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March 28, 2024, 11:13:11 AM

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Curb Season 11

Started by Mobbd, October 22, 2021, 01:41:16 PM

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Waking Life

Edit: not the best post to start a page.

I thought the first episode was a lot stronger. Although even mediocre Curb is good - it's like meeting up with old friends.

The main thing that bothered me about this episode was a plot hole. In an earlier season, Larry uses a public toilet and states he always sits to pee in toilets. He makes a point how it's far better to sit than to pee standing. But in this episode he said he couldn't do that and would have to burn his trousers or some such language.

This wouldn't normally bother me. It's a comedy, he will look to wring the best laughs out of a situation. However, irl, I took his advice and from that episode forward, I have chosen to sit to pee. I still use urinals where available, but in homes? I sit. I agreed with his logic. And I have not regretted it. But now I feel pretty betrayed, Larry.

Replies From View

Quote from: Bronzy on November 03, 2021, 05:46:59 PM
Him and Andrew Wakefield are basically the CEOs of anti-vaxxers.

That's a shame, to be fair

Replies From View

Quote from: Waking Life on November 03, 2021, 10:20:29 PM
Edit: not the best post to start a page.

I thought the first episode was a lot stronger. Although even mediocre Curb is good - it's like meeting up with old friends.

The main thing that bothered me about this episode was a plot hole. In an earlier season, Larry uses a public toilet and states he always sits to pee in toilets. He makes a point how it's far better to sit than to pee standing. But in this episode he said he couldn't do that and would have to burn his trousers or some such language.

This wouldn't normally bother me. It's a comedy, he will look to wring the best laughs out of a situation. However, irl, I took his advice and from that episode forward, I have chosen to sit to pee. I still use urinals where available, but in homes? I sit. I agreed with his logic. And I have not regretted it. But now I feel pretty betrayed, Larry.

You know, if it works it works, sit-pisser


Nothing wrong with your choice, sit-pisser




Oh look it's sit-pisser, how's it going sit-pisser

BlodwynPig

Quote from: Replies From View on October 28, 2021, 01:12:49 PM
Little off-topic perhaps, but I've never seen Richard Lewis in anything other than Curb, and was wondering what else you would recommend that he's been in.

Here he is next to DOS cult sex trafficker, Allison Mack, with the cast of Hiller and Diller.


Dusty Substance

Quote from: Waking Life on November 03, 2021, 10:20:29 PMThe main thing that bothered me about this episode was a plot hole. In an earlier season, Larry uses a public toilet and states he always sits to pee in toilets. He makes a point how it's far better to sit than to pee standing. But in this episode he said he couldn't do that and would have to burn his trousers or some such language.

Continuity has never been one of Curb's strong points.

Replies From View

Quote from: Dusty Substance on November 04, 2021, 07:59:23 PM
Continuity has never been one of Curb's strong points.

Indeed.  Character backstory details are often added for use in only one episode, and immediately dropped thereafter.  Remember Larry experiencing existential panic at the sound of ice cream van music?  Never mentioned before or since.

Waking Life

Och aye, I wasn't genuinely expecting a huge amount of fidelity given its elastic nature, nor was I shouting at my TV screen. I just thought it odd they would use opposing quirks as plot points, which itself sounds like a minor Larry David brouhaha. And took it personally due to the profound and transformative impact it had on my toilet habits.

As you were.

EOLAN

Quote from: Waking Life on November 05, 2021, 09:39:48 AM
Och aye, I wasn't genuinely expecting a huge amount of fidelity given its elastic nature, nor was I shouting at my TV screen. I just thought it odd they would use opposing quirks as plot points, which itself sounds like a minor Larry David brouhaha. And took it personally due to the profound and transformative impact it had on my toilet habits.

As you were.

I can kind of understand it happening. Larry has significant hang ups and focus on bathroom methods. Maybe his initial accident sitting down put him off that method and then his paranoia started the hang up about trousers. Also a very significant time-gap for such personality traits to evolve and develop.

