Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Seder (S5 E7)

Larry David is a genius. I’m not sure if I’ve said that before but he is, and the latest episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm just proves the contention to it.

First of all, surely there is no better trademark in TV history than that of Larry’s infamous look. To those unfamiliar, there is this thing where Larry will be squaring up to another character, usually Larry has accused them of doing some wrong against him and they have denied it, and he will start looking into their eyes, scrutinizing them, in careful examination all the time. Then after a prolonged period of time he’ll go “....ok.” Pinnacle of television right there, no, scratch that, the entire motion arts.

This particular episode sees Larry get to showcase the look in an exchange with a doctor acquaintance of his, whom he accuses of systematically stealing his newspaper repeatedly everyday for the past week.

This was also quite a political episode. Larry and Cheryl are throwing a dinner to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Seder, and they have to invite Susie’s (Jeff’s wife) sister and her family to it. Now, Jeff’s brother-in-law here is, hilariously, a conservative, and it’s just great to witness Larry infinitely bemused at his being told of how GW Bush is one of the great presidents and how “we’re turning the whole damn world around.” I know I’d be liable to interject with some Chomsky quotes right about then, but he just takes it how it should be taken, as if it were a child allocuting such erroneous sentiments.

Also, in the spirit of politicalisation, Larry befriends a sex offender who moves into the neighbourhood, and invites him to the dinner. I’m not too sure how well known Larry David’s political allegiances are, but he’s clearly a liberal type (observe the finale of season 4, how he terminates the passions with a female due to the sudden sight of a framed photo of Bush in her room, absurdly brilliant), and this overtly comes through here. The idea that a man isn’t as bad as made out, and can change, and generalisations shouldn’t be used to judge character. When Larry first met the man he was tentative about any sort of colloquium, but as things progressed he realised that the two shared many interests and that he might not actually be that bad.

In fact, towards the finish of the episode, it turns out that the conservative is the one who is in possession of the negative attributes, he helps his son win a game and consequently denies it (although he didn’t get the look). And who is the one to unveil the deceptions? Why it’s none other than the sex-offender.

I’m assuming Larry set out to make a political comment here, it probably doesn’t warrant so much yakking on my part, I shoulda discussed the look a bit more, but still it’s a positive ideological point to notice anyway. I’m always happy to see a bit of political commentary in Curb, and it’s always done very hilariously.