Image via Complex
11.
In the waning days of pre-corona 2020, Larry David pulled off the near-impossible. The best series crumble under longevity, for sitcoms that lifespan is arguably even shorter. And David himself even scuffed his crown jewel ever so slightly when Curb Your Enthusiasm's much-ballyhooed comeback season, its ninth following a record six-year hiatus, quickly revealed itself as the show's weakest year yet (spoiler alert for this list). Turns out all LD needed was to get active again.
Season 10 is a bounce-back that exceeds the task of just being better than 9—mid-way through its run chatter about it being one of, if not the best season of the series started and the excellent star-studded finale confirmed those premature evaluations.
Even some of Curb's loyal supporters would argue that it's not really a series most think of in the context of seasons. You remember "the one with the doll" or "Krazee-Eyez Killa" without much care to which season that episode falls in. That's not entirely true. Save season 1, each year has a loose theme tying Larry's misadventures together. Think deeper and you remember Ben Stiller sticking around for a bunch of episodes, or the season with Vivica A. Fox and of course, the Seinfeld season. So with that said, let's get full nerd with it: Does season 10 really stack up with some of Curb's cemented classic years as the best?
Here is our ranking of the seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
10.Season 9
The one where: Larry's Fatwa play project puts him in the actual crosshairs of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Notable episode(s): "Foisted!", "The Accidental Text on Purpose"
Calling a season of Curb the worst season of Curb has to be taken with a grain of salt; that's like calling an A+ student a failure because they got a B- on a test. That said, this is definitely Larry David's most mid season by far. Chalk it up to the six-year hiatus between Seasons 8 and 9, or the Fatwa play that didn't really go anywhere, or the underwhelming Lin-Manuel Miranda cameos...something just didn't hit. It's almost like Larry was trying to get his form back, and we could all see him stumbling to achieve the greatness of the following 10th season before our eyes. You gotta crawl to walk, though, and one has to wonder: would Season 10 have been so dope if Season 9 wasn't so lackluster? It wasn't trash...it just felt off. —khal
9.Season 8
The one where: Larry, Jeff, Susie and Leon take New York
Notable episode(s): “Palestinian Chicken,” “The Bi-Sexual,” “Mister Softee”
The season starts with a classic Larry question to Cheryl—“Do you respect wood?”—and we’re off from there as the season splits its time between LA and NYC. After Larry unsuccessfully tries to become the first man to shit where he eats, then eat where he shat at home in LA, he spends the summer in the Big Apple competing with Rosie O’Donnell for the affection of a bi-sexual, playing softball for maniacal team manager/garage owner Yari (the riotous Robert Smigel), and beefing with Michael J. Fox. But before ALL OF THAT, we were treated to one of the funniest episodes in the series’ history. Somehow, someway “Palestinian Chicken” was egregiously left off our 2017 list of the 25 best Curb Your Enthusiasm episodes, but it deserves its proper due for being piss-your-pants funny as LD mocks Israeli-Palestinian relations like only the warped, brilliant mind of the real Larry David could. It’s also the same episode where Jeff crowned Larry a social assassin for his give-no-fucks attitude about calling everyone out on their bullshit. Shara at Al-Abbas Chicken would call that a two-for-one special. —Adam Caparell
8.Season 5
The one where: Larry, believing he might be adopted, hires a P.I. to track down his real parents
Notable episode(s): "The Ski Lift," "The End"
Season 5 is just good. Running story arcs involving the truth of Larry's parentage—if Larry's not a Jew then who is he, truly?!—and Richard Lewis in dire need of a kidney donor operation just didn't pack the same punch or provide fodder for the highest of hijinks as seasons prior and following. The exception, of course, being "The Ski Lift," in which wooing a doctor for Lewis necessitates a scenario as delightfully sitcom-y as Curb has ever been: the wife swap. Larry and Susie having to pretend to be an orthodox couple? Dedicating just half an episode to that idea is criminal, imagine that recurring alongside Lewis' donor journey? Still, Larry brings it all home in the end. After imagining life as Bizarro Larry—read: kind, gracious, amenable—the idea of Larry's personality being ingrained beyond change, scenario or circumstance is doubled down when the Bald Asshole gets himself kicked out of heaven. It's the only finale that felt like it would've truly worked as a series finale but Thank God, literally, that Curb didn't die there. —Frazier Tharpe
7.Season 2
The one where: Larry gets back into television
Notable episode(s): "The Acupuncturist," "The Doll"
This might be the most underrated season of Curb and it's hard to pinpoint why. It's the first season to play with a theme—Larry tries to get a new show with a Seinfeld alum off the ground—but it plays with that theme in much looser fashion than following seasons will. And it's not quite star-studded—but on the other hand, with an arc that sees an even split of cameos from Jason Alexander and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, it's almost like a test run for the Seinfeld reunion David would go for later. The meta-levels are higher than ever with TV Larry trying to make a series about a sitcom star trying to shed association with an iconic role, and striking out with every network because, by the end of his antics in each episode, they're good on being in business with him.
