Goodbye Curb

If last night was, in fact, the last episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm-and, considering that Larry David has been something of a bald, Jewish Brett Farve in the past when it comes to ending the series, I'm still not 100% convinced that it is- I would certainly say it's time. It's not that the show isn't funny anymore, but it's always funny in the same way, episode after episode, season after season. Larry runs afoul of someone; sometimes he's in the right, sometimes he's in the wrong. Never really matters. There will be some kind of minor thread weaved throughout the episode, which seems unimportant but will somehow tie in to the resolution, in which Larry will most likely end up with egg on his face. Over and over and over.

Considering that this same basic formula was also applied to most every episode of Seinfeld, it's pretty remarkable that David has been able to do so much with such a narrow view of what it funny. Plot was never very important to Larry David-- which may be why his only movie effort, Sour Grapes, is almost unwatchable. Observation is, and by and large those observations are spot on. David is also the one comic that's been able to make jokes about the bathroom without resorting to toilet humor, for which I applaud.

I also appreciate that David tackled the elephant in the room since Curb began, the Seinfeld reunion, in the same fashion he did other season-long arcs like his ill-fated restaurant and Broadway appearance in the Producers. That is to say, it remained the backdrop, but never dominated the season. Unfortunately, that meant we didn't get to see much of the Seinfeld cast; a shame, because all were excellent in the famed Curb improv format. Jerry Seinfeld, in particular, seemed to be having a ball. I would have greatly preferred to see more Jerry then, oh, Mocha Joe. Let's just hope that the DVD set has a longer look behind the scenes.

I don't have too much to say about the finale. Like most of the season, it had its' moments without being particularly memorable. Seeing Larry attempt to fill Jason Alexander's shoes as George Costanza was one of the highlights of the series, but the episode's sub-plots (Larry's feud with Mocha Joe, and his attempt to find out who put a stain on Julia Louise-Dreyfuss' coffee table) were tedious. Did anyone else notice that, at the same time that Mocha Joe was threatening to have Jason Alexander's beloved dogs destroyed for attacking him, Jason Alexander continued to buy coffee from Mocha Joe? Yeah. It's time to end it.