Curb Your Enthusiasm

Ravi · September 06, 2005, 12:12:23 PM

I watched the fourth season over the weekend. Brilliant! I loved the story arcs of the 10th anniversary present and The Producers.

Bethie · September 07, 2005, 02:50:42 AM

Quote from: ®edlum

I want a poster of this.

MacGuffin · September 23, 2005, 08:42:06 PM

No Need to 'Curb Enthusiasm' for Larry

LOS ANGELES - Tell Larry David how much you enjoyed the first couple episodes of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," back for its fifth season Sunday, and his response is immediate.

"Wait, you didn't get the third? You should have gotten three," he says.

Well, no, but the first two were a delight.

"Good. I never know how people will react," David replies.

Such anxiety is familiar to viewers who know the writer-comedian-actor through the HBO series in which his character, also called Larry David, frets, kvetches and crashes heedlessly through social convention.

That fictional Larry David is nothing like the original, according to the original himself.

"It's not my life. It has nothing to do with my life. Doesn't resemble my life in any way, shape or form," he said.

So the series about a successful writer-comedian-actor living and working in the Los Angeles area isn't about him at all?

"There are similarities, and I'm envious that he can say a lot of the things I want to say, but can't. That's one of the things why it's so much fun to do. You get to say these things you never say in life," David said.

In the new 10-episode season, debuting 10 p.m. EDT Sunday, his unfettered comments are directed at colleagues, children, blacks, lesbians and, in one wonderful scene of matrimonial danger, his lovely and patient wife, Cheryl David ( Cheryl Hines).

Larry David worries that giving away plot details will spoil the comedy for viewers. There's no surprise in finding him back in fine, self-obsessed form and surrounded by his band of friends and rivals, including Wanda Sykes, Richard Lewis and Jeff Garlin as Jeff Greene.

Guest stars this season include Ted Danson, Rosie O'Donnell, Mekhi Phifer, Shelley Berman, Paul Dooley, Bob Einstein and Kevin Nealon.

TV audiences became familiar with David's sensibility through "Seinfeld," the wildly successful NBC sitcom that starred Jerry Seinfeld as a man bemused by life's oddities and pitfalls. The guy in "Curb Your Enthusiasm" is ready and willing to be driven nuts by them.

David, co-creator of "Seinfeld," said he didn't make a point of pushing the envelop further this season in exploring his character's darker side, but concedes he may have.

"The more an audience becomes familiar with what you're doing and the more they start to like it, the more you can get away with," said David.

An episode he's just been editing offers a case in point.

"I really wouldn't want to give it away, but I just witnessed something I did that could be considered slightly sociopathic," David told The Associated Press.

In truth, he seems more eager to talk about his wife's activism than about his show or himself. Among other things, Laurie David is producing a program on global warming and started a "virtual march" with an online petition urging politicians to protect the environment.

The Stop Global Warming Virtual March on Washington, in conjunction with MTV's college network mtvU and continuing until Earth Day next April, also includes a sweepstakes in which the prize is David's hybrid car from "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

Is he engaged in the cause as well?

"I'm engaged because she prevailed upon me to perform and write, that's how I'm engaged," he said. "And she donated my car without asking. My assistant told me about. She said, `What are you going to do for a new car?' I said, `What are you talking about?' She said, `Your wife donated your car to the contest to stop global warming.'

"I picked up the phone and said, `What the hell did you do to my car?"

Sounds just like Larry David, real, fictional or somewhere in between.

Ravi · September 25, 2005, 11:33:33 PM

Quote from: BethieI want a poster of this.

Here's one.

EDIT: There are more of them starting at $5, but I expect them to go up

Ravi · September 27, 2005, 01:34:40 AM

Could that wallpaper be the cover for the Season 5 DVD?

SEASON FIVE PREMIERE SPOILERS

The season 5 premiere was funny, but the season premieres of CYE generally are not nearly as funny as the other episodes in the season. Overall it was just okay, IMO. The sandwich thing seemed familiar to me. Has another show done something like it before?

