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I guess the least that can be said is Cheryl David and I have both considered leaving Larry David.

Damn you Larry David. Here I am trying to trim the fat from a bloated television viewing schedule, and when I finally come up with 30 minutes that I can do without you have to go and make news… then deliver a classic, top-five caliber episode of your stupid, over-cooked, hilarious, predictable and often brilliantly entertaining comedy show. You have me back for now, but watch it bub, I’m a damaged viewer and will not tolerate your nonsense! Please take me bacK! More after the jump…

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In the department of “Things No One Else Probably Cares About” I’m still watching Tell Me You Love Me. The initial reaction by most people is, “Uh… why?” To which I typically respond, “Yeah… it’s kind of hard to say.” The thing is, I’m swamped right now with shows that I keep watching despite being less than thrilled with, but week after week I come back to Tell Me You Love Me for reasons that aren’t entirely clear. More after the jump…

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Ding Dong, The Dick is Dead!

Alright, so I’m writing this a little late, so I’m going to keep the recap part out (if you don’t know by now . . . you don’t really care).

After last week’s episode, I had a horrible vision. I could imagine very clearly, all done up in too much makeup, Dave sitting in the top 3 at the final tribal council. I don’t know what it was, but the image was all too easy to conjur up. Well, now I don’t have to worry about that any more! More after the jump…

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Look over there! It’s the show’s cultural relevance running out the door!

I think I’m done with Curb. I just watched this week’s episode, and while it certainly had a few moments that made me laugh, most of it simply couldn’t hold my attention. I always beat up on those procedural cop and lawyer shows clogging up the networks for sticking too closely to their formula week in and week out (which is exactly the reason why those shows are also as successful as they are), and often give a free-pass to “higher end” series that more or less do exactly the same thing. This is certainly true of Curb Your Enthusiasm, which this season has reminded me how much longer a leash being funny will get you.

Now though, the series is just too much of the same thing over and over again. Frankly, I can’t take it anymore. The formula is too prevalent, and each script has started to feel like it was printed from an Eniac on a series of punch cards. With so much interesting stuff on television these days, it seems foolish for me to continue slogging through material I’ve seen time and time again.

I’m curious. Firs with Weeds and now with Curb, is 2007 going to be remembered as the year of the burn out?

And so begins the downward spiral. When Curb came back a month ago I was apprehensive, though a few decent episodes got me excited. Now, after two duds back to back I’m beginning to think my initial apprehension was just and those good episodes (specifically The Anonymous Donor) were flukes. Part of the problem is the show has turned into something of a parody of itself. Driver waiting in the car? Of course Larry wants to invite him in! Waiter wearing a bow-tie? Take it off! As I watched this episode this week nearly the entire first act (excluding the Freak Book stuff, which never really made any sense) felt like it was salvaged from parts of seasons one and two.

Though it’s hard to be completely down an episode that has John McEnroe as a guest star. He wasn’t brilliant in it, but his presence certainly added enough intrigue as to keep my attention long after I had become bored with the structure of the story.

I could be wrong but Larry David has now been working on Curb Your Entusiasm longer than he worked on Seinfeld (he left the show in 1996, whereas Curb has been around in some form since 2000). It might be time for a new project.

A very reliable source e-mailed me this morning with truly awesome news: HBO has posted the first six episodes The Wire on HBO On-Demand. You hear that kids? No more excuses, the episodes are right there in easily digestable chunks. These first six are going to be up until the end of the month and we should probably expect the rest to follow every couple weeks leading to the new season’s premiere in January.

Here’s how it all began.

I know no one but me watches this show, but dammit, this is my blog so when something particularly amazing strikes me on television, I’m going to write about it, even if I’m ultimately just writing about it for myself. Seems like a fair trade off, right? More after the jump…

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“We shall see?”

A loud flush. Really? That’s what caused him to experience severe hearing loss? I could be wrong, but was this the single worst episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm ever? It just might be. Like the best Seinfeld episodes, Curb works because it’s based on relatable situations. This week, there was nothing relatable. A lefty call? When has anyone ever thought about that in the history local calls?

