Okay, I made a big hoopla about last week's episode. Yes, I stand by it and yes, I still think it was one of the best episodes that Curb has produced to date. But in saying that, it makes any episode that follows immediately seem like a let-down, and that's not the case here. Larry David gives us yet another great episode filled with him at his most cringe-inducing best. And, unlike "The Divorce" and "The Safe House," which were great episodes in their own right but somewhat predictable, "The Smiley Face" reveled in its predictability and ended up becoming an episode where things would happen that we wouldn't expect and it all came together in another bizarre episode for poor Larry. (And come on, the fanof. I read your reviews and appreciate your opinion and know you're a Curb fan, but a 4? No way this episode was that bad. Maybe the episode isn't as good as I'm rating it either… who knows?)
The smiley face reference comes from a text Larry receives from his new girlfriend Heidi (I believe she plays the "pimp" on Hung). Larry finds the smiley face to be an awful new invention that shouldn't be used but will likely end up being used in newspapers. His girlfriend is a hostess at a restaurant and both Jeff and Richard Lewis are surprised that he's "s***ing where he's eating," yet Larry seems dedicated to proving that a break-up should ruin his ability to eat at a restaurant.
Meanwhile, Larry's assistant is out on sick leave while her father is in the hospital. This means that his office is a mess, he's out of sorts and his kitchen is being raided by a guy named "Big Dog" who steals the cabinets from him and shoves all of Larry's food into one small cabinet. Larry doesn't know what to do about this and begins trying to get his assistant to return for a day to help clean. She eventually does, and wacky hijinx ensue, as one might expect.
To give away anything else here would be a shame because I thought it was fun to watch everything begin merging together. Larry was particularly curmudgeon-y, shying away from "cheek to cheek" hugs with a friend, complaining to Heidi about the smiley face texts and lending something to her and not getting it back. He also seemed insanely hostile towards Big Dog, and I must say, I love hostile Larry. Seeing him yank food out of Big Dog's drawers and freaking out reminded me of when Larry was freaking out in "Palestinian Chicken" when Funkhouser's hat fell off. There was also a scene involving a sunburn and the smiley face that is as awkward as anything that has been on the show.
Let's compare this episode, a nice, solid episode of Curb, to an episode of Weeds, which is fairly terrible each and every week and only warrants watching because it's been on so long and is worth following to see what happens (and for those rare moments when the show actually pulls off something fun). I still fail to see where this episode falls flat, but whatever. I liked it and I'll watch it again and again. I think Season 8 is on a roll without even following a theme of sorts, sort of like Season 1. Hopefully it'll keep up the quality.