Mobbd

Quote from: Replies From View on November 03, 2021, 05:15:50 PM
It is strange though, this alternate post-COVID universe they inhabit.  I find it kind of fascinating.  I wonder if it'll end up even more dated in its optimism than if they'd accepted COVID as a part of its fabric.

"universe" is the right word. Larry "plays a version of himself" is always the line. Curb is not our universe. In their universe, they had a covid crisis and fixed it. Which is pretty amazing really.

Me with a big beard on Larry's viewscreen: "We won't go back; you don't know what it's like in our universe ... Covid is everywhere!"[nb]Tap-tap. Is this thing on? You there, Lemming?[/nb]

Malcy

Quote from: Mobbd on November 05, 2021, 10:54:20 AM

Me with a big beard on Larry's viewscreen: "We won't go back; you don't know what it's like in our universe ... Covid is everywhere!"[nb]Tap-tap. Is this thing on? You there, Lemming?[/nb]

I'll always see this scene as Larry now. With Jeff in the background looking stressed as fuck!

Mobbd

Quote from: Noodle Lizard link=topic=90307.msg473937
EDIT: They actually discuss it here https://www.hollywoodr

Good link. Here are the relevant covid bits:

Quote"We didn't want to be the last ones to the table, doing jokes that everyone had done."

which is a good point imo. And:

Quote"We do address COVID, but I think in a way that people won't expect. We made a choice that when the show was gonna come out in the fall, COVID was going to have hit and be better. And we were a little early unfortunately, but I think for us [in the show], it was like, 'Hey, COVID's happened, it doesn't exist anymore,' so everyone's living their normal lives."

Makes it evergreen and also not tedious. Good calls, I think.

Mobbd

Quote from: Malcy on November 05, 2021, 11:41:59 AM
I'll always see this scene as Larry now. With Jeff in the background looking stressed as fuck!

Haha, I hope so!

Twonty Gostelow

After a very good first episode I thought this one had the odd laugh but was generally poor and sketchy. Bits where Larry was just too dumb - eg the toilet seat: hold the seat up with your finger using toilet paper, or just piss with the seat down; not being able to say the dog's name - funny as an idea at first, but too stupid when he actually really couldn't say it. Would the dentist have known about his colleague's abortion? The rock concert crowd depiction was shit, but then they usually are, as was the idea of Dylan O'Brien being tough one minute then turning girly and emotional when he saw Larry with the dog. I think the show's pulling its punches with the Netflix meetings. Until the "Don Junior" rant the younger staff members seemed to like Larry too much. If it wasn't a real company that the real Larry David is in bed with I think there'd have been a lot more mutual antipathy and more laughs.

Quote from: Dusty Substance on November 04, 2021, 07:59:23 PM
Continuity has never been one of Curb's strong points.

I still want an episode explaining what happened to his children.

Mobbd

Quote from: Twonty Gostelow on November 05, 2021, 03:39:02 PM
After a very good first episode I thought this one had the odd laugh but was generally poor and sketchy. Bits where Larry was just too dumb - eg the toilet seat: hold the seat up with your finger using toilet paper, or just piss with the seat down; not being able to say the dog's name - funny as an idea at first, but too stupid when he actually really couldn't say it. Would the dentist have known about his colleague's abortion? The rock concert crowd depiction was shit, but then they usually are, as was the idea of Dylan O'Brien being tough one minute then turning girly and emotional when he saw Larry with the dog. I think the show's pulling its punches with the Netflix meetings. Until the "Don Junior" rant the younger staff members seemed to like Larry too much. If it wasn't a real company that the real Larry David is in bed with I think there'd have been a lot more mutual antipathy and more laughs.

You're right about all of those details. I willfully overlooked them, which probably just shows how in thrall I am to this show (for better or worse - I'm enjoying it but can't have much authority as a critic).

Mind you, I don't know why Larry entertained the casting of Dylan O'Brien even for a second. I thought that the point of the rock concert would be Larry concluding that Dylan is too cool, too confident, too obviously Irish. He'd then struggle to articulate this to the execs when he "wants" his Lipschitz character to be played by the untalented Hispanic "actor." Not sure why it didn't go that way.

