm stars LARRY DAVID as Larry David. With CHERYL HINES as Cheryl David, JEFF GARLIN as Jeff Greene, and SUSIE ESSMAN as Susie Greene.

Season Five, the first collection surrounded by season-long gaps both before (2004-2005) and after (2006-2007) its 10-week run, finds the series in a post-peak state of flux, as its storytelling begins minimizing the regular use of its showbiz setting following 2005’s backlash against the glut of industry-set “meta” shows that Curb actually inspired. Five thus has to rely more exclusively on the Larry characterization to stand as a marker of the show’s situation in weekly plot, resulting in a broadening of both his depiction and the year’s episodic ideas, which are heightening now that they’re less tied to the implications of veritas once aroused by a more prominent behind-the-fourth-wall concept. Similarly, Larry’s lack of social grace gets more extreme — just as it did for the Seinfeld quartet when that series was also aggrandizing itself to earn bigger, less situation-backed hahas. Fortunately, unlike on Seinfeld, making the lead a more exaggerated jerk is not at inherent odds with Curb’s premise, so these changes don’t threaten the show’s identity beyond straining the aesthetic realism it had previously established. Eventually, yes, Curb’s ideas will become so big that they no longer feel as well-tailored to Larry or the show, but we’re not there yet. In fact, though a qualitative comedown with diminishing novelty, Five is good — it has a peak-adjacent baseline and a handful of classics, and it’s much better, comparatively, than Six, during which the well of fresh, character-appropriate loglines is not as deep, and the performed spontaneity of Curb’s retroscripting continues to trend away from improv, towards more heavily structured and pre-planned story outlines, thereby undermining the naturalism in its premised ethos. Accordingly, I appreciate Five as a less effortful, more ideal season than most of what’s ahead, capable of more well-applied narrative setups — including two connected arcs. The first, about Larry investigating whether he was adopted, doesn’t yield rich story outside of this year’s finale, but it is about evaluating his own sense of self, while the second, in which Richard Lewis needs a kidney, is terrific because it sees Larry trying to avoid a major self-sacrifice, allowing the show to comedically utilize his depiction for identity-affirming plot. So, in general, Curb can still smartly deploy elements that are unique to its situation — namely, Larry — to earn the big laughs it prizes, rendering Five another funny, gem-filled effort.

 

01) Episode 45: “Lewis Needs A Kidney” (Aired: 10/30/05)

Larry and Jeff both consider donating a kidney to Richard Lewis.

Directed by Robert B. Weide

Season Five’s arc about Richard Lewis needing a kidney transplant actually begins at the year’s midpoint, and it’s well-plotted, for it comes in to divert from the “Larry investigates his potential adoption” story, a possibly introspective setup for his character that’s just not as narratively fertile as it should be. Frankly, the Richard Lewis arc is a better idea overall, for it puts Larry in a dilemma that perfectly displays his misanthropic character, as he tries to avoid doing a major act of altruism for someone with whom he nevertheless has a long, established relationship and who is indeed part of the show’s “situation” as one of its recurring players. Specifically, there’s a lot of fun here with Larry and Jeff both not wanting to make a generous donation to their pal, and in the dovetailing of an incident with a guy who needs an alibi and the eventual altercation that puts Richard’s cousin in a coma. (Mindy Kaling guests.)

02) Episode 47: “The Seder” (Aired: 11/13/05)

Larry invites a registered sex offender to his Passover Seder.

Directed by Robert B. Weide

This installment has a long centerpiece at Larry and Cheryl’s eponymous seder — a rare unity of time, place, and action for Curb that’s enjoyable because it’s easier for the entry’s many narrative ideas to converge this way. The best of these ideas involve Larry’s belief that a cosmetic surgeon has been stealing his newspaper every morning in retribution for a previous paper-related slight — it’s a classic bit of paranoia for the character, tinged with the kind of petty skepticism about humanity that isn’t totally unfounded but always exacerbates his own problems — and Larry’s choice to also befriend a new neighbor who is a pariah since everyone knows he’s a registered sex offender. Both story threads make for the type of social discomfort and boundary-pushing subject matter that helps Curb stand out from its contemporaries through an identity-supporting brand of comedy, reinforcing its specialness as an ambassador for edgy HBO and a sitcom that feels less artificial due to its willingness to play with taboos. (Among the guests here are Rob Corddry, Stephen Tobolowsky, and Pat Harrington, Jr.)

