Curb Your Enthusiasm
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Starring: Larry David, Cheryl Hines, Jeff Garlin Director: Various The series: What to do after producing the most popular sit-com of all time? This was the 'problem' facing American comedian Larry David, who co-created the long-running and oft-repeated Seinfeld. His answer was to go nowhere in particular.
Like Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm - which sees David (pictured bottom left, with Jerry Seinfeld) going it alone - is to all intents and purposes another show 'about nothing'. And, like his other baby, it's also brilliant.
In Seinfeld, the character of George Costanza (Jason Alexander) was essentially Larry David. The guess is David got sick of seeing someone else play David, because Curb Your Enthusiasm (yet to make it to our screens) is basically David playing himself - an LA-based comedy writer. It's all about his daily life - how even the simplest of tasks (buying his wife a necklace, going to dinner with friends) can get blown apart when you talk too much, or think too much. It's about how even the simplest of actions can come back to haunt you. It's about the absurdity of life.
David deadpans his way through proceedings superbly and each episode builds towards some impending but utterly unimportant personal disaster. It is a formula that, after the first series at least, never feels stale. He's no actor, that's for sure. But then again, neither is Seinfeld, and that never hurt his success. Along for the ride is a cast of David's showbiz friends (Richard Lewis, Ted Danson) and regulars Jeff Garlin, who plays his manager, and Cheryl Hines, who plays his wife. Some episodes (such as The Beloved Aunt) have already passed into comedy folklore and, most surprising of all, is that none of it is scripted in the traditional sense. The actors are given a plot outline, and then away they go.
Of course, the problem with having the entire series at your disposal is the temptation to watch a whole batch of shows back-to-back. Remember, they were never meant to be seen this way - save them, and the experience will be so much more enjoyable. The extras: Along with the full series, we get David's original pilot, a mockumentary in which he plans his return to the stand-up circuit while filming a HBO 'special'. For those not clued in to what the series is all about, it's a great introduction, as most of the characters are introduced - plus there are cameos from the Seinfeld cast to give you some more background as to what the man is all about.