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.
There are no steep drops in quality between Curb seasons prior to the long hiatus. That is, the first eight seasons are all pretty strong. But every year after the peak of Four has to try a little harder than the one before, largely because the generation of funny ideas and the complicated plotting that are both part of this series’ ethos naturally become more difficult to freshly offer — the novelty is dwindling and excitement must be goosed. Seven ultimately rises above Six thanks to its Seinfeld arc — as seasonal narratives do provide value — but, overall, there’s a bit of magic lost every year. With regard to Six, this is the first collection in weeks that isn’t at or near “peak” — for several reasons. For one, the year’s arc about Larry taking in an African American family, the Blacks, isn’t well-supported by the series’ situation. Yes, it plays with the social discomfort that Curb has often liked to exploit, especially lately, as Larry’s lack of tact is being exaggerated in accordance with the need for bigger, broader ideas, but the whole act of homing them, at Cheryl’s request, is more convenient than motivated, and it’s not upheld by any other aspect of the premise — for instance, it doesn’t stem from the showbiz setting or the concept’s implied fourth-wall-broken meta (which has been downplayed since the mid-2000s got oversaturated with winking industry satires). So, it doesn’t feel like a Curb-specific arc. Also, Six sees Cheryl leaving Larry — a major plot development that changes the status quo and exists as a weightier narrative thought: one neither episodic nor confined to this season. But it’s revealing; individual story isn’t merely growing bigger and less rooted in the series’ trappings, there are also grander idea-driven choices employed en masse — ideas that require more textual premeditation. Similarly, the calibration of Curb’s performed spontaneity keeps moving away from mostly improvisation to something more heavily outlined. And while this is not a problem until after the long break — when the show now sounds too written to uphold its metatheatrically premised veritas — this trend can already be seen here, and a bit more in every season hereafter, as Larry’s character continues to aggrandize for more cumbersome, try-hard notions that he increasingly can’t earn for the show. Accordingly, Curb is becoming less intrinsically, effortlessly adept at playing with its situation. Six does not mark a huge decline, but it does notice these shifts.
01) Episode 53: “The Ida Funkhouser Roadside Memorial” (Aired: 09/23/07)
Larry steals flowers from Marty Funkhouser’s roadside memorial to his mother.
Directed by David Mandel
With the memorable comic idea of Larry stealing flowers from a roadside memorial arrangement for Marty Funkhouser’s dead mother, this entry is automatically a strong sample for Curb, as it’s got a delicious, conscienceless comedic notion that plays into the selfish and increasingly tactless Larry David persona driving the series’ complicated storytelling and its broadening laugh-seeking plots. Accordingly, this sets up an amusing foundation to showcase both the star and the show’s typical brand of comedy, with several small threads that build in evidence of his guiding characterization, while also boasting a smart utilization of the recurring players as well — including the aforementioned Marty Funkhouser (Bob Einstein), along with the Blacks, who are the defining attribute of this season (the thing that makes it unique compared to all the others) — rendering this a top-drawer ambassador for the show and this year, in particular. (Robin Bartlett, Mayim Bialik, and Lisa Darr also appear.)
02) Episode 58: “The N Word” (Aired: 10/28/07)
Larry’s retelling of a racist phone call he overheard gets him in trouble.
Directed by Tom Kramer
The inclusion of the Blacks — Loretta, Auntie Rae, and Leon (J. B. Smoove, who persists after this season) — is largely a labored excuse to simply mine more humor from Larry’s social discomfort around different types of people and, specifically, African Americans. That’s been a reliable font of comedy since Season One. The most explicit attempt to do this with the Black family occurs here, as Larry is caught saying the “n word” (the actual word) when repeating someone else’s conversation. This causes a lot of trouble… as does his accidental erection when hugging Auntie Rae (Ellia English) — another faux pas that crescendos. That’s also paired and interwoven with subplots involving Larry dating a doctor (as, by now, he’s single) and Jeff mistakenly getting shaved bald, as the topic of resulting discrimination is well-applied given the A-story. All of this is probably bigger than most of what’s come before — less affiliated with literal realism and the veritas Curb once implied (it also requires a leap in logic with regard to Larry’s behavior: why does he say the word, and not the common euphemism?) — but this is nevertheless one of the episodes that most reflects Six, with a conflict that this year was designed to feature. (Guests include Brenda Strong, Jake Johnson, and Ben Stiller as himself.)
03) Episode 59: “The Therapists” (Aired: 11/04/07)
Larry tries to win back Cheryl by manipulating her therapist.
Directed by David Mandel
Larry will spend all of Season Seven trying to win Cheryl back via the popular Seinfeld reunion arc, but that’s also his objective in this half hour, where his attempts to reconcile are ruined when he takes the advice of his therapist (played by a well-cast Steve Coogan) and gives her an ultimatum that she, of course, resents. When this backfires, Larry tries a different tactic — schmoozing her therapist (Winnie Holzman)… with a staged mugging where he can intercede and then act as the hero. Unfortunately, this causes Cheryl’s therapist to fall for Larry herself, which leads to him then feigning early onset Alzheimer’s, hoping that she will now encourage Cheryl to return to him, if only out of sympathy. It’s a lot of scheming with ridiculous results that feel like they’re broader than the series’ norm thus far, but all of that is in keeping with the more extreme version of Larry’s characterization in this era, as he lies with regularity now, and it all makes for a funny narrative way to play into the recent changes to his character’s situation.
04) Episode 60: “The Bat Mitzvah” (Aired: 11/11/07)
Larry can’t escape a rumor that he got a gerbil stuck up his butt.
Directed by Larry Charles
My choice for this year’s Most Valuable Episode (MVE), “The Bat Mitzvah” has Larry being the main driver of his own misfortune, which is always a good way to utilize his character, and earn the kind of funny ideas and highly stylized storytelling that are both crucial aspects of Curb Your Enthusiasm’s identity. Ultimately, this outing stands out due to its funny ideas mostly — primarily the central one that runs through the action, where Larry’s “tickle” in his rectum is rumored to be the result of him having stuck a gerbil up there — a gag that begins when he makes a sarcastic comment to a nurse. It’s a winking reference to a classic piece of Hollywood gossip, and associating Larry with it, because of his petty personality, is a stellar comic nucleus for an entry. But there’s also a lot of fun here with Michael McKean as a former Seinfeld director who helps perpetuate the gerbil rumor after he witnesses Larry faking a physical disability to avoid an interaction — an audacious yet character-affirming beat rooted in Larry’s misanthropy and his weak moral boundaries when it comes to navigating social conventions that bring him unease. Now, the end of the show, where Larry becomes romantically involved with Vivica A. Fox’s Loretta, feels like it pops up out of nowhere, but that’s more a concern for Season Seven, and the beginning of Seven at that… Prior to the end, this is a great Larry David showcase, with hilarious and shocking ideas that are right at home in Curb Your Enthusiasm’s ethos. (Other guests include Nadia Dajani, Mindy Sterling, and John Legend as himself.)
Other episodes I considered for my list were “The Anonymous Donor,” which has two big-laugh ideas — one of which is great for the Larry character, while the other is outrageous but typical of this era’s broader style (it’s the funniest Honorable Mention so far), and “The Freak Book,” whose title and central narrative thread are quite memorable. I’ll also cite “The Rat Dog” for the logline of Larry offending a deaf woman via mistaken sign language.
*** The MVE Award for the Best Episode from Season Six of Curb Your Enthusiasm goes to…
“The Bat Mitzvah”
Come back next week for Season Seven! And stay tuned for a new Wildcard Wednesday!