TV Review: Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 7

In Season 7 of Larry David’s critically acclaimed Curb Your Enthusiasm, the fans get what they want – sort of. The arc of the season was all geared towards a fictional Seinfeld reunion; a show within a show and postmodern narrative techniques pushed just about as far as they can go without becoming nauseating. But was this season any good any did it compare favorably to previous seasons?

Most seasons of Curb have been hit and miss, truth be told. There are some fabulously clever and amusing episodes and there are some that are far too concerned with shocking an audience than entertaining it. This season is no exception but it thankfully scores more than it misses. The first episode centers around the simply excellent Catherine O’ Hara who plays Marty Funkhouser’s mentally unstable sister. This is followed by the hilarious ‘Vehicular Fellatio’ episode which has all the hallmarks of a trademark Larry David classic with dovetailing storylines and crude subject matter.

What is unfortunate is that Larry David has an almost arrogant tendency to try and derive humor from traditionally difficult subjects; there is a line that he often crosses in order to infuriate and shock. Sometimes, this approach falls flat and season 7 has its moments that don’t work for this reason.

But what the people come to see with this season of Curb is the Seinfeld reunion plotline and this is handled expertly for the most part. All four original principles are in superlative form while playing themselves and demonstrating their conflicts with the eternally infuriating Larry, and they are equally at ease when they step back into the shoes of characters they haven’t played for eleven years, much to the delight of everyone watching. The story comes about as Larry devises a plan whereby he hopes to re-connect with his estranged wife Cheryl by casting her in the role of George’s wife in the Seinfeld reunion.

The show within a show aspect delivers many fantastic comedic situations, for example having Curb cast members interacting with their Seinfeld counterparts. One choice moment takes place in the season’s penultimate episode when the sensational Marty Funkhouser tells Jerry Seinfeld an incredibly joke. Other incidents involve Larry’s relationship with each of his principle cast members; the conflict between himself and Jason Alexander is especially brilliant.

Special praise has to be reserved for some of the acting in this season of Curb. The Seinfeld cast members are astonishingly good at stepping back into characters they said goodbye to eleven years ago, yet at the same time they play versions off themselves ‘off-set’ that are equally as impressive. Michael Richards in particular does an excellent job of teasing that he may not be capable of being Kramer again and of course in the final episode the hair and the white socks and the sliding door entrance are all back from the past as though he’d been Cosmo Kramer all his life. Cheryl Hines is probably as good as she’s ever been in this season; the way she plays Cheryl David’s acting ability as being good but not quite as good as her fellow Seinfeld cast members is mightily impressive and extremely difficult to do.

Larry David the character is acutely aware that the people want to see Seinfeld and not as much of him. But if only he’d backed off a little more than he does in this finale; it is bogged down by a rather weak Mocha Joe favor storyline. People love that sort of thing in regular episodes of Curb but not in the one they’ve waited eleven years for. David’s intention was clearly to give a glimpse of the show now rather than to risk overexposing a reunion, but some fans may have been disappointed there wasn’t more Seinfeld in the finale. But as Curb finales go, this is probably in third place behind the opening nights of the restaurant and The Producers respectively. But this one has the nostalgia factor that makes it just as enjoyable.

But all in all, what works as usual is untouchable in other series’ on television and with all the copycats this show has spawned (the UK alone has dozens), none of them can hold a candle to Curb Your Enthusiasm. Season 7 only cements that assertion.