I'm waiting to see how the Netflix/Young Larry thing pans out. I remain optimistic. I'm hoping it will be like Seinfeld's Season 4 NBC stuff. There's really no need for him to pull his punches imo. Yes, they're the mighty Netflix but he's not exactly a nobody and he's really semi-retired so who cares?! Also, he seemingly has HBO on his side forever and always. HBO! Odd.

Twonty Gostelow

Oh I'd never give up on it just because of bits that should have been rejected as too incredible even in the LD universe, because I think every season has had a duffer or two. It just seemed extra-disappointing after such a good opener. I'm sure there's more brilliance to come.

Replies From View

The frequently lauded doll episode has him escaping through the toilet window as everyone noisily OVERREACTS in the lobby.  And in season 4 the audience of the Producers have their mouths agape in a highly unnatural manner as he fails to remember a line.  At other times we have flashbacks to Larry's past and the depiction of his former self is ludicrous.  And now I'm thinking of the episode with the rare swan and
Spoiler alert
the way that it was killed
[close]
.

So there have always been bursts of reality-puncturing cartoonishness, and it's hard to argue that it can ever cross the line with that in mind.  These bits have been part of the fabric of the show since the beginning.

up_the_hampipe

Curb has been Flanderizing itself. It's always had preposterous moments, but there are porns more believable than the episodes so far this season. 

Replies From View

I just think people watch newer episodes with a different lens to episodes they are familiar with.

Old Nehamkin

#79
I still enjoy modern Curb quite a lot, but it has very definitely become increasingly broad and outlandish since its early years, in a similar way to a lot of other long-running sitcoms. If you watch an episode from the first few seasons it's immediately apparent that the performances are more low-key and naturalistic, the moment-to-moment dialogue is looser and feels more organically improvised, and the plots are relatively grounded compared to the recent seasons.

I mean it wasn't exactly Dogme 95 or anything and of course there were beats and set pieces here and there that brushed against more surreal territory, but it's very hard to imagine the early show doing stuff like the extended three stooges parody from the last season or the ridiculous cascading celebrity spite store gag later on. Those are a couple of more egregious examples but I do think the show has morphed overall into a tonally and aesthetically distinct form from what it started out as. Not that that's entirely a bad thing - like I said, I still enjoy it.

My main issue really is that the episodes aren't nearly as tightly and cleverly constructed as they were in those early seasons, when the climax of each episode often felt like the reveal of an astonishing magic trick and there was a pleasure in anticipating just where all of the disparate threads of the story were going to lead to, knowing that the pay-off was going to be something surprising and elegant. That kind of masterful Fawlty Towers-esque farcical construction has definitely diminished over time.

ASFTSN

Quote from: Replies From View on November 05, 2021, 07:32:55 PM
The frequently lauded doll episode has him escaping through the toilet window as everyone noisily OVERREACTS in the lobby. And in season 4 the audience of the Producers have their mouths agape in a highly unnatural manner as he fails to remember a line.  At other times we have flashbacks to Larry's past and the depiction of his former self is ludicrous.  And now I'm thinking of the episode with the rare swan and
Spoiler alert
the way that it was killed
[close]
.

So there have always been bursts of reality-puncturing cartoonishness, and it's hard to argue that it can ever cross the line with that in mind.  These bits have been part of the fabric of the show since the beginning.

Not to mention you don't see him escape before the credits roll, and that the window is actually about 12 inches wide. One of the funniest 'off-screen' comedy moments for me there.

BeardFaceMan

There have always been trad elements to the show but they seem to have increased the last few years, in particular Larry's acting, it's a lot more sitcommy and broad, and dare I say hammy at times. I'd say the vibe of season 1 or 2 and season 11 are definitely distinct.

