Curb Your Laughter! If You Can! (Curb Your Enthusiasm: Complete HBO Season 6 (DVD))

Member Name: spencer_hawken

Product:	Curb Your Enthusiasm: Complete HBO Season 6 (DVD)
Date:	26/07/08 (122 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Hysterical 6th season of the award winning show

Disadvantages: Are you kidding?

You would think that after seven years and six seasons that Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm would be starting to die a death, but though is a dangerous thing and David has hired three names from his previous hit Seinfeld to breath new life into the show before it showed any signs of strain. The result rather amazingly is that Curb is funnier in its seventh year than it has ever been before.

In a case of art imitating life, and you need really to ask why it has not happened sooner, season six follows the demise of David's marriage to the long suffering Cheryl who has finally said enough is enough and left the David house once and for all, leaving Larry to contend with a set of lodgers that he never wanted in the first place. At the time of filming, his real life wife said enough and made a sharp escape too.

If you have missed the wonder of Curb (I'll call it this, the title is too long to keep repeating) then firstly shame on you! Sadly Curb is one of those shows that people tune into during the mid section and really don't understand, but like any good show you need to watch from the start, and I don't mean season by season, simply from the start of a particular episode. Granted there are stories that carry forward each week, but David's personal philosophy is such that each show must be self contained rather like a movie, if the story is bigger than the 30 minutes running time, rather than spread it over several weeks he'll simply make the show longer, an issue that has created big issues over the years for channel executives when it comes to planning their schedules.

How each episode works is straight forward enough, a single solitary action rather like a snowball rolls down a hill gaining considerable weight. If you tune in ten minutes in, you won't get it the snowball has already been growing and the joke that to others is hysterical, makes you feel like you have missed on some very exclusive and very private joke.

Larry David in the show plays himself, it tells his story of trying to get some meaning out of life after creating a show that was a smash hit, in this case he created the world famous Seinfeld; and regardless of what he does he cannot shake this off, or move forward. Each week Larry tries something new, or simply gets involved in a shopping trip or private function and his blunt nature, and forthrightness creates this snowball effect I mentioned earlier.

The real issue with Curb is that unlike similar US comedy shows this one is for the adults, to this point it might well sound like something with its roots buried heavily in the Laurel & Hardy style comedy of the 1930's and 40's; but this really is not the case with David's show. Those of a weakened disposition when it comes to harsh language or sexual references will not enjoy this 50 something man's antics as he bounders through day to day life. In previous years for example Larry has been given a simple task, like placing an obituary for example; but due to spelling errors or his bad hand writing these flaws do not come to light until it's too late, the result with this previous series episode is that Larry makes his A look like a C on a obituary headed Beloved Aunt, this is only spotted when the newspaper hits the doormat.

In this season Larry reluctantly agrees to take in victims of the hurricane when his wife Cheryl (Cheryl Hines) puts pressure on him to do some good. After several years of what could be seen as mental torture, when Cheryl is in a life or death situation and Larry is only concerned with the TIVO guy's visit Cheryl decides its time to look at her life again and re-evaluate things; this leads to her departure from the David household, leaving Larry to deal with the Black family alone, a situation already infuriated when Larry unexpectedly orders a cake from what he considered to be an normal bakery (it actually transpires to be an adult bakery)of a black penis for a welcome to our home party, the Blacks as in name are black in skin also. As the series progresses he steals flowers from the grave of his friends mother as an apology to Cheryl and the Blacks, prods his unexplained erection into the grandmother of the Black family, is deafened by a loud flushing toilet, and on an attempt to date again after Cheryl has left accidentally sprains his penis before a date with Zena Warrior Princess actress Lucy Lawless.

It is a few and far event that if watched from the beginning Curb is nothing less than hysterical from start to finish, and season six is by no means an exception. In what in my opinion has been the best series ever I laughed so many times that I cried with each episode, watching these events unfurl that we all know in real life really do happen. If you have never seen Curb Your Enthusiasm before, or are a long suffering fan this really is the entry level season, and this creates a standard other shows wish they could follow.

The show has some great cameo performances from the likes of Ben Stiller, Ted Danson, John McEnroe, Vivica E Fox, Gina Gershon, Mary Steenbergen, Tia Carrere, Richard Lewis, and Steve Coogan.

The DVD contains all 10 episodes from season six over two DVD's, also included are a gag reel, a 10 minute behind the scenes piece, and a hilarious interview in which Larry David and Susie Essman (who plays Larry's friend Jeff's wife Susie, the foul mouthed Trojan of the show) bounce of each other.

The DVD varies in price depends where you shop from £19.99 -£24.99, a solid, hysterical, watch again bargain.

Summary: Larry finds himself on the dating scene, you know its going to be painful.