Curb Your Enthusiasm
2000
Original language: English
- comedy
The story
The off-kilter, unscripted comic vision of Larry David, who plays himself in a parallel universe in which he can't seem to do anything right, and, by his standards, neither can anyone else.
What it’s like
Loose, handheld digital images of Los Angeles homes, restaurants and sidewalks, shot in flat ordinary daylight with no music to cue the mood; the camera drifts and stays a beat too long on people who are about to say the wrong thing. The sound is mostly dialogue, overlapping and improvised, with the occasional sour guitar sting to underline a social disaster. The vibe is wry, irritable and oddly companionable, the kind of show best watched with a laugh of recognition at a bad dinner party or a comfort rewatch on a slow afternoon. Episodes are self-contained and quick to move, each one a chain of small etiquette failures that tightens until someone is mortified, and the lead's refusal to apologise for anything stays constant from first scene to last. Intensity is low: there is no violence or gore, and the sexual content is verbal and awkward rather than explicit, though cruelty in the form of snubs, insults and petty betrayals runs through every episode. It suits people who enjoy cringe comedy, Jewish-American and Los Angeles social satire, and improvised, unpolished performances over slick punchlines.
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