I have to watch the "Mad Men" finale in a few minutes(*), so no time to do a full-length review of tonight's "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Two points: 1)How do people feel about Elisabeth Shue and John Schneider both playing characters rather than themselves, and what that says about the "Curb" fame continuum?" 2)Though "Officer Krupke" wasn't a great episode overall, the payoff at the end was perfect, and a rare instance on "Curb" of everything coming together to benefit Larry, rather than cause him more problems. (*) As a reminder, because I have to watch this one live, the review won't go up for several hours at a minimum. Do not put comments in this or any other posts discussing the finale. Just show patience, please.
What did everybody else think?
Also, the casting director was played by former NBC casting director Marc Hirschfeld, who worked with Larry and Jerry on Seinfeld.
ReplyDeleteI agree, thought it was a decent episode overall. Here is my question though. As Larry was leaving Banana Republic, I swore I saw Ben Affleck in the scene as well. Am I crazy or did he just have one of the most random cameos in Curb history?
ReplyDeleteI did a double-take and thought it was Affleck but it was just a dead ringer, I think. Also, not that anyone cares, but I am 95% certain that poker player Erik Seidel was eating lunch behind Larry and Cheryl in the restaurant, which was odd.
ReplyDeletedude, Zach, I totally saw Affleck too. That def has to be the most random cameo in history
ReplyDeletedefinitely affleck and seidel
ReplyDeleteCheryl said on twitter awhile ago that "ben affleck was an extra on Curb this yr. was shopping while we were shooting. he's a good sport. look for him", so I take it was him.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was a great episode. For all the crap that Larry takes, he has to be the best friend ever to go along with Jeff on that.
As for the celebrity continuum, I think that if an actor has participated in the Seinfeld universe, they will play themselves, as they've already been a character in an LD fiction. (Lisa Edelman, for instance, would not play a part akin to the one played by Elisabeth Shue tonight.) Otherwise, they play a role. The exceptions are when it's funnier for the actor to play him or herself. (e.g.Ted Danson, Michael York, Christian Slater.) I'm not sure why it was funnier to have Kevin Nealon play 'himself' in "Kamikaze Bingo" while having Tim Meadows play an anonymous character in "The Rat Dog" - but it was. That's why LD is LD, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteAs for the episode - amusing but not great throughout - with a GIANT belly laugh at the end. Works for me.
Seinfeld writer Carol Leifer was the mom. Decent episode, great payoff
ReplyDeletenot the best episode, but it was great none the less
ReplyDeletethere only 2 ways to injure your neck, hilarious!
Nowhere else to post this, so I'll just ask here. I'm a bit stumped by the new theme. All I can think of is "people having a bad hair day", but that doesn't seem quite right. Or there's a (very loose) theme of "spinoffs, remakes, and movies" - one inspired spinoffs and movies, one was a spinoff, one was a spinoff of a movie, and one is a remake - but I don't think that's it either. Am I missing something?
ReplyDelete@Tom: What about Philip Baker Hall?
ReplyDelete@Matthew: They're all aliens.
Echoing everyone else that the payoff was spectacularly funny. I thought the ep was okay overall. Now I have to watch again to see Affleck - didn't notice him at all.
ReplyDeleteI can see JS not getting to play himself, but Elisabeth Shue should have been able to. Oh, well.
Was anyone else halfway waiting for Larry to slip in mud, thus dirtying the "very pants he was on his way to return."
ReplyDeleteYet another gag that was similar to a Seinfeld joke, which makes me think there was a true story that inspired it.
Anon @ 11:13
ReplyDeletePBH = The exception which proves the rule. ;-)
I don't know if I'm missing something or not. Usually the episodes come together in a very clear way. I was confused as to how everything worked out so perfectly. Was Officer Krumke in on it? How did Larry know that an officer would come over and ask him to remove his pants? And if not, what was his plan in going over to Jeff's? Would appreciate an explanation...thanks!
ReplyDeleteI was thinking the same thing Paul. I've been disappointed with the lack of Seinfeld cast members so far this season. If anything, it seems like more screen time has been given to past plot points from Seinfeld rather than its actors. But the show keeps me laughing, so I guess I don't really have anything to complain about.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't get past the fact that there would be no way a cop named Krupke could reach that age and not know the song.
ReplyDeleteIt is good to know that there are only two sources of neck injuries. Maybe I'll use that in a personal injury trial sometime.
Captcha: "Copyroc" - an imitation of Cop Rock.
They are all from other planets. Spock (Vulkin), Mork from Ork, Um.. the guy from Alien Nation, and T-Pol from Star Trek Enterprise who is either Romulan or Vulcan.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing the theme is inspired by V.
