What I’m Watching: Curb Your Enthusiasm

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season 11, Episode 2 “Angel Muffin” (B+)

Leave it to Larry to be so disgusted by the name of a dog that he refused to say it, even when doing so could have prevented that dog from being hit by a car. Larry’s antics here were pretty typically terrible, and his use of tissues in his ears to block out sounds he didn’t want to hear ruined multiple opportunities in his life. I was distracted by how much actor Dylan O’Brien, who I saw in the Oscar-nominated “Love and Monsters” last year, looks like a friend of mine, but I enjoyed how committed he was to his principles, newly open to the idea of working with Larry when he saw that he was a dog person and then completely out when Larry let Angel Muffin get hit by a car. Maybe it was his insistence that Maria Sofia play the lead role that prompted Don to double down on Dylan’s attachment as a must for the show, but his frustration with Larry obsessing over the toilet seat was enough to get him to cut ties altogether. I do enjoy the notion of a handyman who is so manipulative that he befriends Larry only to be revealed as an outright liar later when Dr. Thanapapalous told Larry that he never did anything, which his patient of course couldn’t hear due to the tissues in his ears. The notion of not admitting that you’re late when you sign in to a dentist’s visit was absolutely one I’ve pondered before, and I enjoyed that Mary Ferguson was so unwilling to give Larry her leftover steak because she wanted to give it to her dog, which of course ended up making the dog throw up all over Larry’s house.