Curb Your Enthusiasm - C or D?

The middle episodes which had nothing to do with the plot (which this show seems to do every season) were kinda weak, particularly the one with the short limo driver. Rest was good though, particularly the last 4 episodes. The Maria Sofia actress was amazing, I had to look her up because I thought she might’ve been a Tim and Eric type casting.

Ultimately I’m pretty glad they only did one tiny Covid plot point, a show like this could do a thousand storylines on it but idk who wants to see that right now. I’m cool with TV shows just pretending the pandemic never happened.

cheryl hines is married to anti covid vaccine advocate rfk jr. larry introduced them.

“He’s a KENNEDY! What could go wrong?”

cue CYE music

MVP of the season has to be whoever does Suzie's wardrobe

^^ definitely agree

https://www.gawker.com/culture/susie-essman-unpacks-her-eye-popping-curb-wardrobe/amp

lol this look
http://imgix.bustle.com/uploads/image/2021/12/10/05ae5051-8a99-4b48-b66d-00fb4c8330a7-susie_11_5.jpg

"Stockholm Tappin'"

I liked Tracy Ullman's character; it was good to see Larry with a woman who had more to do than just react to his foibles.

she was basically Kyle 2 from South Park

Irma complaining about Leon by saying "He comes in all effing and jeffing" was the funniest moment for me

sounds like a tracy ullman line/improv. i have never heard anyone say that irl who wasn't from england.

I've never heard that expression at all actually

yeah it's a pretty niche english thing. people in the US seem to laugh whenever i say it. i think it's northern.

The episodes with Ullman get better and better. “Come watch!”
And Larry’s “she smells of brine”

one odd thing I noticed, in Episode 7 there is a poll volunteer (the guy who puts the pin on Larry's jacket) who resembles a young Larry David to a T. I thought for sure they were gonna try to get *him* to be the Young Larry replacement. I tracked him down, this is the guy:

https://twitter.com/ekleonard

and here he is in Curb:

Only thin pins for this kingpin. pic.twitter.com/EUBo2pwy73

— HBO (@HBO) December 6, 2021

I had the exact same thought

It's ran it's course. There's some good touches but so much in the new season is recycled or horribly contrived. "Larry takes a KKK robe to a Jewish dry cleaner" is a pathetic excuse for a CYE plot. Or Larry throwing away his shoes outside the Holocaust exhibit then stealing a pair of shoes from the exhibit which turn out to belong to his girlfriend's grandfather. Tracey Ullman is always funny and probably saved the season from being a total flop, but the laughably repulsive crone is a trope that I think even Shakespeare stopped using in his later plays because it was out of date. Anyway, Stanley and Helen Roper were much funnier.

Larry's "skewering" of #metoo where he videotapes his first date and asks permission for everything was seriously unfunny on top of being embarrassingly retrograde imo

I could only make it to the 2nd episode of this season, where the act of wearing ear plugs at a concert is for some reason treated like a faux pas.

Eh, I think a big part of the show's appeal lies in precisely how half-assed the story ideas (and execution!) often are and how so much of it functions as a w.c. fields-ish fuck you towards entertainment industry conventions. Like he has a long list of tropes that he passionately despises and has vowed to never come near on any episode, or if so only for the sake of doing a perverse take on such. Agree that the metoo thing was dumb, but it's not surprising that in a show based around multi-millionaires grousing about how annoying everything is that there'd be the occasional misfire

Susie Essman and JB Smoove save this for me.

"outdated humor, well done" is what this is and asking for much more is expecting chocolate milk from a bull

I've rewatched most Curb episodes within the last year and uh the plots have always been ridiculous nonsense

People complaining just don’t get it and that’s ok

Yeah I feel like at this point it's a formula and one watches it for comfort. That said, the Holocaust shoes thing was the only moment in the entire season that made me jump up and yell "oh no" and laugh as in the old days

People complaining just don’t get it and that’s ok

I wonder if part of it (not accusing people in this thread of this, but perhaps other people that grouse about the show fall under this umbrella) is the expectation that tv programs, movies, etc. should have didacticism at their kernel(s)? (comedy stuff, like standup material esp seems to fall under these expectations) Which gets weird because a. presumably we all learn how to treat others from a preschool age, do we really need refresher courses in this from by all things an industry that is notorious for giving us harvey weinstein et al? like taking ethical prompts from wall street urgings b. hbo has insanely lavish budgets to do shows like succession (which don't get me wrong, I love -- the show I mean, not necessarily the fact that so much money is dumped into its production) which would titillate with the repeated sequences of wealth porn but then does the "this may look glamorous but being rich is actually miserable just fyi". at least curb is sort of non-judgmentally amoral and respects the viewer enough to pass judgment or not as they might care to. and the larry character is obv a huge asshole, that's unambiguous thread running through the show. but also in a sense an everyperson, who gets as irrationally bothered and mega-pettily so by the same small irritations in life that the rest of us do... this post is muddled but my point is that I much prefer the curb approach to that of other shows which presume to have some substantive moral take when in reality the production team, others responsible might prove even scummier than the characters portrayed. like, cheryl hines might be married to dumbass crank rfk jr but at least she is not doing selfies with steve bannon/alex jones! heh...

