| Product: |
Curb Your Enthusiasm - The Complete Season 2 (DVD) |
| Date: |
04.03.07 (153 review reads) |
| Rating: |
 |
Advantages: The best written comedy show around right now.
Disadvantages: The language used
Seinfeld was the best comedy series ever produced as far as I am concerned and after it finished I didn’t imagine that there would ever be a series that matched it, or even came close to the idiosyncratic nature of the characters and plots or to making me laugh as much as their antics did.
Curb Your Enthusiasm is in the same style, story wise as Seinfeld, and no surprise there as Larry David is the co-creator, producer and writer of said show. Each episode involves a number of situations that build and build until poor Larry ends up with everything all coming together at the end, normally in an unfortunate collision of events that leave Larry at a loss, once more!
Curb is a fake documentary style look, though it is a sitcom, into the life of Larry David, not unlike The Office except that Larry David is a real person and it is supposedly based a little on his actual life.
Larry David has been a TV, and film, writer for many years now. A big name in TV after the enormous success of Seinfeld Larry was looking for a new show to work on and ended up coming up with a dry witty comedy about himself. Starting as a one off special for HBO (see series 1 DVD) that was ratings sensation the series has gone from strength to strength.
The series ‘follows’ Larry during his day-to-day routines, meeting his manager, spending time with his wife and trying to get a new show up and running. The kind of things most of us do except that Larry is a well-known personality and a bit of an idiot (the character of George Costanza in Seinfeld was based on him!)
Larry David (in this series anyway) is a bit David Brent (The Office) like, he always seems to say or do the wrong thing at the worst possible moment, and that is the crux of the series. Larry and the misfortunes he gets himself into and the tortuous way he tries to disentangle himself from his predicament.
Curb is an unusual series for an American one, probably why it is on HBO over there (a cable only company who likes to push the boat a bit in the series they show). It is far drier than The Office but just as excruciating sometimes. I personally don’t like The Office but it does remind me off it in style.
The Main Characters:
Larry David – The star of the show. He is a 40’sish balding Jewish TV writer/producer/comedian. His hit show Seinfeld has finished and he is now looking for something else to use his creative talents on. How much of the Larry we see on Curb is the real Larry only his real friends would know!
Cheryl David (Cheryl Hines) – Larry’s long suffering wife. She doesn’t work and spends her time involved in charitable organisations and coping with Larry’s way of making a mess of everything.
Jeff Hine (Jeff Garlin) – Larry’s agent and friend, newly separated from his wife and trying to cope with that and Larry. Jeff seems to be way too nice to be an agent but his character is a more down to earth version of an agent, compared to the ones in Frasier and Joey.
Richard Lewis (himself) – Richard Lewis is an American stand up comedian and a good friend of Larry’s. He plays himself and you get the feeling that him and Larry are actually very good friends in real life as well.
The episodes
1: The Car Salesman
Larry takes a job as a car salesman and begins to work on a new series about an actor who has left a long running series and is always recognised as his character rather than as him. Jason Alexander (George in Seinfeld) plays himself.
2: Thor
After having had his tyres slashed during a roadside argument Larry tries to gain revenge on Thor, a professional wrestler. Meanwhile the meeting about the show with Jason hit a stumbling point over where the meetings should be held.
3: Trick Or Treat
Halloween and Larry gets annoyed by some teenage trick or treaters and manages to say the wrong thing to a friends wife
4: The Shrimp Incident
Thinking his shrimp has been pinched by a HBO executive at a Chinese takeaway Larry cannot let it lie when in a ‘pitch’ meeting about his series with him and Julie-Louis Dreyfuss (Elaine from Seinfeld)
5: The Thong
Larry sees his shrink wearing a thong on a beach and cannot bear to go back and see him, how though does he get away from him? Larry also offers a lunch date with himself as part of a charity auction, is that a good idea?
6: The Acupuncturist
$5000 becomes a magic number when Larry loans it to a friend whose father (Ed Asner) is dying and has left him money in his will. Larry also has a bet with his acupuncturist about whether or not he can cure his bad back. If the acupuncturist fails then the $5000 fee will be waived.
7: The Doll
At an after preview screening Larry meets the president of ABC and his daughter. Her doll leads Larry down a path of ever growing complications.
8: Shaq
Larry’s obnoxious in-laws visit and he becomes a hated figure in LA when he accidentally trips Shaquille O’Neal at the Lakers basketball game, injuring him for months.
9: The Baptism
Stolen airline tickets and a message stolen from Richard Lewis’ machine hinder Larry as his brother in law to be converts from Jewism to Christianity
10: The Massage
At a dinner party Lary is worried that a psychic there will ‘learn’ about the ‘naughty’ massage he had and will tell Cheryl.
Final short comment:
If you have seen Seinfeld or Arrested Development and enjoyed either of them then you should like this. It takes a while to get into and feels a bit strange at first, but as soon as you start to get used to the unusualness of the stories then you get caught up in it and will find yourself hooked.
Curb Your Enthusiasm is currently shown on E4 on Sunday nights.
DVD details
2 discs, 10 episodes, no extras.
Running time: 292 minutes
Certificate: 18 due to strong language
Price: Around £15
Summary: Genius, genius, genius... What else can I say!
|
|
