What I’m Watching: Curb Your Enthusiasm

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season 8, Episode 6 “The Hero” (B+)

It’s fun to have Larry in New York, and he doesn’t even wait until he lands on the East Coast to make problems for himself and for those around him. Being told that he couldn’t use the coach bathroom on the plane was reminiscent of when he got into a fight with the guy in the wheelchair when he told him that he couldn’t use the normal stall. It’s just like Larry to do that kind of thing, and also to take credit for being a hero after tripping over his overlong shoelaces. Predictably, Larry ruins his reputation by blabbing everything to Jeff, who in turn tells Susie, who in turn tells everyone else because of her extreme hatred for Larry and his rude ways. Taking his own food at the restaurant and brining bread to a dinner party instead of wine to stand out were among the egregious examples. Ricky Gervais made sense as a guest star on this show, and he lived up to his reputation for being a jerk, choosing a $300 bottle of wine after Larry sent one over to him and then charging $200 for the ticket he left for Larry at the box office. Getting into a fight with Susie because she took the end seat was no surprise, and, very often, Larry’s not actually completely in the wrong, he just doesn’t know when to let things go and ruins any chance of winning an argument with his idiotic behavior. It was a rare sight to see him triumphant when he saw Ricky and Donna being mugged and elected to subdue their attacker with his stale baguette, and it was only fitting that he got his overlong shoelaces stuck in the subway doors as a way to close out the episode.