Curb was by far the most bizarre show about nothing
You know, after seinfeld went off the air, I always knew we’d probably get more shows about nothing (if only just to capitalize on its unexpected success) but I never thought we’d get one that somehow manages to be even weirder than its predecessor. Then curb your enthusiasm came along & said, “hold my yarmulke.”
I think the one storyline that sticks out the most in my mind is season five. After being implanted with the notion he might be adopted, the dude goes on a quest to verify it. & as soon as he thinks he’s met his “real” parents, it just becomes the weirdest thing ever. Suddenly, just the thought of being a goy somehow turns him into a much better person. He actually means what he says, he’s kind & respectful to all & even volunteers his kidney to his good friend, richard lewis.
But as soon as it all comes crashing down around him (caused by the revelation that he is not in fact adopted), he reverts back to this usual insane self & tries to get out of it. Now there’s a lot to unpack here & I’ll start with this. Why? Just why? Seriously, why would thinking you’re a goy with different parents all of a sudden make you want to be a better man? What is it about judaism that makes you act like a schmuck? I mean it’s clear he’s not happy being jewish or even being the son of rose & morty but we never get an inkling of why. & the plot only gets weirder from there. But getting back to this, why exactly did the PI think this couple were his real parents in the first place? & how did he find out they weren’t? & why did they think he was his son? you’re telling me they gave up another son for adoption that they haven’t seen since? I mean it’s possible, sure, but based on how overjoyed they were when their “son” came home, it doesn’t seem all that likely. Nothing about this makes any sense.
As if that’s not insane enough, he then proceeds to die & somehow come back to life. It’s never explained; he just magically gets resurrected & the show continues on without missing a beat as if nothing happened, as if it’s perfectly normal. & we’re just supposed to go along with it. & somehow, it only gets weirder from there.
Season six introduces leon who would go on to become a main cast member & focuses on his divorce from cheryl for the most absurd of reasons. I mean there are a lot of terrible things he did to her over the years but this doesn’t even crack the top ten. While I do like that the series was topical by incorporating current events, it may not necessarily bode well for its rewatchability in the years to come. It’s not really clear if there’s an out-of-universe explanation for why they divorced (as it was not always part of the plan, at least as far as I know) but regardless it did seem to be just the shot in the arm the series needed.
By the time season seven rolls around, he’s now dating loretta but wants to dump her after he finds out her cancer diagnosis will require him to tend to her for the next two to four years. As if that’s not enough to keep audiences engaged, he also tries to stage a seinfeld reunion to get cheryl back which, in my opinion, is one of the highlights of the entire series. I could do a whole retrospective on that season alone. & even that plan fails in the end after he becomes far too fixated on the coffee stain incident. The dude was this close to finally getting everything he ever wanted & yet he just couldn’t stop being anal for even two seconds, even if it meant finally winning at life.
& somehow they only manage to up the crazy from there. Season eight follows god’s favorite schmuck to the big apple as he embarks on a three-month trip to nyc just to get out of doing a charity gig. I mean this dude has redefined the world pettiness. He also gets in a feud with michael j fox because of his petty nature & competes with rosie o’donnell for a bi woman. It’s exactly as nuts as it sounds, if not more so. One thing that’s cool, though, is the car periscope scene from seinfeld finally pays off as he tries to invest in an inventor who’s working to make that dream a reality. & it all culminates in him doing the same thing over again (only this time, in paris) because he is probably the thickest-headed person in the entire world.
& just when you think it can’t possibly get any more bizarre, season nine focuses on LA’s biggest putz as he incurs a fatwa from the ayatollah of iran. & even after he gets them to call off the fatwa, he still gets chased down the street by some guy who never got the memo that it had been voided. Meanwhile, you’ve got larry making a musical about the santanic verses controversy & using stand-ins just to get what he wants & further his own twisted agenda. If nothing else, one awesome thing about this season is they had none other than salman rushdie himself guest starring. It also harkens back to an episode of seinfeld where kramer thought he saw rushdie in the sauna at his local gym. I don’t know if this was specifically intended to be a callback to that but it’s a fun little connection nonetheless. What makes it special is (correct me if i’m wrong but) near as i can tell, this is the one instance in which he has ever guest starred as himself. So it’s a pretty crazy (& unique) season.
As season ten rolls around, he finds himself opening a spite shop to grind an axe against the local coffee shop proprietor, mocha joe. Meanwhile, he is being accused of sexual harassment by his assistant after cleaning his glasses using her shirt. & if that’s not bonkers enough for you, he also attempts to use a maga hat just to repel people. This series does not hold back in any way, shape or form. It all comes to a head (no pun intended) when one of his employees’ abnormally large schlong inadvertently starts a fire that engulfs both his & joe’s stores. yes, that is an actual storyline that someone got paid to write. & the whole season ends with mocha joe moving next door to him out of spite. So, yes, it is every bit as absurd as you can imagine (if not, more).
& it only gets more insane from there. Season eleven sees a burglar drowning in larry’s pool at which point he’s informed the law requires him to have a fence around it. So he begins dating an unpleasant city councilwoman to get the rule changed. Meanwhile, the brother of the burglar blackmails him into casting his daughter in his new sitcom. & if that’s not enough for you, leon broke up with his girlfriend after buying non-refundable plain tickets to asia for them & thus tries to find a girl with the same name to accompany him. Long story short, through his own boneheaded actions, he causes the law to not be repealed & ironically falls into a pool himself.
By the time the final season rolled around, they had really gone all in on the political undertones as he gets arrested in Atlanta for violating some bs law the governor signed back in 2021. This leads him to going on trial in a mirror of the seinfeld finale. Ultimately, he is found guilty before getting off on a mistrial & they all fly back home having learned absolutely nothing. So you don’t have to look very far to see the thematic similarities to his previous series.
Ultimately, I’m just left wondering what the point of this series was in the first place. I certainly don’t think it was money; I mean he undoubtedly has all he’ll ever need from seinfeld residuals. Reportedly, he wanted a series that focuses more on himself but even for him, this feels like overkill. But one thing that makes the series so unique is how there in no script. They are provided with a rough outline of the narrative but most (if not, all) of the dialogue is improvised, a process known as retroscripting. So whether we needed it or not, you can’t argue with the results. But hopefully the series will be remembered fondly as the sun finally sets on the era of larry david.