Quote from: Old Nehamkin on November 06, 2021, 10:23:27 AM
My main issue really is that the episodes aren't nearly as tightly and cleverly constructed as they were in those early seasons, when the climax of each episode often felt like the reveal of an astonishing magic trick.
Yeah, I agree with this. Despite the relaxed running time, newer episodes always seem to end abruptly, with comedic threads that barely pay off.

Quote from: Old Nehamkin on November 06, 2021, 10:23:27 AM
...the episodes aren't nearly as tightly and cleverly constructed as they were in those early seasons, when the climax of each episode often felt like the reveal of an astonishing magic trick. That kind of masterful Fawlty Towers-esque farcical construction has definitely diminished over time.

Spot on.

the science eel

Quote from: BeardFaceMan on November 06, 2021, 10:33:21 AM
There have always been trad elements to the show but they seem to have increased the last few years, in particular Larry's acting, it's a lot more sitcommy and broad, and dare I say hammy at times. I'd say the vibe of season 1 or 2 and season 11 are definitely distinct.

Yeah, but honestly what you call LD's 'hammy' acting are often features of the funniest moments in any season. His overreacting to a situation that most people would walk away from has always been a big belly-laugh for me. The outstretched palms, the raised voice, that pained look - I don't remember that not being present.


jobotic

The nonchalant "yeah I had an affair and paid for her abortion" " ohyou cheeky boy, I don't know how you do it" type stuff was a bit unpleasant I thought.

BeardFaceMan

Quote from: the science eel on November 06, 2021, 10:57:46 AM
Yeah, but honestly what you call LD's 'hammy' acting are often features of the funniest moments in any season. His overreacting to a situation that most people would walk away from has always been a big belly-laugh for me. The outstretched palms, the raised voice, that pained look - I don't remember that not being present.

I don't mean that so much, as you say that's a staple of the show, more where he just kind of goes "oh! oh! oh!" and drags it out. The first time I really noticed it was when he was in the car with Susie when she was having an orgasm. That kind of reacting is present a lot more now, he did a bit in the first ep when he found the body in his pool. It's the kind of thing he was doing in Seinfeld (and he was awful in Seinfeld, too much ham for my tastes), that's why I say it feels a lot more trad. It's not something i remember him doing a lot in the earlier seasons, his reactions were a bit more low-key and genuine.

Old Nehamkin

Quote from: jobotic on November 06, 2021, 11:06:08 AM
The nonchalant "yeah I had an affair and paid for her abortion" " ohyou cheeky boy, I don't know how you do it" type stuff was a bit unpleasant I thought.

I think the show has taken enough pains to establish the baked-in amorality of pretty much all the main characters for that subplot to read as blackly ironic and satirical rather than just glibly presenting Jeff and Larry as being normal and reasonable in their behaviour, but I was a bit surprised that they would jump so directly into territory like that in the post-MeToo climate. I do think Curb has managed to manouevre or grandfather its way into a position where it's strangely cancel-proof in a way that's true of very few other modern comedies (South Park and Always Sunny are the only two other shows that really come to mind).

jobotic

Yeah and I don't want it cancelled or anything, I love it.

QuoteI think the show has taken enough pains to establish the baked-in amorality of pretty much all the main characters for that subplot to read as blackly ironic and satirical rather than glibly portraying Jeff and Larry as being in the right

Totally agree with that - but at the same time this a programme about the ultra-privileged and I can forget that because I enjoy their company so much, but things like that bring it home.

the science eel

Quote from: BeardFaceMan on November 06, 2021, 11:11:54 AM
I don't mean that so much, as you say that's a staple of the show, more where he just kind of goes "oh! oh! oh!" and drags it out. The first time I really noticed it was when he was in the car with Susie when she was having an orgasm. That kind of reacting is present a lot more now, he did a bit in the first ep when he found the body in his pool. It's the kind of thing he was doing in Seinfeld (and he was awful in Seinfeld, too much ham for my tastes), that's why I say it feels a lot more trad. It's not something i remember him doing a lot in the earlier seasons, his reactions were a bit more low-key and genuine.

Yeah, I know what you mean. It does sometimes feel like he's playing to a theatre audience sometimes.