The more I watch of 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' the more convinced I become that Larry David is the closest thing to a comic genius in modern television.
CYE airs at 2 AM on network TV in Australia, and being a hopeless insomniac who tends to have the TV going in the background without paying much attention to it, I looked up one night and said "What the - that's Larry David!" (I recognised him only from the extras features on the Seinfeld DVDs). I'd already formed the opinion that LD was the real genius behind Seinfeld, and so when I saw him wandering around in what appeared to be a poorly made sitcom using hand-held cameras, with people who talked over the top of each other, and in which nothing seemed to really happen, my first reaction was "Oh, Larry - how were you reduced to this? I mean, I know the Seinfeld actors can't get gigs now, but you're a writer and you're set for life - what do you care?" Then I caught another half of an episode, and whilst still not paying that much attention, became a little more used to the odd production values, which made it seem like a cross between a mockumentary, a sitcom and reality TV.
Then I randomly caught the part of the 'Nanny from Hell' episode where he turns up with the twelve sponge-cakes and gets inexplicably abused. That made me laugh out loud, and I decided to make a point of watching it the next week. After that, I saw, in order, 'The Spedial Section', 'The Bracelet', and 'Crazy-eyez Killa' (no, I have no idea why they were showing a season 1 ep in the middle of season 3). Anyway, suffice to say that by this time I was hooked, and had been reduced to tears a couple of times. Crazy-Eyes improv comment whilst giving LD a house tour "and we've got some floor-sh *t down here" struck me as the funniest line I had heard on TV in years. Not just the particular description itself, but the fact that he felt moved to attempt to describe the floor at all, and had to come up with some way of conveying that this was somehow a kind of special floor that they'd had specially put in or something.
Anyway by that time I was sold, and ordered the boxed sets that night.
When they arrived I found myself with the first sitcom in many years that I had to watch episodes of two or three times per night, because I hadn't laughed so hard in years, and needed a fix.
The guy from NZ who said that LD comes across as a cross between George Costanza, Basil Fawlty and Woody Allen has it nailed. He has George's neurotic, obsessive sense of moral outrage over utterly trivial things, but coupled with Basil Fawlty's withering sarcasm and intellect (though at other times he comes across as utterly naive, and unaware of the huge gaffs that he's creating). And whoever said that he is often a jerk, but a jerk who is ultimately punished far too much, by other people who are even bigger jerks than him - that nails it as well.
What really sets CYE in a class of its own though is the revolutionary approach to production. The episodes are usually magnificently plotted so that they click into place like a Rubrick's cube - even more so than many Seinfeld episodes - but the combination of this with the fact that the actors are given no scripts at all, just a point outline of the scenes - and furthermore that they don't even know how their scene fits into the rest of the story, because they're only given plot points for the scenes they're actually in - this gives CYE a riveting naturalness which I haven't seen in any other sitcom. I mean, they even leave in what would be normally considered bloopers. In the first episode, LD obviously cracks up twice at unexpected lines from other actors. In one instance the actor even steps out of character briefly and you can tell there is a moment of "God, is it alright that I actually said that to you?" Amazing stuff.
With its masterful, intricate plotting, its gleeful, almost sadistic swipes at every sacred cow in sight, its startling, improvised dialog and production methods, CYE is easily the finniest thing I've seen on TV this millennium. I only hope Larry David can keep this level of genius up for another 20 years, because at the moment he's up there at the sort of level that Woody Allen attained in his golden years.
CYE airs at 2 AM on network TV in Australia, and being a hopeless insomniac who tends to have the TV going in the background without paying much attention to it, I looked up one night and said "What the - that's Larry David!" (I recognised him only from the extras features on the Seinfeld DVDs). I'd already formed the opinion that LD was the real genius behind Seinfeld, and so when I saw him wandering around in what appeared to be a poorly made sitcom using hand-held cameras, with people who talked over the top of each other, and in which nothing seemed to really happen, my first reaction was "Oh, Larry - how were you reduced to this? I mean, I know the Seinfeld actors can't get gigs now, but you're a writer and you're set for life - what do you care?" Then I caught another half of an episode, and whilst still not paying that much attention, became a little more used to the odd production values, which made it seem like a cross between a mockumentary, a sitcom and reality TV.
Then I randomly caught the part of the 'Nanny from Hell' episode where he turns up with the twelve sponge-cakes and gets inexplicably abused. That made me laugh out loud, and I decided to make a point of watching it the next week. After that, I saw, in order, 'The Spedial Section', 'The Bracelet', and 'Crazy-eyez Killa' (no, I have no idea why they were showing a season 1 ep in the middle of season 3). Anyway, suffice to say that by this time I was hooked, and had been reduced to tears a couple of times. Crazy-Eyes improv comment whilst giving LD a house tour "and we've got some floor-sh *t down here" struck me as the funniest line I had heard on TV in years. Not just the particular description itself, but the fact that he felt moved to attempt to describe the floor at all, and had to come up with some way of conveying that this was somehow a kind of special floor that they'd had specially put in or something.
Anyway by that time I was sold, and ordered the boxed sets that night.
When they arrived I found myself with the first sitcom in many years that I had to watch episodes of two or three times per night, because I hadn't laughed so hard in years, and needed a fix.
The guy from NZ who said that LD comes across as a cross between George Costanza, Basil Fawlty and Woody Allen has it nailed. He has George's neurotic, obsessive sense of moral outrage over utterly trivial things, but coupled with Basil Fawlty's withering sarcasm and intellect (though at other times he comes across as utterly naive, and unaware of the huge gaffs that he's creating). And whoever said that he is often a jerk, but a jerk who is ultimately punished far too much, by other people who are even bigger jerks than him - that nails it as well.
What really sets CYE in a class of its own though is the revolutionary approach to production. The episodes are usually magnificently plotted so that they click into place like a Rubrick's cube - even more so than many Seinfeld episodes - but the combination of this with the fact that the actors are given no scripts at all, just a point outline of the scenes - and furthermore that they don't even know how their scene fits into the rest of the story, because they're only given plot points for the scenes they're actually in - this gives CYE a riveting naturalness which I haven't seen in any other sitcom. I mean, they even leave in what would be normally considered bloopers. In the first episode, LD obviously cracks up twice at unexpected lines from other actors. In one instance the actor even steps out of character briefly and you can tell there is a moment of "God, is it alright that I actually said that to you?" Amazing stuff.
With its masterful, intricate plotting, its gleeful, almost sadistic swipes at every sacred cow in sight, its startling, improvised dialog and production methods, CYE is easily the finniest thing I've seen on TV this millennium. I only hope Larry David can keep this level of genius up for another 20 years, because at the moment he's up there at the sort of level that Woody Allen attained in his golden years.