J.P. Devine: Larry David’s ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ returns

Jeff Garlin, left, and Larry David, in a scene from “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” IMDb photo

Larry is back. Not Larry Fine of the Three Stooges, but Larry David of “Seinfeld” fame, with his 11th season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

Are we happy? We’ve waited a long time for this, right? And while we waited, the sky fell in on us with a virus out of China, one that Marco Polo didn’t bring home with macaroni.

But here Larry is, and we’re not “pretty, pretty” thrilled. Before there was real madness and anger and fear in our lives, Larry’s madness and anger and fear was funny. Now, not so much.

The same people, except for one are back: Jeff Garlin as his manager, who plays the cream in Larry’s black coffee moods to soften the sour flavor. We like Jeff.

Jeff’s nasty, foul-mouthed wife Susie (Susie Essman) from the wrong neighborhood in Jersey, roars in and “plops” next to Larry at a party, and spills red wine on a white couch. We didn’t like Susie before and still don’t. Nasty doesn’t have to be annoying.

Too much is made of the incident, as is usual in many of David’s sketches, as in “burglar drowns.”

Here then is the motor that kicks it all in motion. In the middle of the first night, a burglar breaks into Larry’s house, hits his head on the pool wall, falls into the pool and drowns. Stuff happens.

This is a sour seed that grows into a segment long dilemma for Larry.

Larry is cited for not having a fence around the pool; as we all know, pool fences are the law in Santa Monica.

This brings in the brother of the burglar, who has a daughter who wants to be in Larry’s upcoming movie about his childhood. This is kind of funny. You have to see daughter Maria (Keyla Monterroso Mejia) to get it.

“Hire her,” the brother/father says with a smile, or get sued for causing the death of the burglar.

It’s complicated, but then all of David’s menu of in-house dilemmas are carefully crafted compilations that sometimes involve interesting new faces.

We get the delightful Lucy Liu, of all people, who has been dating Larry (really?) when Larry runs into a glass door and suffers a bump that may, some suspect, are you ready for this? renders him “feeble” and diminishes his sexual attractiveness.”

Lucy Liu, among 10 seasons of gorgeous dates, has been having sex with balding, cantankerous, nasty old Larry? Really?

This is a crumbling infrastructure called “bridge too far.”

We’ve gone along with this absurd mate/date for 10 seasons of consisting of one gorgeous young girl bed mate after another, and we don’t really expect Larry to date Betty White, but Lucy Liu? Come on.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, star of everything funny, puts it best. “It’s because Larry has Seinfeld money.”

The good news is that J.B.Smoove, Larry’s comic sidekick, is back tossing out street trash mouth, and bless the stars, one of the great comic talents of all time, Albert Brooks is here. Now rich and living in the neighborhood, he throws a funeral for himself, so he can hear “mourners saying nice things about me.”

John Hamm is back, playing the same silly, confused actor, who, at the funeral, badgers Larry for a suitable kind word to use in his eulogy. Larry gently offers an absurdly unsuitable word, “Tsuris” (Yiddish for trouble.)

If you don’t agree with this writer, or just don’t care, and you’re eager to watch Larry try to float a comedy show with a crew of angry people through a still COVID tsunami, you can watch it on HBO Max ($14.99/month), or also watch the show through Hulu + Live TV and Amazon Prime. Nothing comes cheap these days.

FYI: If you want softer confusion, the “Seinfeld” collection, complete with George Constanza, Kramer, Elaine and Newman, the mailman are on Netflix.

J.P. Devine of Waterville is a former stage and screen actor.

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