What I’m Watching: Curb Your Enthusiasm

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season 9, Episode 7 “Namaste” (B)

My wife informed me during this episode that yoga teachers don’t actually talk like that, but Larry has an incredible ability to make anyone hate him. I knew instantly that I recognized Tina, who I discovered was Alison Becker, who I know best from her role as Shauna Malwae-Tweep on “Parks and Recreation.” To think that someone would actually want to date Larry after hearing about him from Susie is crazy, but that was Lauren Graham’s censor who did very well with him despite his pointing out her few flaws during their couch discussion of how the date went and his iffy reaction to her son having Asperger’s, something that he tried to adopt to get him out of tough situations, a plotline that wasn’t all that funny. Where this show really hits its stride is with things like Larry’s low Uber rating which he blamed on the Romanian driver who got insulted when Larry said women from his country weren’t attractive and hilariously described how he was writing a computer program to change the rating. Larry expressing surprise that Jeff hadn’t mentioned his friend was black somehow worked out in his favor when he had Leon play him when the guy whose car he hit, played by Marc Evan Johnson, also a “Parks and Recreation” vet and currently appearing on “The Good Place,” was intimidated into agreeing to pay for all the damages to his car when he saw that Larry was apparently black. The bus storyline didn’t do much for me, and, funny as Larry’s assertion that, given two minutes, he could tell if Jews were Reform or Conservative, was, this show doesn’t really have that kind of depth and should stick to more surface humor.