Playlist: Curb Your Enthusiasm (Season 7)

Why? Playing catch-up

Seven seasons in, there aren't that many surprises left in Larry David's bag of misanthropy. That's not a knock, but a recognition that he has now become every bit an entrenched cultural character as his alter ego, George Costanza. There's a comforting familiarity with Curb at this stage. The fact that you know the formula of every episode and still laugh aloud means it's in that zone all great shows experience during their prime.

This season was centered around the much-hyped Seinfeld reunion culminating in the show-within-a-show finale. Yes, they wrote a new Seinfeld episode, and yes, it looked pretty good. As we discussed on Episode 4.0 of our podcast, I was and still am a big fan of the original Seinfeld series finale. Apparently, so is Larry David (who wrote it) which only endears the sonofabitch to me that much more. It seems like the rest of the cast have given in to public sentiment and aren't standing by the show. Their loss. Actually, they're all too rich to care.

One minor gripe, though maybe I just noticed it more this season: Larry seemed to resolve most of his self-inflicted mishaps by buying his way out of them. It lessens a bit of the impact when the consequences are mitigated by cash. It just makes it less relatable.

Favorite Episode: The Bare Midriff (if only for the final scene of Larry hanging off the roof)