The old ones were better. A lot better. "And that's ok." All TV shows nosedive eventually after 20 years.

Strongly feel that the show is done.

there are a couple other dud seasons but this was probably the worst one ever by quite a lot. yet there are great moments throughout that make it worth it; if he makes 5 more seasons at this level of quality i would consider myself lucky

i wouldn't go that far but I'd certainly keep watching

it's more Seinfeld S9 than Simpsons S9 - still funny if increasingly ridiculous and repetitive

the thing with Curb is that it focuses around one guy and a specific sort of plot. the fact that there are 110 consistently funny episodes of it is pretty insane on its own. yes there are bits that don't work, perhaps more and more as the show goes on, but I'll still watch it

really amused by the fact that Leon still lives with Larry for no real reason other than "he's a funny character". I think that attitude is what makes the show work.

Also looks like Cheryls got a bit of a Conway situation going

My husband’s reference to Anne Frank at a mandate rally in D.C. was reprehensible and insensitive. The atrocities that millions endured during the Holocaust should never be compared to anyone or anything. His opinions are not a reflection of my own.

— Cheryl Hines (@CherylHines) January 25, 2022

Ullman should come back every season playing a different character

maybe she could take over as rfk jr's wife

I'm catching up on season 11 and this show is still so fucken funny

really amused by the fact that Leon still lives with Larry for no real reason other than "he's a funny character". I think that attitude is what makes the show work.

― frogbs, Tuesday, January 25, 2022 12:25 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I mean, I think its pretty obviously that Larry and Leon are just super good friends at this point. They scheme and plot in the same way and have the same "my way is the only way" attitude. When they get in convos in the kitchen they have a rapport that seems even more eye-to-eye than w/ Larry/Jeff

sure, but Larry seems like the kind of guy who wouldn't want to live with anybody. I'm more just amused by the fact that the dude has been a central character for 5 seasons now and it's never even mentioned why he's living with Larry in the first place

sure, but Larry seems like the kind of guy who wouldn't want to live with anybody.

100%.

honestly enjoyed this season. I think there was a peak to this show, and that it was probably the first 5 seasons or so. I would maybe also rate the seasons after the break between 2011 and 2017 as being a little worse than what came before. but I still think this is one of the better comedy shows on tv, and this season was decent. I'll watch however many more seasons of it that Larry decides to make

I like the later seasons. The Seinfeld reunion stuff was great and by the end some of the most meta shit I've ever seen on TV. The Fatwa season was ridiculous but very funny. The last 2 seasons are maybe a bit of a step down but still great. How can you not like the Mocha Joe stuff?

IMO the Maria Sofia plot was the best part of this season, it's kind of a shame that wasn't really resolved. Seeing part of a pilot episode of Young Larry with this obviously terrible actress would've been really funny. I do think it's cool how so many Curb seasons end like a bad dream - everything falling apart at one moment, with no real way out for Larry. So they don't even attempt it and just move on to the next one.

It's Donald Duck plotting.

Was the Tracey Ullman character based on Judy Sheindlin? Maybe to some extent?

Forgive the thread spam, but I wanted to note that this show's 2021 season is nominated in the ILX TV poll, with voting ending this weekend:

ILX's Best Television of 2021 Poll / VOTING AND CAMPAIGNING THREAD / Voting Ends After January 31, 2022

If you like this show and you'd like to see it have a good showing in the poll (running in February) all you need to do is submit a ballot including it and your other favorites (3 minimum, 25 maximum, ranked by your favorite to least favorite) to forksclovetofu at gmail. It'll take five minutes; get to it!

walking into the la monte young exhibit ‘dream house’ in nyc and the only other person in there was Larry David https://t.co/ZQnBygSFiq

— Jeffrey Silverstein (@futuremyth) January 26, 2022

Larry David's now a crypto-shill

Hard to imagine him sitting down and researching it before accepting an offer to do a commercial. Not that I have any fucking clue how any of it works and what is bad and good and what the future holds etc.

Funny commercial too. I was bummed when it turned out to be crypto.

crypto companies think they're as revolutionary as the wheel or the light bulb

He definitely didn’t get paid in crypto.

"You did a crypto add Larry?"
"Yeah, what? It's a superbowl commercial!"
"You don't own any crypto Larry."
"So? So? I might buy some."
"You're going to buy crypto Larry? You?"
"Maybe I will. Maybe I'll make my own crypto."
"Yeah what're you gonna call it, shitcoin?"
"Yeah! Yeah!"

— AJG (@JimmyG100) February 14, 2022

Larry David's a crypto shill, Cheryl Hines an anti-vaxx apologist, Jeff Garlin is a workplace hazard...

Gotta say the next season of Curb is looking pretty, pretty good.