9/10/07: Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000-2002)This is one of
those less obscure ones. We didn’t even watch the season premiere of HBO’s
Curb Your Enthusiasm last night. The show’s actually been fairly painful since it’s fourth season. By then,
Curb Your Enthusiasm’s tales of terminal crankiness had become successful enough that Larry David had to start making it into a show about a celebrity—as accommodated by his spending the season about to become a Broadway star.
The problem was that
Curb Your Enthusiasm began as a great show that spoke to conservatives. The character of Larry David was a
would-be liberal with enough free time and money to get into lots of trouble. He didn’t like getting into trouble, but he also didn’t have to live in fear of offending people. There was a touching early episode where Larry turned into a social pariah in Los Angeles after injuring Shaquille O’Neal, and became blissfully happy. If we were in Los Angeles, we’d attempt the same trick by openly being a Republican.
Anyway, the fourth season became a show about this arrogant cable-TV star who enjoys making people angry. The only high point was when Larry allowed himself to look pretty stupid by not cheating on his wife with a hot blonde—but only because the gal was an admirer of George W. Bush. Of course, David’s politics only became more intrusive as his real-life idle-rich wife became one of the planet’s biggest—and most hypocritical—environmental activists.
But that’s a moot point now, since Laura David is following Arianna Huffington’s lead in bravely divorcing her rich husband and living off his money. Maybe that turmoil will make this new season more interesting. We’re not in a hurry to find out, but still gladly endorse those fine early years.
We were only three episodes into the show when Larry’s fictional wife Cheryl—as the show’s only reasonable presence—was disgusted to find herself at a party hosted by a porn star who told stories about work over dinner. The sixth episode further established the recurring theme that any kind of organized charity—at least, by Hollywood standards—is a big mistake and a waste of time and money. “Affirmative Action” was about a joke gone wrong on the titular topic, and the season ended with Larry in big trouble by yet again getting involved in L.A.'s endless culture of victimization. (The joke wasn’t that abused people need help; it’s just that they could stand to be less open about dragging people along while getting that assistance.)
The second season has Larry being judged as a misogynist and a wife-beater after he jokingly calls some guy a vulgar term during a card game. Larry’s proven right on that call, but it’s small comfort as the county comes calling to get Cheryl to press charges against him. Throughout, we're reminded that showbiz figures are creepy and insensitive whenever they aren’t busy talking about all the good they do with their charities.
The show was nicely in that groove by the third season—and, again, maybe it’ll be regaining its stride. Larry’s certainly had a good attitude about being freed from a creep like Laura. He’s benefiting from her Leftist stance, too. The
NY Post’s Adam Buckman recently noted the media’s willingness to keep Larry off the gossip pages. We all know that nobody wants to make a Good Environmentalist like Laura David look bad, but Buckman summed it up in a nicely pandering way, while reporting on the show’s new season: “[David’s] also funny—so much so that reporters participating in a recent conference call arranged by HBO to promote the show were too busy laughing to ask him questions about his marriage.” Sure, funnyman, whatever you say.
Make it your own: Those
first three seasons are available on DVD—but without a lot of extras, because first you have to make the show, and then they want you to come back and talk about the show and try to be funny about a show being funny, and you’ve already done these other shows, so you don’t want to be thinking about those other shows…
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If we remember correctly, the ad campaign for Curb Your Enthusiasm
’s fifth season included a tag that was a variant on this Barry Goldwater slogan. By then, though, you didn’t want to be like Larry David.
