Now that Curb has hit a fever pitch for the current season (no pun intended considering this baseball-centric past two episodes) it seems like a good time to start looking at this season as a whole, and in regard to the entire series. First, why do I say that last night’s episode represents a high point for the season? Because it had everything. There was the hit gag that ended up spanning the entire episode; The Mr. Softee theme affecting Larry’s sexual performance was unforgettable. There continued strengthening of inter-character relationships, with Larry disappointing Jeff once again and having to watch in horror as Susie climaxed in his car. Then, with whole Bill Buckner loses the Mookie ball but catches the flying baby fiasco, we had the classic zeitgeist joke, where they take a celebrity that’s known for a certain thing and turn that thing on it’s head. Finally, the episode gave us a bit of slapstick with the car seat that’s so shaky it’s practically a Sybian. In short, last night’s episode had all the ingredients for a classic Seinfeld episode. When Curb began, naysayers said, “Curb is funny but it’s no Seinfeld.” This season almost seems like Larry David’s response to those people.
Without a doubt, this has been one of the funniest seasons of the series. Could it be, as we’ve asserted all along, that Larry in New York is simply a better equation for comedy than Larry in LA? They say that the Curb follows Larry David’s actual life for the past few years, and that being the case, it seems as though we’re reaching the years in Larry’s life where he reaches a certain peace. Of course, his every day existence is filled with rickety car seats, vengeful auto-mechanics, clutzy-kishka-eating baseball players and of course, women that don’t want to sleep with him, but beyond all those things, there seems to be an extra spring in our hero’s step this season. Among the many inscrutable observations this season, this week added the “black men with glasses theory” that gave us some excellent Leon time. Also, the introduction of therapist (or prostitute, either way) added some much welcomed perspective on Larry’s psyche. With each episode, the show seems to gain steam.
Is anything missing this season? Maybe. The one very noticeable void is the lack of foreword movement in the plot. With the sudden realization that the season is almost over, it seems odd that there’s been little evolution in the Larry story. Each episode he’s dating a new woman, fighting with Susie, lunching with Jeff, but there doesn’t seem to be any stakes dangling over Larry’s bald head this year.
I’m not sure why, but Curb Your Enthusiasm has had multiple false ends. Each season, for the past three or so seasons, it’s been rumored that the show is about to end. When Larry sat down on the couch with the Black family, it seemed a acceptable ending for the show considering that the major criticism of Seinfeld was it’s lack of black characters. Then, with last season’s Seinfeld reunion, people also seemed to mistake the season finale for a series finale. Does the lack of stakes this season represent the end of the road CYE? Are we going to have to sit shiva for the series the series that saved comedy? Well?
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