The main event of
Curb Your Enthusiasm's long-awaited seventh season—a cynically conceived
Seinfeld cast reunion that fans may well regard as the fall’s high point—doesn’t really kick in until the third episode, airing on HBO on Oct. 4. But until then, revel in the poisonously hilarious machinations of masterfully crafted farce, as
Larry David continues on his quest to aggravate every human being unfortunate enough to cross his cranky path.
Even his
Seinfeld buddies aren’t immune to
Curb-style dyspepsia, erupting over something as mundane as tip coordination when splitting a bill.
Larry never learns. The instant he does, this show is over. Just watch him realize, in next week’s episode, as he realizes how well he fits a TV doctor’s description of a “toxic spouse,” just the thing to drive his needy girlfriend (
Vivica A. Fox) out of the house: “Someone who is impatient … obnoxious … petty and argumentative … and obsesses over meaningless details at the expense of a harmonious relationship.”
Who could love such a wretch? Larry’s still hanging his hopes on estranged spouse Cheryl (
Cheryl Hines), who left him because he wasn’t doing anything with his post-
Seinfeld life, resulting in “too much Larry.”
Having waited nearly two years between seasons, I can attest there’s no such thing as too much Larry. Or, more to the point, too much
Curb. Weak with laughter, I couldn’t be happier to welcome it back. (Added bonus in tonight’s twisted episode:
SCTV’s sublimely loony
Catherine O'Hara as “Funkhouser’s Crazy Sister”—that’s the episode title—who goes by the name of Bam-Bam. If that doesn’t already make you laugh, the episode will.)
I wish I were as enthusiastic about
Curb’s new companion piece, the insufferably cutesy mock-noir
Bored to Death, starring the annoyingly cloying
Jason Schwartzman as milquetoast writer-turned-amateur private eye Jonathan Ames (the same name as the show’s creator, a warning sign of overly arch pretentiousness).
Newly dumped Jonathan, forlorn and forever blotto on pot and white wine, is the soggy center of a gorgeously filmed series that only perks up whenever his sidekicks appear: the terrific
Ted Danson as a posh magazine editor who yearns to take his id out for a whirl, and
The Hangover’s Zach Galifianakis as a boorish comic-book artist who fancies himself a superhero.
I’d like to say the self-consciously literary
Bored to Death lives up (or down) to its title, but it really doesn’t even leave that much of an impression.
Curb Your Enthusiasm premieres tonight (9/20) at 9/8c,
Bored to Death at 9:30/8:30c, on HBO