Photograph: HBO/© Home Box Office, Inc.
Has Curb Your Enthusiasm softened with age? In some ways, not at all. There is a scene in the opening episode of the new, 12th and supposedly final season in which Larry David is talking to a boring party guest and simply repeats her words in a silly voice at maximum volume. That woman is not seen again.
As the sitcom misadventures of the Seinfeld co-creator’s alter ego have progressed, however, Curb has smoothed some of its edge. The addition a few years ago of the phenomenal JB Smoove as Leon, Larry’s priapic freeloader of a lodger, has given the comedy a more collective vibe, since Leon has his own brand of independent thought bluntly expressed. In the old days, home life was just Larry’s then wife, Cheryl, reacting to his peculiarities. Awkward embarrassment doesn’t hang in the air quite as malevolently as it did when Curb began.
