Curb Your Enthusiasm (Season 1)

Curb Your Enthusiasm was one of the first TV shows I ever binged, I even watched it before Seinfeld... and I don't remember anything about it. So I decided to rewatch the entire show, and I definitely missed a lot.

Curb Your Enthusiasm is about Larry David, a fictional version of the actual actor, essentially living out his life and getting himself into uncomfortable misunderstandings and committing social faux-pas. It's essentially a mockumentary version of Seinfeld and contains much of the appeal from that show, such as poking fun at social issues, hilariously dramatic line deliveries, and Rube Goldberg-esque plotlines where Larry's actions always have consequences. The show does do a few unique things compared to its predecessor. For starters, a lot of it isn't actually scripted, with much of the dialogue being purely improvisational. On one hand, this doesn't give Curb the same laughs-per-minute ratio as most of my favorite sitcoms, but it does lend the series a distinct conversational style that leads to a lot of very memorable one-liners. In addition, unlike the titular character in Seinfeld, Larry David has a wife, Cheryl, and she is a pivotal part of the show. With how colorful Larry and his friends are, this show needs a "straight man" character to really get the most out of its cringe comedy, and Cheryl's reactions are always gold.

However, Season 1 of Curb Your Enthusiasm is probably the weakest one in the show, at least from my memory. It's not necessarily bad, it's actually really consistent in its quality, but you can definitely tell that Larry David and the crew are still figuring out the show. Certain characters like Susie Greene took a while to be fully-formed, some of the show's biggest running-gags like the stare-down and "prettay-prettay-good" haven't shown up, and probably biggest of all, this is the only season to not have a story arc in it. Season 1 of Curb Your Enthusiasm is pretty much entirely episodic, which is a shame since the story arcs can be some of the best things about later seasons. There are a few subplots about Jeff's parents, Cheryl getting a necklace, and Richard Lewis's girlfriend, but they don't really get paid off in the finale either, which is mostly just a standard (albeit entertaining) episode of the show. I also don't think this season is quite as laugh-out-loud funny as later seasons end up being, outside of a few notable moments of hilarity.

While most of this season was pretty middle-of-the-road, there was one noticeable standout:

Beloved Aunt: This was an episode I remembered very well from the first time I watched Curb Your Enthusiasm, so I spend much of this episode struggling to hold in a goofy smile, knowing what was coming. That infamous "aunt" typo is hands down the funniest joke of this season, and the subsequent reveal is the point where this episode goes from solid to amazing.

Overall, Season 1 of Curb Your Enthusiasm does a good job of establishing the series as distinct from its predecessor, but the show isn't quite as funny or fully-formed as in later seasons. It's still nowhere near the rough start that Seinfeld had, but the show is definitely still going through its growing pains.

2/5 Stars