Yes, it’s time for season 11 of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” It would be hard to top Season 10 and the Spite Store, but Larry and his team seem like they’re ready for anything.
Two things pop out in the first episode of Season 11. Larry has sold a TV pilot called “Young Larry” to…Netflix. Indeed, Netflix is all over this episode, which is a sharp dig at HBO’s main competitor in the off network TV races. Larry and manager Jeff (Jeff Garlin) visit the Netflix digs, take meetings there, and even have auditions for the show.
Back when David and Jerry Seinfeld had their storyline on the latter’s show about “the show about nothing,” Jerry and George pitched it to NBC, the same network as “Seinfeld.” But now Larry David seems to be taking a poke at Netflix, and we’ll see where that goes.
Also of interest is the addition of the great Albert Brooks, who seems to be taking the place, at least for now, of Richard Lewis. It’s great seeing Brooks, who doesn’t love him? This may be an homage to Brooks’s real life brother, Bob Einstein, who played Larry’s friend Funkhauser until his untimely death in 2019. No mention has been made of Funkauser’s passing on “Curb,” and now his real life brother appears.
There was a recurring bit on Sunday night’s episode of people walking into glass doors that was funny, and laughed out loud during JB Smoove’s auditioning for girlfriends with the same name was his ex, but what I didn’t enjoy was the whole subplot of Larry being blackmailed by a Mexican family. It came off as cruel and a little racist. And kinda stupid.
But off we go for another season which won’t be boring, that’s for sure. And, of course, Susie Essman rocks.