Curb Your Enthusiasm (Season 5)

Oh, boy, I was dreading this season. I recall this being my least favorite season of Curb Your Enthusiasm

Season 5 of Curb Your Enthusiasm has two major storylines, both of which kinda suck. First, there's Larry mishearing his father and getting the impression that he might be adopted. Even more, his "actual parents" might even be Christian. Look, a religion-centric plot isn't a bad idea. I've been loving whenever Curb pokes fun at religion, not to mention my favorite episode of the show (which happens to be in this very season) being entirely about Judaism. But this storyline is just uncharacteristically serious (not to mention implausible) for Curb. Like this is a soap opera plot, it's way too melodramatic to be in such a self-aware show. And that's not even it, there's also Richard Lewis needing a kidney exchange and Larry accidentally volunteering. This plotline is a bit better, since it's at least funny to see Larry frantically try to find another donor, but it still suffers from being way too serious for a show like this. Whenever this season buckles down and focuses on the comedy, it's as good as Curb has ever been, but so much of it is spent on these dull and overly serious plotlines... and that's not even getting into the finale...

And thus begins The "The End" Tangent...

Curb's Season 5 finale (seemingly originally intended to be the series finale) is one of the worst episodes of television I've seen in my life. It was bad when I first watched it, and it's even worse now, and I just have to tear it apart. So Larry learns that he is adopted, and that has real parents are Christian. Upon meeting his parents, Larry suddenly decides to become Christian, which makes absolutely no sense. Larry may be more secular than most, but he's integrated in the Jewish community, and if his interactions with Cheryl's family are any indication, he knows literally nothing about Christianity. So of course, Larry decides to go ahead with the kidney surgery... until one of the most baffling scenes in the episode. So his PI runs into the hospital while he's being carted off to do surgery and tells him he's not adopted, at which point Larry tries to back out of the surgery, only for the doctors to ignore him? How did they allow the PI in there? And whatever happened to surgical consent?!

But of course, things get so much worse. Larry dies during the surgery. Yeah, he dies. And then he goes to heaven! What ensues is about 5-10 minutes of Larry annoying some guest stars playing angels in an incredibly unfunny manner until they decide to just bring him back to life. This moment came so close to Curb jumping the shark. An otherwise grounded sitcom revealing heaven exists, not to mention the fact that much of this show's cast is in a religion that doesn't even believe in heaven to begin with?! And it still gets worse, because the episode also cuts to Larry's friends while he's dead, and they're... uncharacteristically happy? Cheryl immediately starts asking about money, and no one else seems to care that Larry David died. Like I get they were trying to do a The Invitations thing, but that episode worked because Susan had no attachments to the cast. She's not a part of the main four, we know only George cared about her. Larry on the other hand does have attachments to the rest of the main cast. He's Cheryl's husband, Jeff's best friend, Susie's... acquaintance. Even with all their arguments, we know they care about each other to some degree. Hell, they all reacted with horror to Larry's near death experience at the start of this very season! Everyone in this episode is out of character, plain and simple.

So that's The End. An episode that lacks any common sense, is filled to the brim with contrivances, confirms the existence of heaven, messes up all the characters, and worst of all, straight-up isn't funny. And keep in mind, this was supposed to be the series finale. Between this and the Seinfeld finale, I just don't trust Larry David to end a series well.

And Back To Season 5...

As I have been alluding to, though, this season does have a big high point, typically when it isn't focusing on the story arc:

The Ski Lift: For being in such a weak season, The Ski Lift is my favorite episode of the show. It has everything I would want from a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode. Want religious humor? You get Larry pretending to be Orthodox and his hilarious attempts at faking Yiddish. Want sex jokes? You get the big vagina argument. Want to see Larry suck at life? You get to watch him try to ski. And most importantly of all, you want screentime for Susie? You get to see her pretend to be married to Larry, and it's glorious.  

Overall, Season 5 is the worst season of Curb. It has two dull and overly serious plotlines, generally weaker writing, and one of the worst endings to a show I think I've ever seen. Thank goodness Curb didn't end here, if it weren't for The Ski Lift, this season would be almost irredeemable. But don't worry, the worst is over. We've just arrived at the best era of the show. 

1/5 Stars