There are classics in here though, like one of my personal favorites, "The Acupuncturist" (featuring the great Ed Asner) and then "The Doll," an episode that I can attest is literally taught in comedy classes at film schools for its genius construction and payoff. Other seasons of Curb have more glitz and notoriety, but rewatch Season 2: you might be surprised how many casual bangers are in there. —Frazier Tharpe
6.Season 10
The one where: Larry opens a coffee shop to spite his nemesis, Mocha Joe
Notable episode(s): "The Ugly Section," "Elizabeth, Margaret and Larry"
It's almost as if Larry knew and readily acknowledged Season 9 wasn't his best effort—he confirmed plans for a tenth quicker than he's ever agreed to a new season since the fifth. Like JAY-Z once hilariously said of Kingdom Come: "First game back, don't shoot me." From Season 8 onwards, I've treated new seasons of Curb like I treat new JAY albums: tempered expectations, tapering my hopes off at "solid" and accepting that nothing new will probably match the heights of the imperial phase. Even Kingdom Come has gems, and Season 9 had its own flashes of brilliance. Still, too many middling returns can threaten the curve. But still, that renewal said everything. So I approached season 10 with cautious optimism. And the reward is Larry's 4:44.
If Season 9 was the first game back, Larry is fully in shape in season 10, with just one dud (that'd be "Side Sitting") and a bunch of truly inspired rich people's problems fuckshit. Spite Stores! Fake Criers! Destination Weddings! Jon Motherfucking Hamm reinventing the celebrity cameo with on a show that's already reveling in meta-satire. I feel like those calling Season 10 one of the show's best haven't revisited those early seasons in awhile. But what matters is that we're having this debate to begin with. True GOATs don't fall-off, they just need a recharge. —Frazier Tharpe
5.Season 3
The one where: Larry, Jeff, Ted and others conspire to open a restaurant
Notable episode(s): "Krazee-Eyez Killa," "The Corpse-Sniffing Dog"
The first five episodes of this season are populated with super solid episodes whose mileage may vary person to person but otherwise represent Curb firmly in the pocket but also still firmly on solid ground. Then once Larry plumbs new depths by using his recently deceased mother as a catch-all excuse, the season takes flight. The back half of Season 3 is stuffed with installments that should appear in the top 20 of any respectable Curb ranking.
"Krazee-Eyez Killa" is arguably the best episode of the series—and incidentally a backdoor pilot test-run for Leon—in part because it nails on the one aspect the show hadn't perfected yet: larger-than-life, frankly absurd characters. Beefing with Ted Danson is great, but a series that's filmed improv style and aims to capture real-time reactions could use a few cartoon characters to really spice things up. Chris Williams' titular amalgam of a Murda Inc/Nelly type rapper was one of the series first (as bizarre as he was, Bob Odenkirk's Porno Gil was fairly restrained), paving the way for Kym Whitley's sex worker, Leon and so many more. And while we all remember the Tourette's-afflicted profanity-inclined chef or Larry wrestling with Joseph on Christmas morning, for my money the sleeper gem in this pack is "The Corpse-Sniffing Dog." Larry's social impropriety is one of his most horrifying—"he makes the money, why am I thanking you?" oof—and the drama that spins out of it weaves in Jeff and Susie's separation, Oscar the dog and the season's restaurant arc beautifully. —Frazier Tharpe
4.Season 1
The one where: We get introduced to Larry's post-Seinfeld life
Notable episode(s): "Porno Gil," "Interior Decorator," "Beloved Aunt,"
Whither the days when Curb truly reveled in the banalities of upper-class day-to-day: when an LD scheme simply centered on buying Cheryl a bracelet, a Seinfeld-cameo was just Larry parading Julia for a meet-and-greet with troublesome neighbors, and the entirety of one episode just revolved around a porn actor's bizarre dinner party. Episodes like "Interior Decorator" and "Beloved Aunt" are kind of a far cry from the high-concept antics of Season 10's Cabo trips or Jon Larry David Hamm, but they're definitely far from dated. "Porno Gil," "Decorator," the newspaper obit typo that drives "Aunt"...these episodes aren't just amusing, they're laugh-out-loud funny.
