It has an audience that loves the very DNA of the show.
Every random detour, every minor slight blown out of proportion, every absurd coincidence is lapped up.
We know the beats.
Credit: John P. Johnson/HBO
Weve all been learning how the show functions for nearly two decades and so have other creators.
Pieces ofCurbare sprinkled in every corner of a genre thats thriving in peak TV the idiosyncratic, auteur-driven comedy.
Curb Your Enthusiasmhas returned in a post-Curb Your Enthusiasmworld, and its showing.
The FBI has said that theres no immediate threat against his life.
Its here that the plotline neuters itself a bit.
These elements arent sewn so much into the fabric of Larrys life and therefore lack much weight.
Does it really matter if the hotel manager kicks him out?
Not if the only payoff is the undercooked prostitute consultation story line.
This gets at a bigger flaw of the show in its last few incarnations.
Without Cheryl, Larry is missing stakes.
His ex-wife didnt just fill a slot that the television show needed.
She was a dependable source of conflict that Larry couldnt walk away from until he did.
Without Cheryl, a plotline like Funkhousers nephew is just kind of floating anchorless.
Even a more involved role from Jeff or Susie would add some heft to that.
Anyway, this is all been a long-winded way of saying that the pickle gambit 100 percent worked.
And so did Mary Steenburgen walking arm in arm with a Larry lookalike.
