Diary of a Curb Your Enthusiasm virgin – Incurring the wrath of Jason?

(Season 2, Episodes 3-4)

I was about to write about how understandable it is for a show with no discernible overarching theme to ride the “episode quality” pendulum as wildly as Curb Your Enthusiasm does, but then I thought about all of the sitcoms that I continue to enjoy even in excessive repeats, and I began to rethink the pass I was ready to give Curb. So what gives?

2.3 “Trick or Treat”

The only thing of any interest to me here was that Larry started considering bringing the project he’d thought up with and for Jason Alexander — about an actor who can’t grow their career after playing a George Costanza-like character on a beloved show — to Julia Louis-Dreyfus. I can only imagine how Jason will react, especially after watching him and Larry go at it over a meeting location (the reason that Larry considered ditching Jason for the project in the first place).

The rest? There was the guy who alleged that his ancestor created the Cobb salad (And?), the costume-less teens who came to Larry’s house on Halloween looking for candy and subsequently vandalized his house after being turned away, and Cheryl’s birthday (non)-extravaganza. I guess the Cobb salad guy’s wife thinking that Larry was initiating an affair with her was kind of funny, but mostly I was waiting for this one to end.

2.4 “The Shrimp Incident”

Okay … there was some traction to this one, certainly a breath of fresh air after the last episode. I liked seeing Larry go head-to-head with the HBO executive while meeting with HBO about his Julia Louis-Dreyfus project. The guy’s such an idiot … although the illusion of psychosis is somewhat shattered by the fact that he doesn’t need another TV show, so he’s not actually “throwing it all away” in that sense … ruining someone else’s chances at grand success, yes, but not as far as he’s concerned. But still, over a bunch of shrimp missing from Larry’s Chinese food? And how about the guy eating shrimp out of an order that wasn’t his, and then returning it? That was a very George Costanza move.

The poker game with Julia, her husband Brad Hall, and some of their friends, was just the right amount of Larry David uncomfortable … up until things got out of hand. I have no idea what justification there would be for everyone blowing up at Larry’s poor choice in insults, but I also don’t live in touchy-feely, namby-pamby, politically correct Los Angeles. Cheryl’s GE/NBC boycott was great, and I’m sure it’s based on some crazy hatred that Larry feels toward NBC, despite his success on the network.

I even enjoyed the overused mistaken domestic abuse angle, with Cheryl’s bruised arm and her and Larry’s weird pantomimed beating scene in their car after the poker game. Does it say something about our society that we laugh at people thinking someone’s being beaten by their spouse?

Still waiting for Jason to discover that Larry and Julia are now working on Jason’s project. I really hope that’s not something Larry decided wasn’t significant for the show, after giving us two “Let’s stop somewhere else before/after dinner for a change in scenery drink/dessert” conversations in one episode.

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Jul 30, 2010 @ 12:00 EST5EDT