“Curb Your Enthusiasm” — The Therapist
Knowing me, knowing you.
Curb had me right off the bat this week. It wasn’t due to any particular gut-busting comment or scenario (though the funny was brought) so much how Larry’s description of “New Larry” basically mirrored my recent descriptions of “New Rick.” I don’t know if I should be concerned that my life so closely mirrors that of the TV-Larry-David, but as of right now it does. More after the jump…
Two weeks ago I decided I was going to start tucking my shirt in while at work and substituting my navy blue, low-top converse All-Stars for All-Stars of various other colors and even a pair or two of shoes of the “dress” variety. In short, I was going to start dressing like an adult. Needless to say, when Larry tells his therapist (brilliantly played by Steve Coogan) “she noticed the tucked in… I look like a man!” or Cheryl’s response to the new Larry, “You don’t look like an eighth-grader anymore,” the sentiment really hit home.
Luckily for people not named Rick Pecoraro, who still don’t tuck their shirts in and are living the high-life of comfortable clothes and not succumbing to societal norms, the rest of the episode was hilarious. The staged-robbery was all pretty obvious stuff with typical Curb-results but worked because 1) Larry really let his therapist hang out to dry (”48 tops… what’s next? 72?”) 2) the notion that Leon would have been happy to participate but promised that someone was going to get f*cked up, 3) Cheryl’s therapist bought into Larry’s “Alzheimers” (”I don’t even like chicken salad”) and 4) the look on Cheryl’s face on the ferris wheel after the whole plot was revealed to her.
The trick for Curb Your Enthusiasm’s long-term success is not continually providing labyrinthine plots with big sucker-punch finales, but perhaps to keep the plots simple and maybe a little predictable but spinning each of the elements in ways otherwise unexpected. I knew Cheryl’s therapist was going to fall for Larry, but that he got around it by faking Alzheimers was a particularly great twist.
I shouldn’t wrap up before also giving major props to Bob Einstein as Marty Funkhauser. Everything he says on this show kills me and the notion that he would collect money for a walk-a-thon and then not walk was such a bastardly thing to do, I’m surprised it wasn’t Larry doing it. I watched his “surrogate” episodes from Arrested Development season three this past weekend. Bob Einstein, like Jon Benjamin, has one of those voices where every single thing they say comes out funny, even if it isn’t suppose to be.
Oh, and I love, LOVE, that Bright was adament that the date should be movie-dinner not dinner-movie. I agree, as should anyone who has ever been on a dinner-movie date. It’s doesn’t work. The times are too rigid and there’s nothing to talk about.
Tags: Curb Your Enthusiasm, HBO
November 5th, 2007 at 9:34 pm
two “notions”!