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.

Just as every Curb fan has a different set of favorite episodes, I’ve seen a variety of picks for favorite season. Seven is cited a lot, but for me, Season Four is the peak and every year thereafter sees a little bit of magic lost, as Curb’s spontaneity gets progressively undermined by more narrative and textual preplanning, thus reducing our “buy in” to the show’s aesthetically suggested veritas and the premise it implies, while the central Larry David characterization increasingly heightens to earn bigger, bolder ideas — not in a way that goes against his basic design or is prohibitively unfunny, but simply indicates strain not directly motivated by the situation. In that regard, Curb is more naturally, effortlessly what it wants to be earlier. However, I, too, love Seven — not merely because it has a few top-tier gems, but mostly because it makes a crucial decision that helps temporarily alleviate, or rather, temporarily overshadow those mounting concerns. I’m referring to the Seinfeld reunion arc, which has an intrinsic value for fans of that popular series. But it’s actually a terrific story on Curb’s own terms as well, for it’s such a manifestation of this show’s premise, where Larry David is the real-life George Costanza, coming off the success of Seinfeld while navigating the world of Hollywood as a petty curmudgeon, surrounded by celebrities who also play versions of themselves. This arc not only addresses that exact setup, it also reinforces the metatheatricality Curb was always designed to offer, thereby providing additional support to broadening episodic notions that need a bit more sanction within the situation’s preferred trappings. Also, so much of Seinfeld is in Curb’s DNA — via Larry’s character, which is defined in relation to George and accordingly frames this entire series through the lens of a pre-existing awareness of Seinfeld, and via the storytelling, with its prioritization of comedic ideas and the complicated structure of dovetailing payoffs that Larry David, and his coterie of Seinfeld alums on staff, carried over from there. Accordingly, this is an inherently self-validating season of Curb that pulls out the figurative big guns to deliver big moments for the audience, all the while playing to the series’ situation more completely than it’s done in several years. Although its episodic ideas were fresher in years past, this is the most enjoyable season since Four: a clear triumph that suggests Curb’s maintained excellence.

 

01) Episode 65: “Denise Handicap” (Aired: 10/18/09)

Larry enjoys the benefits of dating a woman in a wheelchair.

Directed by David Mandel

Not selecting this stellar excursion as my MVE was a tough call, for it’s an all-timer that boasts some of the series’ funniest ideas and smartest plotting. There’s just another entry below that I have to single out even more — for reasons I’ll explain. In the meantime, “Denise Handicap” is a credit to this era, for even though it makes use of a Larry David whose lack of social tact well exceeds the initial depiction of his character in Season One (see, for example, his exchange here with the couple who’s just adopted a Chinese girl), it’s nevertheless one of the most laugh-out-loud outrageous-and-yet-believable showcases for him as he exists at this point in the series’ run, where his own self-centered aims and impulses trump both personal kindness and interpersonal comfort, leading him and others into conflict that he reliably exacerbates. Indeed, the strength of this outing’s ideas — chiefly, of Larry dating a woman in a wheelchair and intending to dump her before realizing he likes the perks that he receives when with her — are what uphold its excellence, all in reflection of Curb’s reputation for socially uncomfortable but comedically bold storytelling, especially in a well-constructed plot that builds to a climactic sequence where Larry is chased down by the two women in wheelchairs he’s been seeing (Anita Barone and Amy Pietz), along with a hot-tempered Rosie O’Donnell, in her best Curb appearance. So, by being a hysterical display of the character’s current state, the series’ special narrative style, and Seven’s capacity to occasionally generate fresh comic ideas, this would be an easy MVE.

02) Episode 67: “The Black Swan” (Aired: 11/01/09)

Larry is blamed for the death of a club member and then kills the course’s beloved black swan.

Directed by Bryan Gordon

Although some of this installment’s ideas can’t help but reveal Curb’s dwindling freshness — for instance, Larry berating a man who then drops dead is very on the nose for him and not original enough to be narratively ideal — “The Black Swan” is still ultimately a winning sample, with a character-forward design that emphasizes Larry’s reputation for being socially difficult at his club by utilizing a handful of amusing notions — like the central setup of Larry killing the owner’s prized black swan — all of which are consistent with his depiction and actually less heightened than elsewhere in Seven. However, more than just Larry, this is also a beautiful showcase for some of the show’s finest ensemble players — specifically, Richard Kind as Larry’s goofy cousin Andy, and Bob Einstein as Marty Funkhouser, Curb’s funniest peripheral nuisance. Thus, while I don’t think the storytelling here is at the level of the show’s best, its treatment of other elements within the situation is highlight-worthy. (Dana Lee and Shelley Berman appear.)