"Was anyone else halfway waiting for Larry to slip in mud, thus dirtying the 'very pants he was on his way to return.'"
ReplyDeleteI was absolutely waiting for that to happen and was really surprised that it didn't.
Nice new theme, but man. Unflattering picture of Morena Baccarin.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I thought it was clear - I was joking about not getting the theme, since it's probably the most obvious theme since the moustaches.
ReplyDeleteAnd the one on the right is Morena Baccarin in V, not T'Pol from Enterprise.
I can think of two reasons why Elisabeth Shue wasn't playing herself:
ReplyDelete(1) They wanted to avoid redoing the Meg Ryan joke--i.e., Cheryl David loses part to known celebrity.
(2) She didn't want people to think she was into threesomes.
Unflattering picture of Morena Baccarin.
ReplyDeleteIt's from those ads ABC kept running before the debut. I like it because it makes her look a little like The Joker.
We rewound several times when we first saw it and there is no doubt in my mind it was Affleck.
ReplyDeleteWhen Jeff showed up in a neck brace at the end, well, I almost lost control of my bodily functions. Great payoff all around.
I caught Affleck running out of Banana Republic and actually thought he would be the one who took Larry's pants, leading to some sort of Affleck-David confrontation. Hilarity would ensue.
ReplyDeleteDamn red herring cameos!
Also thought Elisabeth Shue was well known enough to play herself. If fellow BTTF III alumni Mary Steenburgen gets to, why shouldn't she? (She still looks awesome, by the way).
It always throws me a bit when Larry meets a character he already knows, but we've never seen before. I'm correct in saying we've never seen Elisabeth Shue's character on the show before, even though everyone is good friends with them?
So wait, why did he have on the women's underwear at the end? That confused me.
ReplyDeleteMary Steenburgen is married to Ted Danson though so she has to be/play herself, unless Ted Danson was someone that wasn't Ted Danson. It's Monday and my head is going to hurt if I think about this too long.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw that Carol Leifer was going to be on the epsiode, I figured she'd be given more to do.
ReplyDeleteElisabeth Shue's husband, Davis Guggenehim, is the director of "An Inconvenient Truth," so having her play herself might hit too close to home given Laurie/Cheryl's environmental activism (which Cheryl seems to have abandoned this season).
This season, the show keeps spinning the "reunion shows are lame" theme by invoking earlier "Curb" shows in nearly every episode.
The lemonade kids are younger versions of the trick-or-treaters in my favorite episode. They even hurl the same epithet at Larry.
Other times, it's more subtle, such as the potential reunion show plots on the office grease board.
While I figured the line was a Jason Alexander improv, I wonder about LD and if he's addressing the panning he got because the "Seinfeld" finale was just a recap of the show's best bits.
Larry came up with a plan to finally convince Susie the undies were his, which is why he was wearing the panties. It probably involved him spilling something on his pants and needing to wash them immediately, or having Susie catch him coming out of the bathroom not quite zipped up yet. We didn't get to see how he was going to make the reveal, though, because of Krupke interruptus.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this last episode if just for the payoff at the end. just great ending, although about halfway through the episode I found myself wondering how officer Krupke was gonna be used in the episode. I didn't think it would unravel like that though, and lead to LD being able to take off his shorts and "reveal" his secret. Does anyone else miss Leon? I really hope we getta see him interact on the set of Seinfeld.
ReplyDeleteI immediately thought of the ruining of "the very pants I was about to return" too, but that was in the Van Buren Boys episode of Seinfeld from season 8, after LD had left the show.
ReplyDeleteI hope he works the Bubble Boy into an episode somehow...
I'm fine with Shue playing a character and I didn't recognize the guy who played her husband...but I did instantly recognize Affleck and Seidel, so there you go
ReplyDeleteI loved LD asking for his dollar back, I loved how extenuated the argument with the banana republic clerk got, and I loved imagining Cheryl Hines and Elisabeth Shue in a threesome
great ending, great episode, not hilarious throughout, but very memorable
"My name is Larry David and I enjoy wearing women's panties." I cannot get that quote out of my head and because of that alone, this is one of my favorite episodes this season.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the discussion about Shue and Schneider playing characters as opposed to appearing as themselves, the "threesome" angle may provide an explanation. From a PR angle it probably makes better sense to play a swinging couple under a different name.
ReplyDeleteIs it me, or is Jeff the Philanderer a new trait this season?
ReplyDeleteCAPTCHA: Enosita, a female Eno.