Take Larry buying sunglasses in the mall, and unraveling the kiosk's shoddy gift policy. It can't be more than 90 seconds, fits into that episode's plot marvelously but also stands on its own as a scene both relatable for his valid frustrations and hilariously awkward because he's being such a dick about it. Stripped to the basics, Curb only gets more potent. And proves why we're all still obsessed 20 years later. —Frazier Tharpe
3.Season 7
The one where: Larry stages a Seinfeld reunion just to get Cheryl back
Notable episode(s): "Officer Krupke," "The Table Read," "Seinfeld"
Season 7 of Curb is a caper, in-series and in real life, and by its end, both Larry Davids are cheesing harder than Danny Ocean. I still can't believe he got away with it, even 11 years later. Despite a steadfast claim that the world will never see a true blue Seinfeld reunion, Larry gets to have his cake and eat it too, by dedicating the season's plot to Fictional Larry staging a reunion—with Jerry, Jason Alexander, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, and Michael Richards all participating—just to win Cheryl back. It's a genius loophole for Larry and Jerry to indulge in all the thrills of a revival with none of the burdens of expectation, at least not really. But it's not a copout either: the glimpses of plot and actual scenes-within-the-show that we get to see and hear—to this day, "The Table Read" feels like Christmas morning—are brilliant. It's a flex on the co-creators' part, one that says we won't give you want but if we did, we'd knock it out of the park.
The even bigger flex is that the season doesn't even use Seinfeld as a crutch. TV Larry may be trying to win his wife back, but IRL Larry was already divorced, and incidentally (or not), the humor is decidedly more mean-spirited and edgier than previous seasons. ("Officer Krupke" alone has a lot to say about later-year marriage life.) Bachelor Larry yields much more hijinks than monogamous, doting Larry ever could—word to Denise Handicap. And while I'm grateful we get three whole seasons after this, albeit on Larry's schedule, there hasn't been a final scene more perfect and apt for a final statement on Larry than when indulging of his own neuroses proves more important than getting the thing he most wanted. —Frazier Tharpe
2.Season 4
The one where: Larry gets roped into The Producers opposite Ben Stiller and later David Schwimmer; Larry tries to make good on Cheryl's 10th anniversary gift to him: an affair
Notable episode(s): "Ben's Birthday," "The Blind Date," "The Car Pool Lane," "The Surrogate"
Season 4 is, as the slug above says, the year the great Mel Brooks enlists Larry to star in The Producers, for reasons unclear given Larry objectively has no Broadway theater skills to speak of. But even if you're not a nerd like me who can recite which episode goes in which season off the top, and argue that outside of theme, each year of Curb still follows a basic formula, then ranking them really just becomes a hit battle. And Season 4, by that metric, is fucking stacked.
Ben Stiller is arguably a top-five celebrity guest on this show—it was probably hard to get a guy like him to commit to a full season (especially in 2004) but that's fine because Ben bailing out midway through makes total sense as written: he reaches peak frustration and exhaustion with Larry in record time. The toothpick-eye stab is the rare achievement of a comedy where it earns a genuine laugh out loud even on the hundredth viewing. Sub in David Schwimmer for the back half, also playing himself as a mega-star who has absolutely no idea how to react to this bizarre old man or why Mel even hired him in the first place and you have the makings of an instant-classic season.
Meanwhile, a running subplot that sees Larry trying—and often failing—to make good on Cheryl's 10th anniversary gift of one-time extramarital sex is, in retrospect, a test drive for the misadventures of latter-series Bachelor Larry. From a surrogate Larry inadvertently inspires to keep her baby, to Richard Lewis freaking out Mugsy Bogues at a urinal, Season 4 is all hits and no misses. At this point, we're just comparing A+s. —Frazier Tharpe
1.Season 6
The one where: The Black Family—J.B. Smoove and Vivica Fox—move in with Larry and Cheryl
Notable episode(s): “Meet the Blacks,” “The Anonymous Donor," "The Ida Funkhouser Roadside Memorial," "The N Word,” “The Bat Mitzvah”
While I would argue there are no grand slams in Season 6, it's full of doubles and maybe a triple or two. Most notably, this is the season we are introduced to one of the show’s top five supporting characters. Really, he’s top two (and he’s not two) and he’s the one who helps Larry get his mojo back during a turbulent 10 episodes after his marriage dissolves. We’re talking, of course, about the legendary Leon Black who shows up to join his cousins in the second episode after Larry and Cheryl take in The Blacks, hurricane refugees, in the opener. It doesn’t take long for the brothers from another mother to form a bond—namely Leon psyching up Larry to “get in that ass” or offering to do his dirty work—that’s lasted five seasons and counting. This season gifted us the term “schmohawk” and a classic nickname “Long Ball Larry” after LD suffers an unfortunate testicle-twisting accident when he’s thrust onto the dating scene. It also treated us to arguably the greatest 14 seconds in the show’s history. In the penultimate scene of the finale, Loretta Black bitches out Susie Green—coming to the defense of her new man, Larry, in ways Cheryl never did—much to LD’s delight. — Adam Caparell