Curb Your Enthusiasm 12

[AzureSky]

So this really is the end now:

https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/curb-your-enthusiasm-season-12-final-season-1235838123/amp/

4th Feb - 7th Apr, next year.

120 episodes over nearly 24 years, it's some achievement.

[neveragain]

Wonder how it'll end, considering he's died once already.

[BlodwynPig]

Wonder how it'll end, considering he's died once already.

Trouser tent

[LordMorgan]

Series 1-5 for me are flawless
So rewatchable I just fucking love it
 I thought series 6 and seven was a slight dip although still brilliant
Loved the introduction of Leon, and the Seinfeld gang getting back together was tremendous

From S8 it did tail off a bit

But still, fucking brilliant, I'll look forward to the last series

[Oh, Nobody]

Wonder how it'll end, considering he's died once already.

Richard Lewis approaches in a big overcoat

"HEY DAVID"

[BritishHobo]

Interested to see if it will be a proper self-indulgent finale finale - loads and loads of 'character' returns a la the Seinfeld finale ' or if it'll just be a normal season. He's shown he's not massively interested in doing proper endings (dying then coming back, getting back together with Cheryl after the Seinfeld reunion but fucking it up because of the mug ring), and I wouldn't expect him to be sentimental anyway. But maybe it'll be different if he knows this is the topper to a show that's lasted almost a quarter of a century.

I'm not sure if I would be bothering if it wasn't a final season. I really liked the season with Lin Manuel Miranda and the fatwa (although I think it wasn't popular here) but struggled massively with the last two. Found the ongoing stories really dull, and a lot of the newer characters just don't have the affectionate chemistry of the older characters. I don't mind Vince Vaughan, but couldn't get on with him here. Funkhauser is a tough act to follow.

[Old Nehamkin]

I tend to think of the 8-season run from 2000-2011 as representing the proper, bonafide canon of the show and the subsequent 2019-present stuff as being a sort of extended encore/reunion. Plenty to enjoy still and always a welcome presence but all a little off-kilter and never entirely finding the groove of the older stuff. Like 70s Columbo vs. later Columbo.

Still a bit sad to see David finally put a definitive full stop on it though. Put Curb and Seinfeld together and that's the best part of 35 years that he's been presiding over one iconic sitcom or another (a few breaks, hiatuses and variably successful side projects notwithstanding). Talk about a giant of the medium.

[Red82]

It's been truly tremendous. A couple of bad seasons aside. I will keep watching them as long as he keeps making them. Mainly just to see all the brilliant characters on screen again. They don't even have to be that funny to endear themselves to me at this point.

[Wayman C. McCreery]

Up until the point Larry dies but gets turned away from heaven it feels like the show's based in something close to reality, but it starts to get really stupid in season six when you've got episodes that hinge on you needing to think that using your left hand to take a call is a huge faux pas.

Series 1-5 are close to perfect. Everything since has been a mixed bag, but even the weaker episodes deliver some great moments. Someone's said it on here before but sometimes you just want to see some old guys argue over something at a golf course - and Curb will always guarantee that.

[Two Headed Sex Beast]

I think I prefer the mid to later stuff over the earlier seasons, I think. It's quicker, more heightened and stupid like you say, but I kind of like that.

Looking forward to this, and not super surprised it's the last one. I would be happy for it to be a "normal" season rather than a big finale

[Wayman C. McCreery]

I definitely prefer the early seasons but it's evolved rather than jumped the shark. Leon inexplicably living with Larry wouldn't have happened in season 2, but it doesn't stop it being stupidly funny.

It's weird to think Leon's now been in more seasons than he hasn't.

[BlodwynPig]

Leon: A Curb spin-off

Young Leon: A Leon spin-off

[BlodwynPig]

Young Leon is friends with Bubble Boy

[Noodle Lizard]

Up until the point Larry dies but gets turned away from heaven it feels like the show's based in something close to reality, but it starts to get really stupid in season six when you've got episodes that hinge on you needing to think that using your left hand to take a call is a huge faux pas.

