Written by Andreas Babiolakis

Binge, Fringe, or Singe? is our television series that will cover the latest seasons, miniseries, and more. Binge is our recommendation to marathon the reviewed season. Fringe means it won’t be everyone’s favourite show, but is worth a try (maybe there are issues with it). Singe means to avoid the reviewed series at all costs.

Warning: Spoilers of Curb Your Enthusiasm season 11 are in this article. Reader discretion is advised.

I want to preface this review of the latest Curb Your Enthusiasm season by stating that Larry David can, quite frankly, make whatever the hell he wants to and I will tune in. I recall that he is possibly thinking of wrapping up his HBO classic by the next season, according to some of the show regulars. With all of this in mind, I am thankful that there is a Curb season 11, especially during the nightmare that we have endured the last two years. Having said that, this is the first time that I have felt quite underwhelmed by Curb Your Enthusiasm, and I had to wait for the final episode of the season (which was released this last Sunday) to determine this. Typically, David and company are able to resolve the messes they make in an amazing fashion, whether these punchlines and/or conclusions happen at the end of episodes or of entire seasons (hell, even character storylines; look at the closure we got with Cheryl that allows her brief cameos to make sense without us ever demanding more). After waiting to see where Curb was going during its eleventh season, particularly with the promise of some sort of a mega climax to every storyline, we are left with a whimper that turned a pretty (pretty, pretty, prettyyyyyy) good season into a lacklustre one (the adverse effect).

Curb isn’t a stranger to season-long storylines, and eleven kicks off with a death in Larry’s pool as the result of a bugler trying to flee and falling into the not-fenced water, leading to the brother of the deceased blackmailing Larry because of the pool fence violation that he committed. Larry’s pitching his new show, Young Larry, and he is now forced to cast Maria Sofia: the daughter of the extortionist (Marcos). Maria is abysmal at acting, and Young Larry is sure to flop now. He tries many efforts to get rid of her before resorting to trying to swoon councilwoman Irma Kostroski (played by a brilliant Tracey Ullman, who could and should become a series regular in my opinion), believing he can get her to create a repeal against the pool-fence bylaw. There are other storylines that come and go (like Leon Black trying to go on a trip with women specifically named Mary Ferguson), but the main premise of the season is Larry of old trying to save Young Larry. It seems simple enough, but Curb Your Enthusiasm doesn’t follow the right path very much. For a show that takes pride in its improvised conversations and chaotic nature, this is the first time I felt like the series had no footing and actual awareness of where it’s going. It felt made up on the spot. It seemed uncontrollable, and not in a good way.

The primary issue is that season 11 kind of hiccups on an episodic level, but in the same ways that the two previous seasons did occasionally; even then, the previous seasons concluded strongly enough that there was a resolution to everything that came before each finale, and each episode got strengthened afterward. Eleven did not feel like a finale whatsoever, outside of two minuscule moments. In short, Young Larry is going to be a disaster, because the repeal didn’t go through (Irma was reminded of her dead relative from the shoes that Larry David stole from a Holocaust exhibit because it was raining outside and he didn’t have footwear on because he threw his previous sneakers out after having stepped on dog excrement during his attempts to avoid hugging someone closely enough that they would touch crotch-on-crotch [how’s this for a run-on sentence?]). That part makes sense, but is also incredibly expected one hundred and ten episodes into this series. Larry doesn’t know that Irma didn’t go to the vote and is trying to steal a transcript of his councilwoman bribery call from the recipient of Alexander Vindman’s confessions (okay, so casting Vindman as himself as a whistleblower of Larry David’s scheming is unquestionably one of the finer decisions this season made). While trying to escape, Larry — of whom has vehemently been against the placing of fences around pools this season as to not be extorted with his Young Larry show — falls into this house’s pool, and he exclaims that the homeowner should “build a fence!” whilst underwater. Ouch. Otherwise, Leon’s Mary Ferguson storyline gets wrapped up with his date having hidden his passport amongst her luggage so she can travel with Vindman.

These are possible endings of episodic storylines, but not an entire season’s arc. We never see what happens to Young Larry; although we can assume the worst (and rightfully so), there’s zero closure in seeing the series bomb and Larry’s reputation sink deeply (something we’re accustomed to with the series, and it would be fitting to at least get what we signed up for). We get Larry’s delusional daydream of his female lead being replaced by Lily Collins, and he is deemed a great man. To see the real thing would have been far more rewarding. This is the same series that showed Larry in The Producers persevere against all odds in an hour long special; the Seinfeld reunion that warmed everyone’s hearts but Larry’s (during his best efforts to win Cheryl back); the burning down of Larry’s spite coffee shop after the hours and thousands plugged into this vengeful operation. Season eleven wraps up with a soft (albeit characteristic) act of hypocrisy in the form of a punchline, and minor characters in a Leon subplot wrapping up an entire season.

I feel like Curb Your Enthusiasm would be the perfect show to get us out of our pits of despair with Larry David’s rants and antics, but we don’t really get a sense of Curb in a world where COVID-19 is around (when the show is usually quite contemporary, allowing us to see Larry have some sort of a say). We do get some jokes early on, particularly involving Albert Brooks as a COVID hoarder (someone who takes and stashes supplies like paper towels during the pandemic), and that actually feels like enough. There’s not much of a worry here, because I also feel like Curb is a great escape, so why bother discussing current stuff as a constant reminder? Even then, this season didn’t really feel like the best form of escapism, especially when I felt yanked around during episodes and being slammed into walls known as the closing credits. Usually the series has you not knowing where you are going, and you wind up in the greatest series of comeuppances and/or twists of fate. Curb 11 just kind of exists, and it shows. Despite the laughs I had (and there are quite a few), I was banking on all of these antics leading somewhere. They didn’t necessarily have to, because we’ve had Curb seasons with very little continuity before. However, there was a serialized storyline this season, and every episode is clearly a part of the bigger picture. We are led to nowhere land, and our escapist tour ends in a shrug of a return to reality, without really getting much out of it (outside of a handful of amazing observations, like dinner conversations needing great middle-table sitters, or the disastrous end results of one’s business if they are spotted with holes in their underwear). Again, I will always tune in if there is ever another episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, but I am finally aware that it may not be as untouchable of a series as I had once thought.

Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.

Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 11: Binge, Fringe, or Singe?

Written by Andreas Babiolakis