(Season 3, Episodes 5-6)
When a show like Curb Your Enthusiasm begins to introduce us to the family of the lead character, you have to wonder how much about them is authentic to the actor’s real family. Other than learning that Woody Allen is, in fact, Larry’s brother, I don’t think Curb could have done it any better.
3.5 “The Terrorist Attack”
This episode was a little all over the place for me. Great sighting of Paul Reiser, although his participation on the show was negligible. But Larry’s seeming indifference to his wife leading to a series of secrets that he revealed to her? I didn’t get that.
I watch Weeds, so it was fun to see Alanis Morissette as herself here (she played Nancy’s doctor and Andy’s girlfriend during the fifth season of the Showtime series). Her spilling the secret behind one of her songs to Larry was unlikely, even as it was necessary for the Paul Reiser wife plot. Morissette warbling along with a neck brace on was great.
I was excited to hear that Larry’s parents had moved to LA; I really want to see who birthed and raised him. Martin Short’s fly-by appearance was weird. It played no real role in any story, and seemed like it was done just to get him in front of a camera. I don’t think Curb’s done that before.
3.6 “The Special Section”
Martin Scorsese’s appearance, on the other hand, was awesome. Like his moment on Entourage, the sighting here was incredible. And the very idea that Larry would be cast in a Scorsese movie … the scene we saw was amusing, for sure. And it was funny that Larry got cast because Scorsese had seen him yelling at an audience member years earlier during one of his stand-up sets. I can believe that that happened a whole lot.
Making his first appearance was Shelley Berman as Larry’s father Nat. He’s a perfect choice, and I’m looking forward to whatever more we’ll get to see of him. Unfortunately Larry’s mother is no more — how appropriate that she told Nat not to bother Larry about her illness and death while he was in New York shooting the movie. I also love Richard Kind as Larry’s cousin Andy. Great casting for Larry’s family.
The mantra was a little bit of an homage to Seinfeld’s “Serenity Now.” No one could pull of that kind of crazy like Frank Costanza, but Larry and Richard Lewis gave me nice memories of that episode of the show.
The rest was a bit too weird and maudlin for me. Larry’s mother Adele being interred in a special section of the cemetery because she wasn’t qualified for burial in consecrated ground was crazy oddball as plot, and the tattoo on her right butt cheek is not something anyone wants to imagine on an older woman, let alone your own mother. And when the group gathered to dig up her grave I knew Larry had gone to the bad place. It was all a bit much.
But Shelley Berman and Richard Kind in the Davis clan are wonderful. Keep bringing them back!
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Sep 10, 2010 @ 12:00 EST5EDT
