This whole season of Curb Your Enthusiasm has given me a newfound love for the show.
Yes, Larry’s a total curmudgeon, but he was definitely more of a well-rounded and lovable curmudgeon this season. I don’t want to ruin anything for those of you who watch the show, and I don’t know if you all even watch Curb Your Enthusiasm, but I gotta say — the season six finale made me laugh out loud like nothing on television has in a while.
Click here if you enjoy reading a good spoiler, click here if you REALLY love a good spoiler. But you shouldn’t spoil it. You really, really need to see it for yourself.
Can’t wait for season seven!
Do any of you watch Curb? Then you’ll enjoy this interview with Larry David.
Discuss the finale with me in the comments!
I watched the episode twice on Monday. Hilarious. Top to bottom. And that ending was perfect. I hope the show comes back next year.
Okay, been waiting all season to comment on the Blacks, and Larry’s use of them. I thought with all Leon’s shucking-n-jiving, and the women constantly yammering, and the Black family being generally useless and using up Larry’s resources, I thought, this is Larry David…THERE HAS TO BE SOME GREAT PAYOFF for this collection of stereotypical, and racist crap.
However, as we end season six, none came. Worst yet, is he saying he has to settle for Loretta now that Cheryl doesn’t want him? That now he is so emotionally destitute, he is as good as the Katrina-victim-Blacks?
Okay, I know this man used this season to work out some problems with his real marriage, but it didn’t work for me. It just reminded me of the Seinfeld episodes where black women were cast as servants, behind cash registers, and were generally useless unless they were cast as mammies/healers to the white person’s pain. Using Vivica Fox to play that role is insulting.
I’m convinced the mostly male white writers have no idea who black women are. The shows I’ve seen all season – cavemen, carpoolers, curb – seem to be increasingly more obtuse when dealing with black women characters. All are extremely ass-backward to me. So why should I care about the WGA and their strike? They seem to be a bunch of racist, sexist pigs waiting to cast black women as mammies/servants/prostitutes/nurses…invisible helpers with no real significance of their own.
Larry thinks BLACKness is an excuse for bad behavior. It’s clear by the rampant stereotypes of the season finale. It allows him to wallow and indulge. Larry always wanted to yell and carry-on in a movie theatre, and now he gets his chance by becoming black. It’s all right for a black woman to be an attitudy and neck-rolling stereotype, so long as it’s not directed at him, just the object of his hatred. Blackness is the white man’s Al Jolson-escapist fantasy. Maybe for season 7, Larry will come back corked-up and blackfaced. It’s clear his superego is jewish, his id, black.
In all honesty I’ve watched this show maybe 2x and wasn’t impressed. But after clicking on the spoiler link pic provided here I have to ask (once again)-is there an entertainment credo that states there must be several stereotypically overweight, darkskinned and alternatively jolly/evil Black women in media rotation at all times? Maybe I’m being unfair because I’m basing this on one photograph, but something is telling me I’ve seen variations of this before, and is one reason why I never bothered to replace my broken tv. And I TOTALLY second ‘wrotethisbefore’s comments about the writers strike: if all they can do is rely on ‘subtly blatant’ racist opinions against people who don’t look like them then they can stay on strike.
Most of my writer friends who are on strike are black. Hollywood only pays attention to $$$. When a movie like TALK TO ME doesn’t make money despite the great reviews and a broad not well-written movie full of stereotypes does, which movie do you think the power brokers will make?
As a black woman working in Hollywood it is very frustrating trying to get movies made that reflect the many different layers of black women only to be told and I quote “Black women have no value”. The agent meant in the marketplace but my writer/director (a black women) and I were beyond upset.
I should have prefaced my comments by saying I love Curb Your Enthusiasm. I love, love, love Larry David, Seinfeld and whatever shows he makes. I think he’s a freaking evil genius. And I loved this season of Curb. Yes. With all the stereotypical crapolla. It just worked. The Leon character is a god. I frequently repeat “long ball larry”, when I get bored…
That said, I’m completely envious as a writer and filmmmaker (NYC guerilla independent, not the hollywood kind), that white men ALWAYS seem to have opportunities to render my likeness as a black woman, but no one throws money at me to do the same thing. It is terribly uneven. And while Larry David used black stereotypes to produce a pretty good season, I’ve seen more rotten, vile television using black women as the punchlines, the fall guys, the things you wouldn’t want to be, the things we should all despise. The Caveman, Carpooler, 30 Rock, shows particularly tick me off.
The percentage of black wiriters in hollywood is too miniscule for me to care about the WGA strike. The ones they typically employ are ‘toophers’ (tokens), who are basically compliant, useless black people, who want their jobs more than they are willing to inject beauty, truth, art, and authenticity to television writing. If you watch 30 Rock, you’d know exactly what I’m talking about…
And I just may send that Christmas card out to my friends this year!
