Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2167 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-10-18
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 300 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
It's more of the same for Larry David's sitcom from HBO, and for fans, that's a good thing. The show--largely extemporized--follows suit of David's former series, Seinfeld: it's a show about nothing, just the everyday life of the star going about his pseudo-real world. But David's show has far more edge (thanks, in part, to airing on cable TV) with all the bad luck, embarrassing situations, and dreadful behavior as its premiere season. The closest thing to an arc is David's season-long pitch to the networks for a new show starring former Seinfeld stars Jason Alexander and Julia-Louis Dreyfus. Each network is lampooned, especially HBO, which David has a bad history with in this alternate world. Sure to repel those with soft funny bones, Curb's acerbic comedy allows jokes where David is accidentally framed--if ever so briefly--as a child molester, wife abuser, or murderer. But for those who do love his shtick, there are big laughs, especially when we bump into characters as unbridled as David, like a fellow writer who is quite protective of his dad's invention, the Cobb salad.

Many comic actors pop up, some as "themselves" (Richard Lewis, Rob Reiner) and others as characters (Rita Wilson, Ed Asner) along with the delights of co-stars Cheryl Hines as David's wife and his affable manger, Jeff Garlin. There are several touchstone bits: what a thong brief can do to a relationship, a run-in with pro wrestler, Larry's first baptism, and one very collectible doll. To pick one episode to capture this second season--and its grandstanding nature--it would be "Shaq," in which the NBA star is accidentally tripped, changing David's usual bad luck with gut-busting results. --Doug Thomas

Synopsis
Everyone's favourite miserable millionaire is back for another season of unparalleled hilarity. This year, in addition to buying and settling into a new house, Larry manages to send Shaquille O'Neal to the hospital, offend a fellow Jewish neighbour, aggravate a professional wrestler, give an unwanted haircut to a doll, and much, much more. Once again, Larry David (co-creator of SEINFELD) has assembled a brilliant supporting cast--Cheryl Hines, Jeff Garlin, Wanda Sykes, Richard Lewis, Susie Essman--to realise his vision of a world that is comprised of one unfortunate misunderstanding after another.

Customer Reviews

The perfect farce
Curb Your Enthusiasm is one of the outstanding comedy shows of recent years, and Season 2 is one of the best series of comedy I've ever seen. It combines the 18-rated edginess of Season 1 with the off-the-wall unpredictability of later series.

The conceit is that Larry David (starring as himself) is a washed-up comedy writer trying to pitch a new series with his old Seinfeld pals (Jason Alexander, Julia Louis-Dreyfus). But every time he's close to sealing the deal, he manages to disgrace himself so utterly that he has to try another network. Larry's mishaps along the way include assaulting an NBA basketball star, killing an elderly millionaire, decapitating a child's favourite doll and developing a vendetta with a pro-wrestler.

I wouldn't describe this as "cringe comedy" as such -- it's more like "spectacular humiliation comedy", of a sort I haven't seen done this well since Fawlty Towers. Like Fawlty Towers, it works because of the acting. Larry David's "I cannot believe what just happened" expression is priceless. My only caveat is that the fly-on-the-wall format and strong language make "Curb" an acquired taste. Sometimes, as with The Office, the realism makes for uncomfortable viewing, and not everyone will be bowled over. But I was.

Improvised comedic genius
The Car Salesman
- Thor
- Trick or Treat
- The Shrimp Incident
- The Thong
- The Acupuncturist
- The Doll
- Shaq
- The Baptism
- The Massage

The second season of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" is even better than the first. The main characters are the same, with Larry David playing himself, Jeff Garlin as Jeff Greene (Larry's agent), and Cheryl Hines as Cheryl David (Larry's wife). As with the first season the shows are unscripted, and they focus on a single character (Larry) as he manages to rub people the wrong way in almost every facet of his life, and yet still manages to remain sympathetic enough for the show to work..

I found the episodes in the second season to be less predictable than those in the first season. In addition, the humour is drawn from many more diverse elements than in the first season.

There are ten episodes in the season of "Curb Your Enthusiasm". As was done for some of the Seinfeld series, this season the show has a season long plot which is present in most of the episodes. That premise is that Larry is trying to develop a series where the main character is an actor from a successful situation comedy and who is trying to distance themselves from their former role. Jason Alexander and Julia Louis-Dreyfus each play themselves in this storyline. Each episode also has its own storyline, which range from Larry trying his hand at being a car salesman to Larry accidentally tripping Shaquille O'Neal to his misunderstanding a Baptism for an attempted drowning, and more.


Every great TV show has a particularly great series where everything about the execution peaks and for Curb Your Enthusiasm it has to be this second series. The 'running' subplot of Larry trying to restart his TV career first with Jason Alexander and then with Julia Louis-Dreyfus playing themselves is a hilarious catalyst for all of the brilliant plotting in these eps. Curb already revolutionised the modern sit com with it's tightly plotted storylines, and who would've thought - all of the brilliant dialogue in this series is ad-libbed by the sensational cast (many of them standup comics or experienced comic actors). By shunning artificial studio sets in favour of real locations, it makes 'Friends' look like a Fisher Price commercial. The best thing about the show is the courageous presentation of Larry David as a weirdly sympathetic anti-hero. Why do we always go with him on these gut wrenching, doomed for failure hair-brained schemes? His self interest and miserly tendencies always get the better of him and like every good song that we already know the words to, we're happy to go on the same journey and see just how he manages to screw up his life this time. There is an episode in this series which for me, shines above all other Curb shows involving bottles of water, a bathroom without a lock and a doll's head. It is magnificently relentless and absolutely hysterical. I rank it with 'The Rat' episode in Fawlty Towers as one of the funniest eps in sitcom history.

Simply the best.
Curb your enthusiasm is probably one of the best series to ever hit our screens.It is incredibly original in its themes- it doesn't have any.The show proves without a doubt that stories don't need to be "socio-economic anything" in the words of Stephen King.Half the time we can sympathise with Larry and the situations he gets himself in, the other half of the time we cannot.Larry can be seen as a very rational guy questioning orthodox views.I could not imagine my life without the show!Season two is of greater calibre than season one if that is even possible.There are rumours that it is not scripted (impromptu) if this is so then they all deserve Oskars.

To many more hours of laughter!