Wednesday, January 5, 2022

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

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season 11, Episode 10 “The Mormon Advantage” (B-)

This was not a particularly resonant or superb finale, one that showed how sometimes this show goes a bit far and is no longer all that entertaining. We didn’t even get the payoff of seeing how Larry’s master scheme imploded, only a dreamlike hallucination where everyone applauded him for getting rid of Maria Sofia once the ordinance was repealed. I also haven’t been sure that it would matter that much, though I guess it was more about the fine Larry would have had to pay than anything else. If you had asked me for a list of likely guest stars on this show, I would never have put Alexander Vindman anywhere near there, but his straightforward, by-the-books eavesdropping worked perfectly in this case, first to ruin Larry’s likelihood of success with the council following his phone call and then by getting together with the Mary Ferguson who stole Leon’s passport so that she could go to Asia with him instead. Larry might have ruined his chances right off the bat by encouraging the Mormon husband of one of the council members to consider polygamy, or rubbed enough people the wrong way by roping off his chair on set, but he had to steal shoes from the Holocaust after his absurdly privileged and ridiculous decision to throw out his own shoes after soiling them because he was trying to avoid Matt Walsh’s hug. That went a bit far, especially since they happened to be Irma’s grandfather’s and then she ended up relapsing at the bar and missing the vote altogether. Larry running out of the house and falling into the pool because there was no fence was perhaps the most poetic justice. I’d still return for more of this show, but this doesn’t feel like the most emphatic or worthwhile way to close out the season. I still want a series of episodes that take place during the pandemic and show how Larry acted in that time.

Season grade: B
Season MVP: Susie Essman as Susie

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