Wow, I didn’t expect this range of responses – this makes me want to watch the season again with more critical eyes. I see Curb Your Enthusiasm as an exercise in stereotypes. Larry David himself is a stereotype. So are Cheryl, Jeff, and Susie. So this season I saw as a kind of growth – Larry reveals himself to be more than just a jerk who only cares about his desires and opinions, now that he’s heartbroken and doesn’t have someone who genuinely understands him.
Wrote this someplace else – I didn’t see this new relationship as him “settling,” I saw it as him realizing the kind of relationship he genuinely wanted to be in. When he gazed at her on the dancefloor, I think LD realized that Loretta Black is that strong woman who will accept him for the flawed person that he is, call him on his BS and still stand by his side when other people get in his face (like at the end with Susie, OMG that made me crack up). But like I said, I need to watch it again.
I do see what you all mean about the stereotypical family. Honestly, my first pick for a woman for Larry to be with would have been Auntie Rae — there was some… um, inference that he may have found her physically attractive in an earlier episode, LOL — and also, I think she is closer in age to LD. That would have been more groundbreaking than having him end up with foxy Loretta. But I honestly grew to love all of the Black family ESPECIALLY Leon, and I looked forward to their participation each episode. The most stereotypical part at the end, where they’re all yelling at the movie screen, was totally over the top, but it didn’t bother me.
Thinking about this in the wider scope of the writer’s strike makes me wonder — who actually writes for Curb? Are any African American writers in Larry David’s employ? I’d love to see a panel discussion on this with people in the industry, so viewers like me who just took the show at face value, didn’t really think about it in a broader, deeper context and just laughed could know what the behihd-the-scenes intent was here. What would you guys have preferred to see, and what changes would you like to see next season?
Loretta cussing out Jeff’s wife was definitely the best part. But I think that the reason Larry suddenly fell for Loretta is because she’s just like Cheryl! She seems to be so understanding and accepting of his crap. She wasn’t even embarrassed about him talking about his anus on stage, she just thought it was funny. At the beginning of the episode, he said he would never find anyone like Cheryl again, and at the bat mitzvah it was like he had an epiphany and realized Loretta was as close to Cheryl he was going to get.
Was it just me, or does Larry seem to be very skilled at picking up chicks?? He seemed to flirt with Lucy Lawless, the doctor and Paula with ease, for someone who hadn’t dated in 12 years. He just didn’t know what to do with them once he got them.
Larry as he’s gotten older has learnt to use his neurosis as a charm. Hopefully he can mirror those succesful pick-ups this season in his real-life re-entry into the dating scene!
I GUESS YOU KNOW THAT THIS SHOW IS REALLY MY FAVOURITE. YOUR MOM SEEMS UNABLE TO UNDERSTAND WHY, BUT HE IS REALLY SOMETHING ELSE. THAT CANNOT BE AN ACT. I BELIEVE HE IS JUST AS IRRITATING IN HIS OTHER LIFE. iT IS THE ONLY SHOW I TRY NOT TO MISS
lOVE,
d
I love CYE & Larry is my boy! I am watching tonight on demand. Larry’s set of Black character is interesting but far from racist imo.
Bygbaby
I for one enjoyed this season…as I have every season of CYE. I agree with Bella. The characters are all an exercise in stereotypes. In actuality, Susie is more “ghetto” than all of them. Have you heard the things that have come out of that woman’s mouth over the seasons?! I do admit that Leon was over the top at times, but I never found myself cringing. I simply watched it and enjoyed it. And laughed like hell. And shook my head at Larry’s brilliant insanity.
Let us now forget that these are not the first black people they’ve had on there. Remember Wanda Sykes’ character…and then there was last season, Cheryl’s doctor who Larry made that comment about and then had to go to his house to apologize in front of a room full of his professional black friends? No stereotypes there.
I was happy to see some black people on the show period. They didn’t tear up the house, leave chicken bones, smoke weed, or any of the stereotypical ways they have us “show out.” I just didn’t find it offensive, but perhaps I just saw the episodes and didn’t watch.
From my understanding, the show is unscripted. Totally improv.
I just saw the finale last night & OMG, it was off the chain. I cannot believe that Larry hit that.
I died laughing at the last movie scene & considered Larry to the latest soul brother.
This season went out with a bang once Susie got cussed the hell out. That was a long time coming!
Bygbaby
I LOVE Larry David, he’s freakin way too funny. I think with Larry it’s about him making fun of the self-hating jew persona more so than making fun of anything else. He makes EVERYONE look bad, but he is so skilled at it, while I understand the complaints some may have in regards to this show, if you hung out with Jewish people you’d know that Jewish people probably have way more to be offended about in regards to this show than black people. He’s wrong on many levels, but very funny to me.
Jane
The thing about Larry, he understands that stereotypes are funny and in that way he’s an equal opportunity offender.
I’d have been happy to see Larry end up with Loretta, they’d be really cute together. The Autie Rae character is lovely, but not an attractive woman. Larry actually does very well with the ladies (inexpicably), so I’d expect him to be with someone beautiful, whether they were white or black.
And I agree that Leon is hilarious in a way that transcends race. He’s so over the top that you can’t associate him with any black person you know!