Curb Your Enthusiasm

Larry David is the funniest man alive. There is really no question about this, and there is no argument that could be made to make me think otherwise. He may be the funniest man who has ever lived, but one could maybe make a case against that. Regardless, he is without question the funniest man around today, and Curb Your Enthusiasm is the peak of his comedic genius. Now, this is coming from a Seinfeld fan.

For those who don't know, Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David are the co-creators of Seinfeld. The character of George Costanza (played by Jason Alexander) is based on the real life Larry David. Curb Your Enthusiasm is an HBO television series completely based on the life of Larry David, written by Larry David, and even better than having Jason Alexander play the part of Larry he plays it himself. Everyone who claims to be a Seinfeld fan needs to see Curb Your Enthusiasm, there is no question about that.

There are a number of reasons I think Curb is better than Seinfeld, probably the biggest and most obvious is that Seinfeld was written for (and therefore subject to editing by) Network television. Curb is written for HBO, where almost anything goes and Larry David (seemingly) has free reign to do anything he wants on the show. The other major difference is that even though not really an actor, Larry David is funnier than anyone on the cast of Seinfeld. The acting overall on Curb feels more natural than Seinfeld, likely due to the fact that there is no script. A scene for Curb is designed in detail in advance, but the script is improvised by the actors. No one has set lines, giving it a much more real life and natural feel.

I love every season of this show, but for me some stand as being better than others. If you have never seen any of Curb, I advise you start with Season One and go through the whole series (Season Six concluded this year). You get a really good impression of what the show is about in the first couple episodes of the first season. The one exception to this is if I have a friend who has never seen a single episode of the show I always show them the Season Finale to Season Three (which Curb fans will know as the restaurant opening with the tourretic chef). This is my favorite episode of the series, and if a person doesn't like it then they probably won't like any of the show. Also, each season has a continuous plot-line within where each episode builds on the previous so you would get more out of watching the seasons in order. Now, the worst seasons of Curb are still far better than anything else on TV today. That being said my ranking of the seasons is as follows, favorite to least favorite:

Season Three (The Restaurant)
Season Six (The Blacks)
Season One (No real season story--more individual episodes)
Season Four (The Producers)
Season Two (TV projects with Jason Alexander and Juilia Louis-Dreyfus)
Season Five (Richard Lewis' Kidney)

It is really promising that the show has no signs of diminishing quality, with the most recent season being my second favorite. Even Season Five, which is most least favorite season overall, has some of my favorite episodes individually. Below are a few clips of the show below, by no means the best (I am trying to keep it relatively clean) but hopefully they give you an idea for the premise. Warning: Some clips may contain inappropriate material: