What I’m Watching: Curb Your Enthusiasm (Season Premiere)

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season 7, Episode 1 “Funkhouser’s Crazy Sister” (B+)

This show hasn’t been on the air for almost two full years and it’s still just as brilliant and funny as ever. Larry’s antics should be tiresome by this point, but somehow, they’re still hilarious. This marks the first time that I’ll be watching and following along with this series as it airs live, and that’s an exciting notion. Larry living with the Blacks has always been a bit of an odd plotline, but it provides a good catalyst for this episode’s several threads. Larry’s stubborn adherence to certain unspoken societal conventions (or rather, his breaking of and/or raising of why they should or shouldn’t exit) are truly fun. I particularly enjoyed Larry’s bantering with the doctor about taking the lemonade from the fridge and his subsequent stealing of most of Funkhouser’s fridge contents. His dinner party invitation theories were also endlessly amusing, and seeing Susie yell at Larry is always a hoot. Jeff sleeping with Funkhouser’s sister is a bit out of character, but watching both him and Larry categorically deny all charges is great. Larry racing home at the close of the episode to beat the doctor home so that he can break up with Loretta before she receives her cancer results is a pretty priceless typical “Curb” moment, and seeing Larry step on the gas and speed through a light in his Prius is a memorable, wrong-in-so-many-ways sight. Loretta’s cancer seems to be meant less as a dramatic plotline for this comedic series, and it risk pushing boundaries this show hasn’t yet, though I imagine this season will focus far more on Seinfeld rather than the Blacks. What I liked most was the meeting between Larry and Cheryl, which was actually quite nice and for once didn’t actually have a chance to say something stupid. Maybe they’ll get back together, maybe not. And maybe Larry will put together a Seinfeld rather to try to win her back. I’ll be tuning in every week for this fantastic show I had all but forgotten about in its long absence.