There were some funny moments, like Larry grabbing the mints, "call me Mr. Tibbs," the synagogue scalper, and the ending, which is the most morbid (but predictable) ending for this show yet. I don't know if the adoption story line can compete with season 4's dual stories of The Producers and the anniversary present, but you never know.

abuck1220 · September 28, 2005, 12:36:40 AM

i'm surprised there aren't more comments here...

SPOILERS

pretty good...better than last season's premiere, which, outside of the bowling conversation, was one of the least funny episodes yet. i thought some of the funnier stuff was larry's rant about interrupting intercourse, the conversation with ted danson about the sandwich, larry's reaction when that guy thought suzie was his wife.

i don't really know where this adoption storyline is going to go. the great thing about the anniversary gift storyline was that it gave larry a chance to use all the sex jokes that were too dirty for seinfeld. i don't know if the adoption story has that kind of potential, but it wouldn't surprise me if he pulled it off.

squints · September 28, 2005, 02:36:03 AM

the latest show was = eh

GodDamnImDaMan · October 03, 2005, 09:37:46 AM

Anyone see the last episode?

Who fuckin' told you all about it? Go back a few pages in this thread and you'll see!

Maybe next time you won't doubt my sources, fuckos.

cine · October 03, 2005, 11:04:33 PM

Quote from: Ravi
Quote from: BethieI want a poster of this.

Here's one.

EDIT: There are more of them starting at $5, but I expect them to go up

well i won one of them, fuckos. and i might win another one too.

Ravi · October 04, 2005, 12:04:32 AM

Quote from: Cinephile
Quote from: Ravi
Quote from: BethieI want a poster of this.

Here's one.

EDIT: There are more of them starting at $5, but I expect them to go up

well i won one of them, fuckos. and i might win another one too.

I was watching a few of them, and I'm not willing to pay $20 for it, however cool it is.

Weird. Oh · October 04, 2005, 01:41:03 AM

Am I the only who really can't stand Cheryl? Her character annoys me to no end, but maybe that's the intended affect. Also, anyone catch the MTV Curb partnership contest to win LD's Prius. Wasn't sure how popular Curb was with the MTV crowd.

Ravi · October 04, 2005, 03:43:11 PM

Quote from: Reformed W.Am I the only who really can't stand Cheryl? Her character annoys me to no end, but maybe that's the intended affect. Also, anyone catch the MTV Curb partnership contest to win LD's Prius. Wasn't sure how popular Curb was with the MTV crowd.

I'm sure there are quite a few young people into Curb. I got my 12-year-old sister into it about a year ago when I got the DVDs. I liked Seinfeld in 5th or 6th grade.

Cheryl's job is mostly to react to Larry's fuck-ups and their embarassments. On that front she does a great job. Not that she isn't ever funny herself, but the show needs someone to get on Larry's case at times to balance things out.

Weird. Oh · October 05, 2005, 03:26:48 AM

Quote from: Ravi
Quote from: Reformed W.Am I the only who really can't stand Cheryl? Her character annoys me to no end, but maybe that's the intended affect. Also, anyone catch the MTV Curb partnership contest to win LD's Prius. Wasn't sure how popular Curb was with the MTV crowd.

I'm sure there are quite a few young people into Curb. I got my 12-year-old sister into it about a year ago when I got the DVDs. I liked Seinfeld in 5th or 6th grade.

Cheryl's job is mostly to react to Larry's fuck-ups and their embarassments. On that front she does a great job. Not that she isn't ever funny herself, but the show needs someone to get on Larry's case at times to balance things out.

I also liked Seinfeld about the same time. My dad got me into it though. Yeah I understand Cheryl's role is to be the person that nods her head in shame at Larry but just lately I've enjoyed her character less and less as the series continues.

Pubrick · October 05, 2005, 07:09:33 AM

i can't get enuff of cheryl. i always thought she was underused

GodDamnImDaMan · October 05, 2005, 11:34:46 PM

Quote from: Reformed W.Am I the only who really can't stand Cheryl? Her character annoys me to no end, but maybe that's the intended affect. Also, anyone catch the MTV Curb partnership contest to win LD's Prius. Wasn't sure how popular Curb was with the MTV crowd.

Wait, in your opinion Cheryl's annoying?

Are you watching the show starring LARRY DAVID?!?!?! ?