A quick review of last night’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” coming up just as soon as I admire the view from Renny Harlin’s apartment…
As a whole, I don’t think “The Hero” was one of this season’s strongest efforts. It felt like there were a lot of half-formed ideas colliding with each other, some working (Larry basking in his phony heroism), some not (Larry’s out-of-the-blue plan to elevate small talk to medium talk), some funny but then immediately forgotten (Larry arguing with the coach-y woman). I think, for instance, you could have built an entire episode around the fallout from Larry, as Jeff said, revolutionizing the way restaurants work(*), but here it was just a brief gag to set up why the eavesdropping waiter would betray them to Ricky Gervais.
(*) On the other hand, a story like that would only invite even more “Seinfeld” comparisons, at a time when the show has just moved onto “Seinfeld” turf.
And yet… I could watch TV Larry and TV Gervais try to out-smug each other from now until the end of time. As with Larry’s ongoing beef with Jason Alexander, it’s a reminder that sometimes Larry’s most entertaining conflicts come against people who are exactly like him. Their debate over the funniest show in TV history was marvelous. (Gervais re: “Seinfeld”: “I love the laughtrack on it. Reminds you of when to laugh!”) Hopefully this won’t be a one-shot deal for Gervais.
What did everybody else think?