03) Episode 48: “The Ski Lift” (Aired: 11/20/05)

Larry pretends to be Orthodox to help get Richard a kidney.

Directed by Larry Charles

My choice for this year’s Most Valuable Episode (MVE), “The Ski Lift” has the funniest, most audaciously inventive and also character-corroborating ideas in all of Season Five, and by the metrics on which Curb Your Enthusiasm most defines success, it’s a high point for both this collection and the series at large. For starters, I appreciate that it’s a good ambassador for Five, utilizing the main arc of Richard Lewis needing a kidney, along with a couple of great episodic notions that reveal how the central characterization is currently being utilized. I’m speaking primarily of Larry’s attempt to fake being an Orthodox Jew so he can schmooze the head of the kidney transplant consortium to get Richard bumped up the list, thereby avoiding his own self-sacrifice, of course — the reason all this feels motivated and worthy of Curb: it’s rooted in the conflict-making selfishness of its lead, the prime reminder of a sustaining situation. It’s also a terrific idea that plays in the comic sandbox that David enjoys, particularity this season where the question of Larry’s adoption foregrounds race and culture as a font of social tensions. What’s more, I like that it’s a classic sitcom construct — a farce where a character pretends to be something he’s not — but shaped for Curb’s trademark interweaving style, boasting an imaginative climax where Larry is left alone with the man’s Orthodox daughter as sundown rapidly approaches. Meanwhile, there’s another outrageously funny and interconnected subplot where Richard’s nurse is Jeff’s old girlfriend, who tells Larry that Jeff was not well-endowed. To counter, Jeff replies that her vagina was too big — an accusation that sets off Larry’s suspicious mind when several of Richard’s objects go missing. It’s absolute lunacy — the kind of jokey logline that this show rejoices in having, for no other series in 2005 was offering fare so unique and hilarious, with a character quite like Larry. A favorite. (Among the guests here are Iris Bahr, Stuart Pankin, Mo Collins, and James Pickens, Jr., with George Lopez appearing as himself.)

04) Episode 50: “The End” (Aired: 12/04/05)

Larry meets his biological parents and decides to donate his kidney to Richard.

Directed by Larry Charles

This season’s finale looks like it was conceived as a series finale, for it not only concludes the year’s arcs — of Richard needing a kidney and Larry seeking information about his potential adoption — but it also features past clips, plus a sequence where Larry goes to Heaven and encounters his mom (portrayed by Bea Arthur, a natural material-elevator whose sheer presence boosts this supersized installment). And with a story that has Larry meeting his “birth parents” — a gentle pair of small-town Protestants who change his outlook on life — the show plays against Larry’s misanthropy-induced misfortune by granting him an attitude shift. It seems like the entire plot was made to reach this funny crescendo — with the expected status quo restoration, but only after it’s been used to finally convince Larry to donate his kidney, the setup that enables the Heaven scene. In that regard, it’s big and not realistic, but well-built inside itself, and also in the context of the season, which was always working up to this point, where Larry is almost able to escape who he is and become a better person… before sliding back into himself. It’s thus a good character show that could have also been a satisfying end to the series. But it’s not the end; it simply caps off a year where Larry’s character was front and center as a result of his increased, evolving usage. (There’s lots of guests here — in addition to Bea Arthur, Dustin Hoffman, Sacha Baron Cohen, Shelley Berman, June Squibb, Hansford Rowe, Barry Gordon, Wallace Langham, Pat Finn, Craig Robinson, and Robert Pine all also appear.)

 

Another entry in contention for my list was “The Christ Nail,” which has a few amusing notions and enjoys being shockingly sacrilegious. I’ll also cite “The Larry David Sandwich,” which is notable for its main comic idea that also reminds us of Larry’s celebrity status, and “Kamikaze Bingo,” where Larry’s callousness leads to an attempted suicide — the most extreme example of Larry’s heightened tactlessness creating consequences that are not normal and everyday, but reflective of how Five consciously erodes his social grace to enable bolder, bigger, funnier loglines, many of them involving race or other cultural designations — this year he offends Muslims, Christians, Jews, Blacks, Koreans, lesbians, and the disabled. (Incidentally, this is the first year where David has credited consulting help from a handful of former Seinfeld scribes — and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that his character is accordingly heightening here to become more like late-era George Costanza.)

 

*** The MVE Award for the Best Episode from Season Five of Curb Your Enthusiasm goes to…

“The Ski Lift”

 

 

Come back next week for Season Six! And stay tuned for a new Wildcard Wednesday!