Curb Your Enthusiasm: Past Away

  Maybe it was just because I watched it back-to-back with last night's funereal Mad Men, but this one was a little too bleak and ugly, even by Curb Your Enthusiasm standards.

 I really liked the foursome of Larry, Jeff, Funkhouser and Cousin Andy (Funkhouser is especially hilarious, and ranks next to Susie as my favorite Larry David foil). But once Larry whacked the swan, it felt too much like a goofball take on film noir, complete with blackmailing, pacts-of-silence and double-crosses.

 (Maybe I'm using the term "whacked" here because the image of Larry being stalked by a black swan was like something out of The Sopranos.)

 Larry says "next week" will be the read through for the Seinfeld reunion. I hope that means next week's episode, and that that one plays out better than this one did.

 Other thoughts:

• When Larry's mother died earlier in the series, his father didn't tell him right away because he "didn't want to bother" Larry. Once again, we see that his insane level of courtesy extends to beyond the grave, meaning that poor Adele David gets buried under a tombstone that says "Past Away."
• Laugh out loud moment (for me, anyway) number one: Jeff claiming that he tells his wife he's working when he plays golf and that "the only time I tell her I'm playing golf is when I'm with another woman."
• Moment number two: Andy's wife arguing that Larry -- who had previously offered to pay for their daughter's college tuition -- should instead give it to her to pay for cosmotology school. "She might not even go to college. She might be a drug addict."

 Tom Coombe

Comments

[Kent Merritt]

I don't think this episode compared to last week's 'midriff bulge' scenes. That was my favorite episode of this season. I'm sort of hoping that this season might be Larry's 'swan' song. The episodes are seeming more forced for laughs than in previous seasons. Still, better than most any other comedies on TV these days.

[Tom Coombe]

Yeah, I've noticed he's repeating himself a lot. It seems like Larry has had issues with tipping at least a few times in the past. And wasn't there a storyline about an acquaintance who had some sort of goofy clothing-based business that Larry sort of dismissed?