Series 1-5 are close to perfect. Everything since has been a mixed bag, but even the weaker episodes deliver some great moments. Someone's said it on here before but sometimes you just want to see some old guys argue over something at a golf course - and Curb will always guarantee that.

I actually prefer season 6 to 5. The adoption and kidney arcs were among the weaker ones to me, and I remember that being the first season where I noticed entire episodes going by which weren't good, as well as the aforementioned celestial ending.

Season 6 felt like it got back on track (the introduction of Leon, the therapists, the freak book) and while Season 7 wasn't one of the best seasons overall, I think it would have made the best Final Season for obvious reasons.

I still don't think there's been much in Season 8 onwards to justify them throwing away such a perfect finale, and some of the stuff they've been coming out with after that long hiatus between 8 and 9 is really bad. Not enough to diminish the earlier seasons, aided perhaps by it looking and feeling like a different show a lot of the time, but not something I'm sad about being put to rest.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

I remember being really disappointed with 5 at the time but the last time I did a rewatch I enjoyed it a lot more. Some of the more recent seasons are obviously weaker but I don't hate any of them, it's nice to spend time in Larry's world sometimes, even when Lin "fucking Lin Manuel Miranda" Manuel Miranda is there.

[BlodwynPig]

Which season was Gervais in?

[Bobloblawslawbomb]

Which season was Gervais in?

Season 8. Overall quite a strong season, Palestinian Chicken and Mister Softee would be in my top 10.

[LordMorgan]

I think I prefer the mid to later stuff over the earlier seasons, I think. It's quicker, more heightened and stupid like you say, but I kind of like that.

Looking forward to this, and not super surprised it's the last one. I would be happy for it to be a "normal" season rather than a big finale

No

[TommyTurnips]

There's still some gold in the later seasons. Spite Store!

[BlodwynPig]

"Hey Assy"

[The Mollusk]

I remember feeling like someone was shining a massive torch in my eyes when the camera quality suddenly went way up for one of the seasons onwards. Weirdly I feel like that took a lot of the magic away from the show for me. That, and it actually being worse.

[AzureSky]

Shall we keep this as the thread for 12?

[AzureSky]

New podcast out on 1st Feb, The History of CYE, with Jeff and Susie talking about each episode, similar to Talking Sopranos.

Includes guests, should be lots of fun.

[TheMonk]

It's kind of odd that Jeff Garlin was written out of The Goldbergs for his behaviour but it's just expected that he's stil in Curb. Although from what I read about this behaviour it did all sound a bit like a Curb episode misunderstanding.
The wheels really fell off The Goldbergs when he was gone.

[Mobius]

I hope he's better in this than every podcast I've heard him in

[LordMorgan]

I hope he's better in this than every podcast I've heard him in

That's very mean

[Mobius]

I am sorry for the offensive take but much as I love Jeff in curb he's not great on podcasts!

[Dr Funke]

Larry's on the latest Bill Simmons podcast (plenty of sports chat included).
https://www.theringer.com/the-bill-simmons-podcast/2024/1/31/24056379/tortured-new-york-jets-fans-nfl-fixes-25-year-run-curb-your-enthusiasm-larry-david

[Noodle Lizard]

I was sat in front of Jeff Garlin at a Dylan Moran show years ago. Intensely annoying "look at me!" laughter, ruined the gig.

[The Mollusk]

Jeff isn't funny. He works perfectly as the post for Suzie to bounce her vitriol off like a big dumb piñata but otherwise he mostly just parrots stuff Larry says or shouts (often at the same time). Obviously he's got his own plot lines and moves the story along but by and large he is pretty much everyone else's foil. I can't really think of any scene where Jeff has been funny without it being the result of someone else's words or actions towards/against him. Comparing him to Lewis or Funkhauser who often crack me up as soon as they enter a scene, Jeff doesn't even come close.