Curb’s Final Season: Not the Best, But Pretty, Pretty Good

From the first episode, I knew the final season of Curb Your Enthusiasm would be divisive. I’ve always been a big fan of Larry David’s improvised, semi-autobiographical HBO comedy, as well as its predecessor, Seinfeld. Both series flaunt their gleeful cynicism: characters often have a point about the absurdity of arbitrary societal rules, but drill that point into the ground with outlandishly rude responses. Curb has always been very similar to Seinfeld - just with cursing, no laugh track, and a single asshole, rather than four. But as soon as the first episode of this year’s twelfth and final season concluded, I knew that the finale we’d be heading towards would have the strongest parallels yet.

Per tradition, each Curb season is primarily episodic, but with an overarching background narrative that climaxes in the final episode. In previous seasons, David’s fictional counterpart has opened a coffee shop, served as a kidney donor, and performed in The Producers on Broadway. This time, while on a visit to Atlanta, he is arrested for running afoul of a Georgia voting restriction that prohibits offering water to anyone lined up outside polling places. The season gradually builds to his trial, a clear imitation of Seinfeld’s controversial finale, in which all four characters are put in prison for violating a good samaritan law.

Now, here’s the thing. I love the Seinfeld finale. Yes, it’s didactic, but we’ve seen the characters be awful people time and time again, and this serves as their final, perfect comeuppance. The trial itself additionally serves as an excuse to bring back classic side characters as witnesses. Curb attempts to do the same thing here. It is essentially a giant middle finger from David to everyone who hated the Seinfeld finale. “Oh, you didn’t like that? Too bad, doing it again!”

I suspect that most who disliked the Seinfeld finale will (perhaps understandably) not find much to like here. Younger viewers who don’t even know how Seinfeld ends may just be confused. Even as a Seinfeld finale defender, I have pretty mixed feelings. On the one hand, I can’t help but admire David’s audacity here (the episode is literally titled “No Lessons Learned”, which could just as easily apply to the real David as his fictional counterpart). But part of me does also wish David had done something new. The seasons I come back to (like the best Seinfeld episodes) are, despite the improvised dialogue, intricately crafted, and building towards a single punchline or joke that brings the season home (think of Larry dueling Lin-Manuel Miranda in Season 9, or Mel Brooks pulling a Producers-style scam in real life in Season 4). And yes, there is one truly great joke that I won’t spoil here that comes from Larry's incarceration (the crux of his up-yours to any Seinfeld finale deriders). But the execution of the trial itself was, for me, largely mundane. It didn’t anywhere near match the roll call of guest stars Seinfeld managed to pull off. There was no Crazy Eyes Killer, no Porno Gil, no Shaq - although, granted, there was one genius callback to the season 2 episode “The Doll”. Most of the witnesses were from very recent seasons (including one from just the episode prior), and while there were a few effective subplots (Leon finally watching and reacting to Seinfeld, Ted Danson’s protest outside the courthouse for David’s freedom, Larry trying to break up Richard Lewis’ relationship with a hysterical Allison Janney), none of them culminated in any truly great punchlines. The final scene of the series feels almost like an afterthought. So yes, the finale itself, despite its potential, left me a bit unsatisfied. The rest of the season however, while still at times mixed, contained some of the series’ best material.

I will say, despite the repetition of the trial plotline, the choice to make Larry be on trial for a political cause was a great one. It results in everyone, for the first time, rooting for Larry, as he becomes an accidental martyr for the fight to expand voting access (this results in two of the series’ all-time best cameos, which are too good to spoil here). The scenes in Atlanta, in particular, were comedy gold, with Larry at first becoming adored by the Black community, before inevitably doing something horribly offensive (this time involving a racist lawn ornament). “Disgruntled” and “The Gettysburg Address” were equally solid, each using, again, the standard Seinfeldesque build to a punchline that ties the episode neatly together. However, the season also is forced to contend with two continuing plotlines from the somewhat subpar Season 11 - the release of Young Larry starring up-and-coming diva Maria Sofia, and Larry’s relationship with recovering alcoholic Irma (who he is forbidden to dump by her sponsor, for the fear that she will relapse). Young Larry is abruptly dropped after the first episode of this season, and Maria Sofia is never seen again. On the one hand, I was a little glad; on the other, could they not have had a real ending? Irma’s story certainly had one, and while I wish they hadn’t dragged it on so long (while Tracey Ullman is undeniably talented, the joke of Larry being unable to dump her gets old fast), they did conclude it with some style, in the episode “Fish Stuck” (which features a brilliantly cast Dan Levy).

However, other gags, that were made the focus of whole episodes, were utterly forgettable. I’m thinking especially of Larry’s encounters with Conan O’Brien, and his tussle with Troy Kostur; while often inspired, sometimes the show’s celebrity cameos simply drag on too long. The supporting cast is, as always, fantastic. Cheryl Hines has taken a backseat for several seasons, but still gets a few great interactions with Larry (in particular, a fear of admitting that she doesn’t like Mexican food). Jeff, though not at his funniest, actually gets a few victories this season, which is nice, and Susie Essman, as usual, delivers (she has one truly great scene during Larry’s trial). I do wish there had been more of Leon (though his takes on Seinfeld, in the finale, are, as said before, priceless).

All in all, the season as a whole is more than worth watching. And the finale itself works fine. But, a part of me can’t help but hope that, as J. B. Smoove has claimed to believe in some interviews, this isn’t really the last we’ll see of Larry.