TV Review: Curb Your Enthusiasm is still pretty funny in its final season

"A lot of the awkwardness comes out of super-rich Larry David trying to relate to people - he’s running out of ideas after 12 seasons, but there’s no shame in that."

Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm.

So it’s the beginning of the end for Curb Your Enthusiasm (Sky Comedy and NOW), which has had other comedy writers scratching their heads since 2000. 

How can 12 seasons of this show, about a cranky man in loose trousers who says what we only think, be regarded as the funniest thing of all time? I wish I knew. But in the final season it’s still pretty funny.

Long-time fans will spot the awkward scenarios before they unfold. Larry and his friends order brunch in a café and service is slow because the waiter is grieving his freshly dead mother. 

First, they are sympathetic, then aggrieved that they will have to give a ‘condolence tip’ and finally Larry quietly takes the tray from him because he’s starving. 

I was waiting for something more publicly embarrassing but, in fairness, the first rule of good comedy is to spring a surprise and it was a neat trick to play on our expectations.

The story moves to Atlanta for a paid appearance at an African businessman’s birthday party. 

Larry feels cheated when it turns out that it’s a white man from South Africa, a nice dig at the virtue signalling that goes on among the super-rich. 

The birthday boy refuses to pay up because Larry wasn’t cordial enough to his guests, so they work it out with an ad hoc peace and reconciliation commission.

Larry David and Leon (JB Smoove) in Curb Your Enthusiasm.

This must sound as funny as diarrhoea if you never watched Curb Your Enthusiasm before, but the enjoyment is all in watching the situation unfold and deteriorate. 

The story ends up with Larry getting arrested for offering a bottle of water to a woman who gave him a loan of her glasses. It’s that kind of show.

Is it still the funniest thing of all time? No, but that’s partially because he’s lost the element of surprise. Show fan s will feel over-familiar with most of the situations . 

A lot of the awkwardness comes out of super-rich Larry trying to relate to people serving him or cleaning his room, and there is more of that here. He’s running out of ideas after 12 seasons but there’s no shame in that.

The plotting isn’t what it used to be either. At its peak, every incident in the show was relevant, as the story weaved around and back. 

It’s less precise now, with a few bits put in for a quick laugh, such as fat-shaming a dog in an airport. 

There was a time when this would have come back to haunt Larry in the end. 

Now it feels a bit more like a sketch show with a loose thread. But it’s still funny.