Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Sixth Season – DVD Review

HBO Home Video / 2007 / 300 Minutes / Rated TV-MA
Street Date: January 29, 2008
List Price: $39.98 [Buy it at Amazon.com]

I recently sat down to re-watch the first season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, mainly to brush up on the show and see how the episodes still hold up. To my surprise, I still found myself laughing my way through the entire season knowing full well what was coming next. So when this new set of episodes showed up on my doorstep recently, I was excited. Having somehow missed the entire run of episodes last year, I couldn’t wait for the chance to watch a complete collection of ten fresh episodes in one sitting.

After removing the second disc from my DVD player, I couldn’t stop asking myself something: What happened to Larry David and who is this impostor standing in his sneakers?

The show has gone from a mockumentary style of comedy that re-invented the sitcom — much like David’s previous show, Seinfeld — and has become the exact thing it tried so hard to make certain to never be categorized as: conventional. Curb has evolved into nothing short of a series of catch phrases, predictable and outlandish plots, and scenes that never in a million years would have found their way into those first ten episodes of the series.

As someone who is among those that feel the show took a slight dip in quality after season three, the fifth series of episodes marked a nice return to form for the show — with a finale that proved extremely satisfying. Season six contains perhaps the poorest collection of episodes the crew has ever put together. The season shows no focus in terms of over arching story lines, characters no longer feel like three dimensional people, and it simply isn’t very funny.

Earlier episodes featured David finding that perfect blend of storyline and every day observations. Here he seems like a bitter old man who complains a lot, with no mental filter. Where he used to reply with a slight disapproving glance or hesitant sigh, here it’s like he’s on Broadway and needs to make sure everyone in the back row can both hear and see him. There’s little need for that when complaining to a woman about the limited number of taste tests one can have at the ice cream parlor when the store is practically barren.

As mentioned earlier, the show is very slim in terms of over-arching story this season, with the major storyline being the David’s taking in a displaced black family from a recent Hurricane disaster. Which incites numerous scenes of Larry still not being able to understand how to act normally around them. Something we’ve seen countless times over the past five seasons, only vastly inferior. The other story, which feel wedged in half way through the season, involves Larry and Cheryl’s relationship hitting a boiling point, leading to them having to deal with the question many have been wondering for years: how can she stay with a guy like him?

That’s about it, the majority of the episodes feel more like one-off ideas than ones that are continuously moving towards some type of finale. Which is not to say the show is without its charm. Each episode features a scene or two that are sure to make you laugh, but most tend to end on a mediocre note. There are two episodes in the bunch that stand out among some of the best the show has ever put out. One being “The N Word,” which leaves Larry in one dilly of a pickle after repeating something he overhears in a hospital restroom. The other being “The Therapist,” which has a special guest appearance by Steve Coogan as Larry’s therapist who has to help him get out of a bind after giving some terribly bad advice.

Overall, the season feels like it has little or no direction, with very little in the way of quality material or originality to make up for the laziness. While there are surely enough high points in each episode to warrant a viewing or two, time will not be as kind to these episodes as it has been to the first. One has to hope that the show returns for another season, if only to allow this once titan of comedy to close out on the much higher note it deserves.

The Extras
The extras in the set include two featurettes, the first being A Conversation With Larry David and Susie Essman (22:43), which was recorded live at New York’s 92nd Street Y and is a very interesting Q&A session. The extra goes on to talk about his creative process in writing an episode and developing an arc through the entire season, while mainly focuses on the improvisational nature of the series. The other extra being On The Set: Curb Your Enthusiasm (11:09) that plays out like an EPK piece that would air on the cable network before the season premiere. So the majority of the featurette focuses on the new creative talent who were brought in and then reveals what will happen during the season. It features the cast and crew, both old and new, talking about how much fun it is working with one another on set both in front of and behind the cameras. Finishing the set is a Gag Reel\(5:13) which, while consisting mainly of material from the recent season, also has a few from past years.


CONTENT: 5.5/10 | VIDEO: 7/10 | AUDIO: 5/10 | EXTRAS: 7/10 | REPLAY VALUE: 4.5/10


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Currently residing in Washington D.C., John Charles Thomas has been writing in the digital space since 2005. While he'd like to boast about the culture and scenery, he tends to be more of a procrastinating creative type with an ambitious recluse side. @NerdLmtd