Larry David, the man behind "Seinfeld," has produced some of the funniest television in years. David was the co-creator and writer for "Seinfeld" for the duration of the show, and based the character of George on himself. With "Curb Your Enthusiasm," David takes self-deprecation, insensitivity, lack of tact and situational farce to a new level.
If you've never heard of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," it's probably because it airs only on HBO (the newest season started in January) or because you dislike brilliant television. Or it's because you're deaf, in which case I'm sorry and you'll be happy to learn the DVD has subtitles. The show was inspired by the success of a one-hour mockumentary about a stand-up performance by David. In essence, the series continues in the same fashion of the documentary, incorporating stars playing themselves and forays into the business side of Hollywood.
The show is filmed in digital video and the camera work is usually hand-held, which gives it a documentary/reality TV feel. There's also a great degree of spontaneity that comes from the show's characters. It's as if they're reacting naturally to the unfolding events because David starts with a basic premise or outline for a scene and then lets the actors create their own dialogue. The result is a mostly ad-libbed scene with the exception of certain key lines. Oftentimes, it's hard to imagine how scenes go as smoothly as they do while adhering to that process.
After a while, the show becomes predictable; it seems that David can't really do anything without causing a huge scene or catastrophe of some sort. "Seinfeld" was criticized for the same reason. At a point, I was a bit surprised when David managed to do some mundane task or keep a secret without incident.
As far as DVDs go, this one's pretty sparse. It features the first 10 episodes, the hour-long documentary and an interview with Bob Costas. It would have been nice to see some outtakes and more commentary or deleted scenes, but the shows are really enough. A small note - the packaging on this DVD is really cool, so cool I played with it until it broke. Originally, when you pulled a tab, both discs rolled out simultaneously, and it looked very "Japanese Limited Edition." It was magic. The replay value on this DVD is also obscenely high. It's not often that I can watch a DVD five times over in the course of a week.
Don't let the price tag of the DVD scare you away - $39.99 or $27.99 on Amazon.com. It's worth it, especially if you don't have cable.