A tale of two assholes

Larry David is an asshole. I hear this all the time as reasoning for someone not liking his HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm. And like the Larry David-inspired George Costanza character from Seinfeld, he is kind of an asshole–but that’s no reason to disparage the show.

Curb Your Enthusiasm began as a one-hour faux documentary (some are surprised to find out that it is fiction, and many believe his wife on the show is his real wife) about Larry David and his life after Seinfeld ended, generally the life of a multi-millionaire with nothing to do. Larry decided to make the concept into a full series.

Curb Your Enthusiasm is currently in its sixth season. The show itself is an obvious step for the co-creator of Seinfeld. The plot follows Larry in his day-to-day adventures with his wife (Cheryl Hines), his manager (Jeff Garlin) and a rotating cast of guest stars. Much like Seinfeld, small and trivial things drive the show’s conflict. A slow toaster and a sweat-soaked $50 bill are central artifacts in Larry’s life on the show.

Curb differs from Seinfeld in several ways though. First of all, Seinfeld was a classic sitcom setup, laugh track and all, while Curb is shot on location with handheld cameras. Also, dialogue is improvised on Curb. Both of these changes are improvements, because conversations in the show come across as less scripted and more fluid. Visually, Curb looks a lot better as well.

Larry’s new show is just about him while Seinfeld is more of an ensemble. And then there is the difference between the assholes, Costanza and Larry. The two are obviously very similar. Both are overtly self-involved and have rules for society that society is apparently unaware of. But because Curb is all about Larry, his character is more developed and nuanced. Yes, Larry and George are assholes. Even so, Larry is a more complicated character, and to attach to him the stigma of being an asshole would be an oversimplification. Curb’s theme is “no bad or good deed goes unpunished.” Sometimes the punishment is from being an “asshole,” but much of the time he is just being honest or avoiding the niceties of society. And sometimes he’s generally being nice, but is punished anyway.

The current sixth season, rumored to be the last, is seven episodes in. Like the preceding five seasons it is funny, frustrating and sometimes philosophical. Unfortunately, it is the weakest season since the show’s inception. What has been great about the previous seasons has been the continual, season-long story lines. The only story line that has been present in nearly every episode this season is the hurricane victims who Larry’s character is putting up in his home. Still, even in a mediocre season (which the current season definitely is), Curb is in the top tier of televised comedy.

Literary precedent For Curb Your Enthusiasm

Two authors come to mind when I watch Larry David. The first is John Kennedy Toole, author of A Confederacy of Dunces. The novel’s main character, Ignatius Reilly, is a misanthrope who follows the philosophy of Boethius. He disdains modern society, but is entangled with it when he has to go looking for a job. He reminds me of Larry because both characters have humorous interactions with a society whose rules they refuse to follow.

The other author is Gabriel Garcia Marquez, of One Hundred Years of Solitude fame. The novel documents a family for multiple generations as history keeps repeating through the years, and the family stays pretty much the same. The males are somewhat eccentric and impulsive men who frustrate their loving wives, while their female counterparts offer rationality and common sense.

If you’ve followed all six seasons of Curb you will notice history repeating itself, because there is always a way for Larry to piss people off. Also, the male-female relationships in One Hundred Years of Solitude are an archaic dead ringer for Larry and Cheryl. And the men in the book attain great wealth without a lifetime of hard work.