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

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season 9, Episode 1 “Foisted!” (B+)

Not just any show can take six years off and then return without missing a beat. This series, which debuted fifteen years ago, is used to taking breaks, but the longest it went was two years between each of the last four seasons. What’s most impressive about this unique show is that it doesn’t even require any sort of recap when it returns from such an excessive hiatus. Larry is still Larry, always thinking about what’s best for him and not caring all that much how it affects other people. That’s truer nowhere else than in his unforgiving reaction to his assistant’s return from being out of work due to constipation, and his subsequent foisting of her to an unamused Susie. Jimmy Kimmel’s guest spot was typical of celebrity cameos for this show, just one of the people Larry knows who, in this case, seems to like him just fine and was happy to admit that he did indeed foist her to him. Larry’s unsympathetic text to Richard Lewis was typically emblematic of their relationship, since they’ll clearly move past it even though Larry’s behavior was truly appalling, though not so much by his standards. I like that this show is welcoming in a new generation of talent, starting with Carrie Brownstein as the foisted assistant. My favorite guest star of the hour was Nasim Pedrad, who I loved even more here than I did on “New Girl” and “People of Earth.” Ending the episode with her tracking Larry down to murder him after he ruined her perfect lesbian wedding by insinuating that her more masculine-looking fiancée should be the groom and she should be the bride was hilarious. And it was great that she charged him double for the haircut! I’m glad to have this show back for however long Larry wants to keep making new episodes.