Curb Your Enthusiasm

Larry David always seems to find a way to make people hate him, regardless of what he does. In this episode, we don't have any Seinfeld development and we don't even have any Cheryl in this episode either, but watching the core group of Larry, Jeff, Funkhouser and Andy try and avoid being blamed for the death of the man's black swan was hilarious, and the fact that the episode only took place in two different areas (the dining club and Larry's house) was all the more impressive.



For the most part, the premise is pretty simple: Norm, someone who Larry hates and someone who hates Larry, passes away shortly after Larry and him get in a fight. While he's blamed for the murder of Norm, he tries to pass the blame onto a black swan that charged him later in the course (a swan that he consequently murdered with his golf club). Meanwhile, Larry must also deal with Nat and Andy and a stone mason who spelled his mother's gravestone wrong because of his cheap father.



Part of the fun of Curb is just watching how the plotlines unfold and affect each other. And this one really paid off. There was so much going on, whether it was the black swan, plots with Andy and Nat, the additional tip etc.. And it never feels like too much. I am definitely looking forward to seeing more Seinfeld though, especially as we get closer to the table read episode. But episodes like this certainly don't hurt.



And I thought black swan was the perfect name for this episode.. there was an actual black swan, and it also refers to a phenomenon happening twice in a relatively short period of time. So, very clever naming on this one!

I love this show week after week, and part of that is how Larry and company are able to pull off a lot of material that could be redundant but somehow comes across as fresh time and time again. For example, the whole thing about tipping could have went down very similarly to a few episodes back when there was the tipping dispute with Jason Alexander. A whole new aspect of tipping was brought up this week, again as a great comedic plot point, and it was just as fresh.



Other notes, I'm glad we finally got to see the stare down this season! One of my favorite running gags of the series. I was a little bit disappointed that we didn't see any of the Seinfeld crew or Cheryl this week, but the cast present did a beautiful job of making me laugh nonetheless. The stone engraver fellow was a bit over the top, but some of the best moments in Larry's work are exactly that, so it works. I also can't help but laugh anytime a typically peaceful animal attacks someone. There was also a lot of death in this episode and it was all made funny. In all, another great episode I'll be sure to watch again.

Yet another absurd, zany, maniacal episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, but I loved every second of it. Larry David was hilarious. the return of family members Nat and Andy David led to humorous results, and of course Jeff and Marty contributed as well. While I was disappointed in the lack of any Seinfeld reunion stuff, one thing I am noticing this season with Curb is that despite the insanity, a lot of these scenes are more relatable than past years. We have all been there with not being able to open a sealed package, we have all been frightened/confused by geese or swans at one point, and we have all been unsure of what to tip a waiter at a restaurant. But have we all had trouble helping our neighbors meet Julia Louis Dreyfus or take in a family left homeless by a hurricane? Probably not.



This episode was different, we saw Larry irritate everybody in his path like usual, but it felt more like something out of The Brady Bunch than Curb Your Enthusiasm. Lying to an omnipotent Japanese man about murdering his swan? Not exactly like breaking a vase in your house and lying to your mom about it, but you get the idea.