Everyone's favorite
miserable millionaire is back for another season of unparalleled
hilarity. This year, in addition to buying and settling into a new
house, Larry manages to send Shaquille O'Neal to the hospital,
offend a fellow Jewish neighbor, aggravate a professional
wrestler, give an unwanted haircut to a doll, and much, much more.
Once again, Larry David has assembled a brilliant supporting cast
-Cheryl Hines, Jeff Garlin, Wanda Sykes, Richard Lewis, Susie
Essman - to realize his vision of a world that is comprised of one
unfortunate misunderstanding after another.
CRITIQUE
Larry David is a
funny man. He pretty much plays himself in Curb Your Enthusiasm,
and constructs the show around himself as he gets into all sorts
of embarrassing, ridiculous, and self-inflicting situations. The
show takes its humor from really simple things: people's reactions
to Larry's actions, miscommunications between Larry and others,
Larry's skewed sense of humor, his quirky demands and unfavorable
insults, and, well, the list goes on.
The second season of
Curb Your Enthusiasm develops somewhat of a story arc that
involves Larry pitching a new show. At first he gets together with
fellow Seinfeld co-star Jason Alexander, because the actor
can't find any work due to everyone identifying him as George
Costanza from Seinfeld. Larry comes up with an idea for a
show that follows around an actor (like Jason) who used to be on a
popular sitcom but can't find any more work after it's over.
Alexander likes the idea, but by the second episode (Thor)
both men have a disagreement over where to hold their meetings;
Larry being Larry, he doesn't feel like driving over to
Alexander's office every time.
In the fourth
episode (The Shrimp Incident), Larry teams up with Julia
Louis-Dreyfus to pitch their new show to HBO. However, Larry
suspects that exec Allan Wasserman has lifted some shrimp from his
Chinese food take-out earlier, and so Larry is not content with
staying silent, which leads to an unfavorable outcome of the pitch
meeting. If that's not enough, Larry is labeled a misogynist and
apparently beats his wife according to "eyewitnesses". This is
easily the season's funniest episode, although Curb Your
Enthusiasm is very funny all-around. The remaining episodes
are funny too, just in different ways, some of which you probably
won't believe.
One more fantastic
aspect about Curb Your Enthusiasm, besides Larry David being
totally convincing as a kind of a schmuck and regular Joe, is the
supporting cast. Cheryl Hines, who plays Larry's wife, is practically
perfect. It's funny to see her reactions and the way she keeps her
composure every time Larry has one of his wordy outbursts (well, the
more ridiculous kinds of outbursts). Jeff Garlin is great as Larry's
agent Jeff Greene, and so is Susie Essman who plays Jeff's volatile
wife. Guest star Richard Lewis is terrific, but I didn't much care for
Wanda Sykes' appearance. Also, the show's directing team does an
altogether marvelous job.
Larry David's
sense of comedy is very much appreciated and original. I think
there are hardly any sitcoms or comedy shows on the air right now
that offer laughs as genuinely as this show. A lot of the show is
improvised except for a basic outline that gives the actors
direction where to take their dialogue and actions. This results
in a hilarious, fresh, and original show. You absolutely can't go
wrong with Curb Your Enthusiasm if you love to laugh... at
others.
THE VIDEO
HBO presents Curb Your
Enthusiasm in 1.33:1 fullscreen format. Colors look good,
image quality is pretty much average, and there really aren't
any major flaws. Some images appear a bit soft and there is
slight shimmering in a few cases, but overall I have no
complaints. A perfectly fine presentation for a TV show.
Optional subtitles include English, French, and Spanish. Closed
Captioning is also available.
THE AUDIO
HBO presents Curb Your
Enthusiasm in English 2.0 Dolby Surround. Dialogue is clear
and easy to understand, as is the music and the few sound
effects. Everything comes from the front, which is perfectly
suitable for this show. A French 2.0 dub track is also
available, plus it's kind of funny to hear Larry in French.
THE EXTRAS
Well, there are no
extras here except previews for all ten episodes. I do
have to say the menus are kind of nice, but that's no
consolation really.
The packaging is
kind of neat, something I've never seen before. There's a tab at
the bottom of the package that you can pull and two thin plastic
cases will emerge from either side. Easy and practical.
FINAL THOUGHTS
HBO's video/audio
presentations are fine, but the complete lack of bonus material is
very disappointing. I would've loved at least a commentary or two,
maybe some outtakes as well. I will say that $39 is a bit steep for a
2-disc DVD with no extras, but most online retailers make it available
for about $27. The DVD comes recommended because the show alone
is worth it.
