Rent Curb Your Enthusiasm: Series 11 (2021)

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Series 11 review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

It’s surprising just how well Curb Your Enthusiasm continues to be hilariously meta and have a lot of fun throwing Larry David into absurd situations. Season 11 keeps the hilarity going, even after the unfortunate loss of Bob Einstein. It still has all the running gags, weirdly charming self-deprecating humor, and the most excellent of casting.

Consider how the season begins with the first episode. Larry finds himself angered by a pool ordinance that has led to a thief being killed. Larry is also seeking to turn his history into a series by scouting streaming studios that will pay for his story. He also attends a fake funeral for his friend Albert Brooks. The funeral itself is hilarious for how Larry doesn’t play along and later unearths that Albert is a Covid hoarder.

The running jokes throughout the series are uproarious. Larry’s new show, Young Larry, finds itself going from network to network and ends up having to hire a terrible actress out of being blackmailed. Larry, caught up in his own lies, tries to get the girl some acting lessons but she’s incredibly hostile, leading to a bizarre session where Ted Danson ends up on the floor. Jeff Garlin still hasn’t lost his touch as Larry’s best friend who isn’t all that afraid to tell him off. Susie Essman is in top form as Jeff’s wife is the most critical of Larry above everyone else, unwilling to even a wine stain slide at a party. I really enjoyed the sub-plot of Larry’s roommate Leon (J. B. Smoove) searching for a woman with an exact name that he can bring with him on a vacation trip after a breakup.

There’s a wealth of comedic moments present. A sobering moment between Larry and Leon's decision to buy grocery store items considered stereotypical of their backgrounds ends up going from being freeing to blowing up in their faces. Much of Larry’s insecurities come up among home repairs and luggage hauling. There are some hilarious moral situations where Larry unwittingly ends up doing dry cleaning for a KKK member’s robes. There’s also a decent bit of Larry misinterpreting Japanese at a restaurant and speaking almost too openly about his disdain for Little Women.

The guest stars were pretty great this year as well. Seth Rogen appears on set for some Viking movie and speaks bluntly to Larry about how he doesn’t want to be involved with his show. Tracey Ullman appears as a councilwoman who ends up becoming Larry’s rival in a political race over his focus on city ordinances regarding pools. Woody Harrelson is a lot of fun for being a celebrity all about veganism and Larry attempting to him with a ranch he doesn’t know is owned by a heavily conservative farmer.

The entire season crescendos beautifully with an ending that ends up using the Holocaust museum as one of its destinations (of course, Larry will get in trouble here as well). Everything about this season worked so well and just proves that the show hasn’t lost its touch. The writing is still immaculate, the characters are all great, the satire is wonderful, and it’s just downright funny all around. It’s also reassuring that there’s a moment early on in the show where Larry is called out for being insensitive and cranky, only for Larry to bluster and find a way out of the conversation in a huff. Classic Larry. This show rocks.