The episode’s best moment came during the lunch sequence at the restaurant where the waiter, for reasons that are completely incomprehensible (even for waiters on Curb Your Enthusiasm), refused to give Suzy a doggie-bag and ultimate said “We shall see” when Larry told him he would take the food home. This immediately triggered Larry to give his classic, eyebrow-lift of shock and confusion. It was a small moment, but a funny one nonetheless. Enough to save an otherwise complete disaster of forced connections and non-issues? Not really.

Curb episodes tend to fit into one of two camps: those where the big laugh is a culmination of each of the episode’s plotlines in some highly orchestrated moment of insanity, and those episodes where the laughs are more a product of Larry’s unrelentingly stubborn reaction to something that isn’t that big of a deal. This week’s episode fell into the latter. There was never the big “gotcha” moment like there was last week, but we did get several scenes of Larry David freaking out in public, which I suppose has its own charm.

Personally, I prefer the more elaborate orchestrations, despite the fact that they are exponentially more difficult to successfully pull off. This week each of the gags was funny, but felt more like sketches than actual fleshed out ideas. That is with the exception of Bob Einstein as Marty Funkhouser who was brilliant as always. There is no actor on the planet that can play pissed off like he does — and not the Larry David, whimsical annoyance that we all love so dearly, but a genuine sense of resentment directed toward those around him. He also feels like the one character on the show who isn’t improvising, but learned his lines and is now furious at everyone else for just making things up as they go along.

In an episode with no clear direction, Marty Funkhouser can save the day. Television producers take note.

I had a feeling it was going to be this type of series. I hadn’t got around to seeing last week’s episode until earlier Sunday afternoon, and thanks to HBO On-Demand posting each new episode a week early was able to hammer through both that and the new one in a single sitting. I expect this pattern to continue throughout the show’s run. It is such a low-key narrative it’s hard to get excited about week in and week out, but if you let a few episodes build up, once you start watching it’s pretty easy to forget about the time and just let the characters wash over you. More after the jump…

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The big complaint made about recent seasons of Curb is that the connections have seemed too forced and maybe a little lazy. So when you get an episode as sharp as Sunday’s, we’re all reminded why we started watching this series in the first place. More after the jump…

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Salon.com has posted two essays which attempt to answer the age old question, “What is the greatest television program of all time, The Sopranos or The Wire?” The question isn’t exactly answered – nor should it be, I suppose — though both writers do a great job of presenting their case.

I tend to side with The Wire, but the more I think about it, the shows are two sides of the same coin. One focuses on the chase for the American dream and how that chase ultimately corrupts. The other suggests there is no American dream because the systems we have constructed around us are so powerful no man can escape. it might be heady stuff, but it makes for perfect television.

Between the VMAs, the new season of Curb, this and James Gandolfini’s documentary on wounded soldiers, last night was one of the oddest nights of television I can remember. When I started up Tell Me You Love Me, HBO’s new Sunday night drama about couples trying to stay together you know you’re in for something special: HBO followed it’s usual GS, N, L, and AC warnings with a full-screen graphic that declared “Viewer discretion is strongly advised.” Hrmm… I clearly wasn’t going to be seeing your average relationship drama. And I didn’t. Sex aside, Tell Me You Love Me is an incredibly honest and sophisticated portraits of communication or the lack thereof. I found it completely engrossing. More after the break…

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Last season’s Curb (which aired, oh, two years ago) was pretty lousy. It was the type of season where you’d watch an episode and could almost see the cogs turning on the screen. Larry does something jerk-like to a stranger and twenty minutes later the stranger shows up and keeps Larry from achieving whatever it is he was trying to achieve for the other 18 minutes. Yawn. More after the jump…

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Bongo players always get the girl

Before last night’s episode I was talking with a friend about whether or not the season would end with some sort of cliffhanger. The series has never been too concerned with running plotlines (though certainly running jokes). In the end, the Conchords landed right where they had started, but their surroundings had certainly changed. So in that case I guess you could say the season did end with some uncertainty. More after the jump…

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