Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season Six Recap

Curb Your Enthusiasm has always had a way of keeping funny in the face of incessant repetition. In nearly every episode, Larry has a misunderstanding, refuses to take what a normal person would see as a proper course of action to rectify said misunderstanding, and proceeds into a downward spiral caused by hostile forces coupled with his own stubbornness. This is a tightrope that most other half hour comedies cannot walk very successfully for very long. Curb has always played its formula as a strength, by gradually increasing the unexpectedness of each part of the downward spiral. Even when the final punch line is foreseen (as with the inevitable “I thought your party was last night!” kicker of the season premiere “Meet the Blacks”), there are a lot of big laughs along the journey.

Nevertheless, it was refreshing to see a few twists in the formula for season six: the arrival of a family of hurricane refugees who come to live with the Davids, and the presumed end of Larry and Cheryl’s marriage. The two twists worked hand in hand, as Larry’s relationship with the Blacks (the African-American hurricane family) became, over the course of the season, a natural replacement for the relationship with his wife. Looking back after the fact, the season long story arc must have practically written itself.

Larry’s interactions with those of other social classes have long been a well of comedy for Curb, as Larry often sees himself as charitable and enlightened, although his efforts are usually proven to be counter-productive. Which leads me to think about Curb’s portrayals of the differences in social classes and cultures. Homi Bhabha writes in The Location of Culture:

Social differences are not simply given to experience through an already authenticated cultural tradition; they are the signs of the emergence of community envisaged as a project…that takes you ‘beyond’ yourself in order to return, in a spirit of revision and reconstruction, to the political conditions of the present [italics in original].

This begs the question about Larry David’s interactions with the “other”: Can a performative, bumbling, self-righteous and arrogant soul like Larry David ever really go beyond himself to bridge a cultural gap such that he really understands someone (anyone) else? In season six, Larry was dead set against the adoption of the Blacks, but soon developed a camaraderie with them that seemed more genuine than any of his other relationships (be they spouse, friend or family). But how that familial community was built is a topic for scrutiny. Did Larry just assume relationships out of convenience, or did he do so in conjunction with a newfound understanding of the “other?”

I choose to believe the latter, because as funny as it is to watch the same windbag humiliate himself episode after episode, it’s nice to be able to find some emotional growth in a protagonist.

Let’s just hope a more mature Larry David, with his new family in tow, won’t lead to an unfunny season seven. As this season proved, a little character development shouldn’t kill a tried and true formula.

>>Bhabha, Homi K., The Location of Culture, London and New York: Routledge, 1994.