Yes, the cast was absent, but "Curb" still owned this week. (Photo: Entertainment Weekly)
HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" is one of the best comedies on TV, but if you're already watching we didn't need to tell you that. This season of the show is its seventh, and the overall story for these episodes involves Larry David's attempts to reunite the cast of "Seinfeld" to get his ex-wife back. We're four episodes into the season, so how was tonight's episode? Read on, my gentle Examiner readers...
"The Hot Towel" is the fourth episode in the seventh season of HBO's awesome anti-sitcom "Curb Your Enthusiasm". We've been reviewing the season as it's gone along (click here for last week's big "Seinfeld" reunion review, the first in what'll end up being plenty of screentime for the quartet), so you know the drill: let's see how "Curb" was this week.
"The Hot Towel" took us back away from the "Seinfeld" cast members and back into the everyday life of Larry David. Part of what drew viewers to "Seinfeld" back in the day was the effortless way that David, Seinfeld, and the show's other writers weaved "Ya ever notice?" moments of everyday awkwardness into plotlines, and "Curb" has taken up Seinfeld's lead in that regard brilliantly.
Tonight's episode is a great case study of how David combines all these little awkward social encounters into a plotline: Larry gets his doctor's personal phone number; Larry gives a restaurant gift certificate as a present; Larry hurts his hand and can't remove a bra; Larry chastises a fellow partygoer for eating more than his share of caviar. All of these things are, by and large, unrelated. Yet the brilliance of "Curb" is seeing all of these things play out over the course of a half-hour show, collide, and effect one another. The gift certificate, for example, leads to Larry being upset that the people he gave it to didn't offer to take him to dinner with it. Telling on the partygoer (Christian Slater, holding his own on this largely improv show) for eating all the caviar leads to him being told on, as well, with potentially full-on-beating-style results. And so on.
Though the show didn't bring back the "Seinfeld" cast members that were all reintroduced last week, it's going to come back around to that plotline. Irrelevant, as far as this writer's concerned: whether or not the show is packed with guest stars from "Seinfeld" or pulling off the kinda episode it did tonight-- as perfect an example of "Curb" when "Curb" is firing on all cylinders as we can expect from this series-- it's ten times better than 96% of any other comedy on TV. HBO needs to run "Curb" until Larry throws in the towel.
My grade? A very solid A, but no "+" because we got no Cheryl, who I continue to proclaim a vital foil for Larry's shenanigans. Let's do the Highlights, whatta ya say:
The episode perfectly combined every plot point, which "Curb" only really nails about 75% of the time (other times, the way that David combines these moments can feel forced). Excellent work there.
- Christian Slater: More than decent at improv comedy. Who woulda thought?
- The conversation between Larry and his doctor regarding the "Accidentally on Purpose" phone call situation.
- The way that Jeff exploded when Larry explained why he felt compelled to cut-off their daughter while she was seranading Ted and Mary at their party.
- The moment where the woman on the street told Larry, "Smile!", and his reaction to this.
- Larry screaming "Shut the (bleep) up!" at Sammy the morning after spending the night at Jeff's.
We could probably list a dozen more, but in the interest of keeping this thing's length within reason, I'll stop there. This was just a great episode of "Curb" and a solid entry in what's been a nearly flawless season thus far. The Comedy Examiner's Office looks forward to more next Sunday, same bat time, same bat channel.
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Comments
Larry David is a genius when it comes to this kind of observational behavior. Watching last night's episode was akin to viewing a well-executed Virginia Reel - intricate movements leading to a ending flourish.
It's what he does best.
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