03) Episode 69: “The Table Read” (Aired: 11/15/09)

Production begins on the Seinfeld reunion show.

Directed by Larry Charles

As discussed, the Seinfeld reunion is an ongoing story that elevates the whole season and creates its appeal, both to viewers who love the explicit narrative association and are thrilled to get a de facto Seinfeld episode, and to someone like me, who appreciates how this “backstage” arc about Larry producing a special segment of the sitcom for which he is best known plays directly to Curb’s premised givens about his world and his character, all the while engaging that broken-fourth-wall metatheatrical ethos Curb was both structurally and aesthetically designed to exploit, with the actors on Seinfeld portraying versions of themselves, just as Larry David does himself. Now, I think the selection below — the finale — is the standout by default, but this is basically Part I to its Part II, with great ideas of its own that render it an MVE contender, excelling for the same reasons. Mostly, it’s fascinating to observe how the storytelling is in validation of both Curb’s usual style and that of the series from which it’s all descended, Seinfeld, as the link between the two is once again reiterated through individually hilarious idea-driven threads that dovetail. As for the comic setups, some of my favorite stuff involves Jason Alexander serving as a mirror and thus foe to Larry, and Michael Richards sending up his recent controversy in a plot that calls back to one of Curb’s running gags. In fact, this offering is a knowing tribute to both Curb and Seinfeld, with lots of in-references to both, via guest appearances from Estelle Harris, Wayne Knight, and Steve Hytner, and some series-best performances by Bob Einstein and J.B. Smoove. (Other guests include Vicki Lewis, Randall Park, and Eric André.)

04) Episode 70: “Seinfeld” (Aired: 11/22/09)

Larry’s jealousy about Cheryl and Jason Alexander threatens the Seinfeld reunion.

Directed by Jeff Schafer & Andy Ackerman

My choice for this year’s Most Valuable Episode (MVE), “Seinfeld” is Seven’s finale and the conclusion of this miraculous “backstage” arc that has temporarily restored more of the series’ intended situation, from which Curb has an easier time rooting funny ideas that also affirm its own specialness. Oh, sure, I can’t deny that it is largely popular for the same reason the arc itself is popular: it’s elevated by its sampling of an officially unofficial Seinfeld reunion. But, personally, I don’t care about those scenes. Or rather, I don’t care about them in terms of Seinfeld. I enjoy them because they exhibit the raison d’être for Curb Your Enthusiasm, as this is an episode of a series about the guy behind Seinfeld where he now produces an episode of Seinfeld, and it only exists behind the broken-fourth-wall of Curb’s self-defined reality, making for the purest display ever of both Larry’s character and Curb’s unique identity, as this corroborates his Hollywood world and showbiz history without subjugating Curb to Seinfeld, for it’s all only in service of the situation created for Larry David, and, specifically, the version of himself that he presents on Curb. To that point, the scene of Larry trying to play George in the reunion — the character Curb has told us is based on him — is the cherry on top of this metatheatrical sundae, breaking down a fourth wall per the implications of the series’ concept, while also reinforcing Curb’s premised givens at the same time… Okay, I must admit that I’m not crazy about all the Cheryl stuff (she’s never been great), but this arc was driven by Larry’s efforts to win her back, so I appreciate the narrative crescendo, and I laud how both he and his humor are kept in focus throughout — even at the end. Also, note that this entry sees the debut of Mocha Joe (played by Becker’s Saverio Guerra), another worthy foe for Larry, further cementing this as a seminal moment not for Seinfeld, but for Curb — a valentine to both Larry and the entire situation this show has built around him, which includes DNA from Seinfeld that not only defines this season but is also found within the series’ very bones, rendering this perhaps the quintessential example of Curb, Larry David’s post-Seinfeld legacy, climaxing here as both shows meet.

 

Other episodes in consideration for the above list include: “Funkhouser’s Crazy Sister,” a big-laugh installment that boasts a wild performance by the hilarious Catherine O’Hara, along with “Vehicular Fellatio,” a sort of straightforward (but funny!) exhibition of Curb’s sensibilities, deploying a few familiar story ideas to extricate Larry from his relationship with Loretta, “The Reunion,” which sets up the Seinfeld reunion and features the entire cast of that series, and “The Bare Midriff,” which has a couple of amusing, if aggrandized, comedic notions.

 

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

“Seinfeld”

 

 

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