By Matthew Wood

Well, this is what we’ve feared would happen all season. Teetering on the brink between brilliance and complete oafishness all season, Larry David finally crossed the line into absolutely painful-to-watch territory.

Larry’s always an asshole. But so far in season six, he’s kept it hilarious – and kept others involved in a good way. This time, he goes waaay too far, making the episode almost painful to watch.

It starts with a trip to Ted Danson’s birthday party, where Larry complains about his limo driver having to stay in the car during the whole time, and the bartender having to wear a bow tie. His kvetching to Ted gets Charlie the driver into the party, where he proceeds to get wasted and gets kicked out of the party – with an obnoxious Larry right behind him.

Things only go downhill from there, as Larry and Cheryl are forced to drive the inebriated driver to his run-down home, with a wheelchair-bound wife who never stops yelling. The Davids end up with the limo, and of course Larry is forced to play driver to bail Charlie out by picking up John McEnroe at the airport. Anyway, yada yada yada, Larry and J-Mac get wasted at a pre-party for the Paul McCartney show and get kicked out, but not before picking up an annoying Italian family at the cemetery – where Larry is changing his plot location so he’s not next to Ted – and then kicking them out in the middle of nowhere.


If this all sounds a little convoluted and random, well, that’s because it is. I mean, you look at any CURB plotline and it’s never the most linear of plots. But this has just gotten out of hand. Normally, it gets to the edge of craziness, but usually gets back to wrapping things up at the end, and hilarity usually ensues. But this time, as Larry finally got back to Charlie’s place to drop off the limo, only to find out his father-in-law has just died, you know where it’s going (he offers his newly available cemetery plot to her). But even the kicker isn’t that funny. And as the closing credits came on, I felt both relieved it was over and cheated that it was the best they could do.

Not to completely rip the show apart, but CURB has established itself to a higher standard. We’re all allowed a bad show or two, but it just feels like the season has been heading in this direction and it was inevitable that LD was going to go too far eventually. Let’s hope it’s an aberration and not the start of something bad.

Early on in the show, as Larry is butting his nose where it doesn’t belong with the bow-tied bartender, he says, “You don’t understand how I operate.” Oh yes, Larry, we understand. But that doesn’t necessarily make it funny.