OK, now I know Larry is a self-important, selfish asshole, but somehow or other he makes it work. But in this episode he seemed particularly clueless, selfish and mean…more so. From the doctor, to the little girl, to Ted Danson and Mary Sttenburgen at the restaurant, to the guy in the airplane. I dunno, yesterday his character didn’t really work for me.
Awful episode. Maybe the Worst. Episode. Ever. Nothing in this one worked: stopping the girl from singing was wildly out of character, even for a jerk like LD. The Christian Slater cameo was pointless. The argument over the gift certificate was idiotic.
The show used to begin with Larry getting into minor social incidents at the beginning of each episode. The fun was then watching how cleverly the whole thing snowballed into a full-blown disaster. Now, however, each show seems to start with LD getting way too upset over nothing, just so he can complain about something. Slater is eating too much cavier at someone else’s party? I don’t think even Larry David would care all that much.
I hate to say it but I’m reminded of an observation someone once made (it may well have been Larry David, now that I think about it…I’m pretty sure it was Seinfeld-related): It’s an axiom in the industry that every good TV series lasts one more season than it should have.
Sadly, I’m beginning to think this might be true of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Oh well. I’ll certainly keep watching, if only to see how the Seinfeld reunion thing works out.
I have to agree - this was not one of the better episodes.
After the antics he pulled, you wonder why anyone would ever invite him ANYWHERE.
I admit, the idea of having your untalented daughter sing a song as your “gift” was funny and a stupid idea, but having never seen that in real life, also a bit over the top.
Also, regarding the ex-boyfriend coming to his house - why didn’t he get Leon out of bed and meet the guy at the door?
All in all, a weak episode this week - although the preview of next week looks more promising.
Yeah, I made a comment recently about how David’s character managed to skirt the edge of being thoroughly unlikeable without ever quite falling in. I now rescind that statement. He was just plain irritating in this episode.
Painfully unfunny episode. I shut it off about half way through. The only reason I tuned in this season was for the Seinfeld Reunion. I haven’t watched since the 2nd or 3rd season and I forgot how sloppy the writing is on this show. Seriously the caviar bit was horrendous. I mean no one would give a shit if Christian Slater ate too much. But the icing on the cake is when the hostess actually noticed that someone ate too much caviar. Give me a fucking break…
What’s crazy is that every single episode is a carbon copy. Basically Larry David gets into 3 or 4 awkward situations. There’s a miscommunication or him just being a complete asshole. The biggest “fuck you” to the audience is they don’t even write jokes for the show. He just has all the actors improvise each scene around him acting like a moronic asshole. Seriously, how the hell has this show lasted 7 whole seasons???
Yeah, this was a phone-it-in episode. Potentially the poorest effort I’ve seen in the series. Several weeks back a poster claimed the show was the unfunniest thing s/he’d ever seen, and I thought that statement was ridiculous. Last night’s show might have made a fair claim to that honor.
The pale-legged guy on the plane… Since when does Larry give unsolicited advice to strangers? Then the Danson party - even Larry’s not clueless enough to be that rude to a kid. It would be more likely that Susie would ask Larry what he thought, and then the clash would come up. Or if Susie decided to give Larry the gift of her daughter’s voice at some point.
We’ve seen the “eating too much at a cocktail party” scene many times on Seinfeld. I thought for sure LD was going to do something a little different… nope. Christian Slater wasn’t funny at all. And the other plot, LD being chased down by the ex-girlfriend’s current boyfriend, seemed just uninteresting. It could have been funny, if, for example, the BF was a guy Larry’s size or smaller.
I want to say that Larry is setting up something with the series with this episode. But as of today, it doesn’t register at all.
Couldn’t agree more with the gist of the above posts. From start to finish David was acting like some mean-drunk version of his usual character. Painful to watch and probably the worst episode in the show’s history.
Which seems strange to say because I thought the first few episodes of the new season were about as good as ever. Not just the Seinfeld stuff, but also the episode with the cancer therapist. Then this jarring unfunny detour into his character being a far more aggressive and petty jackass than ever.
If David feels the need to torque up his character’s ass-o-holic behavior in order to keep the show funny then it could be the first sign of the show jumping the shark. But the Seinfeld reunion still has potential I suppose.
Mostly here to echo what the rest of you are saying.
I’ve been an apologist for CYE in the past, but this episode was everything people who hate the show say it is.
We need Cheryl back! I think she always acted as Larry’s anchor, and without her he’s just going off the deep end. That is to say, Larry David hasn’t figured out how to write or act his character without Cheryl to keep him somewhat grounded.