Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Series Blu Ray Review (Warner Bros.)

Curb Your Enthusiasm is a 2000 comedy television series written, produced, and created by Larry David (Seinfeld, Fridays, Saturday Night Live, Norman’s Corner, Clear History, and Sour Grapes). It was directed by Jeff Schaffer (EuroTrip and The League), Robert B. Weide (How to Lose Friends and Alienate People), Larry Charles(Seinfeld), Bryan Gordon (Career Opportunities), David Steinberg (Mad About You), Alec Berg (Silicon Valley), David Mandel (Veep), Andy Ackerman (Cheers),Jeff Garlin (I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With), Cheryl (played by: Cheryl Hines from Serious Moonlight), and many others. It was executive produced by Jeff Garlin (Young and Handsome, Handsome, This Filthy World, Finding Vivian Maier, and Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm). It follows 1999″s Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm on HBO!!!! Larry David (Whatever Works) is an over-the-top, self-absorbed version of himself who finds endless ways to make a mess of his pretty, pretty good life. His wife Cheryl (played by: Cheryl Hines from Waitress), best friend Richard Lewis (Leaving Las Vegas), agent Jeff Greene (played by: Jeff Garlin from The Goldbergs), and the always blunt Susie Greene (played by: Susie Essman from Volcano) manage to get involved into some ridiculous scenarios with him. His hilarious world featuring some interesting friends that includes Ted Danson (Cheers), Marty Funkhouser (played by: Bob Einstein from Super Dave), Leon Black (played by: J.B. Smoove from Spider-Man: Far from Home), Cousin Andy (played by: Richard Kind from Spin City), Jerry Seinfeld (Seinfeld), Jason Alexander (Seinfeld), Michael Richards (Seinfeld), Mary Steenburgen (Step Brothers), Freddy Funkhouser (played by: Vince Vaughn from Wedding Crashers), and Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Seinfeld). Larry’s awkward everyday encounters, social missteps and knack for turning mundane situations into chaotic disasters that often leading to hilariously uncomfortable situations!!!! Two years after Seinfeld was officially over, co-creator Larry David returned to television with his own show. The stand up comedian usually stayed behind the scenes or just did smaller roles. This time he’s the star of the hilarious Curb Your Enthusiasm. This is over the top and elevated version of his real life. They take genuine moments that happened and turn it into comedy gold. One of the best things about this sitcom is that it’s improvised more than actually written which is very impressive. Each episode and season has their main concepts and storylines but everything else is really just done as a freestyle with these skilled comedic minds. It’s unpredictable and the audience never knows what’s going to happen next. I’ve always appreciated that Curb Your Enthusiasm has never been politically correct, it’s never shy about doing whatever it wants. Larry David is great as himself. He just gets into some of the worst situations. He can’t control himself and it always gets him into some outrageous scenarios. He is very organic and natural in all of this chaos. Jeff Garlin is very funny as Larry’s agent and close friend Jeff Greene. He ends up getting involved in so many different wacky and crazy things with him. He consistently cheats on his wife and lies which always brings in Larry when it comes to his schemes. He makes everything worse so he’s a key addition to why most of silly things here works. Cheryl Hines as Cheryl David is a real trooper in this. She tries to justify her husband’s behavior and she ends up getting stuck in plenty of messes. She mainly plays straight to everyone else with their comedy. Susie Essman consistently steals Curb Your Enthusiasm as Susie Greene. She’s never hesitates to share her harsh opinions and she doesn’t hold back. Most people are scared of her, you can see why. Ted Danson is excellent as himself here. He’s one of the most likeable actors ever but he’s not afraid to be the villain to Larry during all of their rivalries. It’s some of his best work, I think he’s really underrated in this. The all star supporting cast includes Jerry Seinfeld, Vince Vaughn, Jason Alexander, Richard Lewis, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bob Einstein, Michael Richards, Mary Steenburgen, J.B. Smoove, Richard Kind, Shelley Berman (L.A. Law), Vivica A. Fox (Kill Bill), Tracey Ullman (The Tracey Ullman Show), Paul Dooley (Sixteen Candles), Kaitlin Olson (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), Mel Brooks (Spaceballs), Ben Stiller (There’s Something About Mary), David Schwimmer (Friends), Mekhi Phifer (House), Rosie O’Donnell (A League of Their Own), Lauren Graham (Gilmore Girls), Bruce Springsteen (High Fidelity), Sienna Miller (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra), Tia Carrere (Wayne’s World), Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver), Michael J. Fox (Back to the Future franchise), Jon Hamm (Mad Men), Michael McKean (Better Call Saul), Gina Gershon (Face/Off), Saul Rubinek (True Romance), Elisabeth Shue (Adventures in Babysitting), Sharlto Copley (The A-Team), Bob Odenkirk (Breaking Bad), Samantha Mathis (Pump Up the Volume), Shaquille O’Neal (Blue Chips), Ben Affleck (The Town), Wayne Knight (Seinfeld), Woody Harrelson (Cheers), Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), Frank Whaley (Pulp Fiction), Tim Meadows (The Ladies Man), Christian Slater (True Romance), Sean Penn (Mystic River), Timothy Olyphant (Justified), Meg Ryan (When Harry Met Sally), Seth Rogen (The 40-Year-Old Virgin), Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street), Steve Buscemi (Reservoir Dogs), Clive Owen (Inside Man), Mila Kunis (That ’70s Show), Kaley Cuoco (The Big Bang Theory), David Spade (Tommy Boy), Catherine O’Hara (Home Alone), Lucy Liu (Kill Bill), Isla Fisher (Wedding Crashers), and so many others. Curb Your Enthusiasm was usually off the dome and they did whatever during their scenes. I still enjoyed that it made sure to stick to a common theme and stayed to it’s main story. One thing that I didn’t like here is they completely forgot or ignore a previous season with important issues. They would just start fresh each time. My personal favorite S seasons were 4 and 7. The Producers play set up was so damn funny with Ben Stiller, Mel Brooks, and David Schwimmer. I loved the Seinfeld reunion one that brought back so many familiar faces. It’s the closest thing the world will probably ever get to an actual Seinfeld reunion and it was classic. The ending is similar to Seinfeld but it’s much better. It pushes the boundaries on several controversial subjects. Curb Your Enthusiasm manages to make unlikable people likeable somehow. It’s one of the few TV shows that really makes me laugh out loud non stop. It still holds up, it has high quality replay value to it. I’ve watched it so many times over the years. It’s beyond entertaining and it’s so much fun. It’s truly one of the most underrated comedy series of all time. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!! Let’s discuss this high definition and list the special features from Warner Bros Pictures! These 1080p (1.78:1) transfers on all 120 episodes look way better than expected. Curb Your Enthusiasm only got DVD home video releases during their original run so I honestly never expected it to get an HD set like this. Just a note, the first 6 seasons were originally shot in 1.33:1 so they have been altered for this complete collection because the rest of the television series were shot in 1.78:1 so it all goes together. So if you are wanting those versions, hang on to your DVD sets. Personally, it doesn’t bother me and I think it’s the best it’s ever looked anywhere so it’s a sharp improvement. It has English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks on all 24 discs. Curb Your Enthusiasm isn’t action packed or anything but it does have it’s moments throughout it’s entire run for the audio. It’s good for the type of show it is. All of the dialogue is crisp, the humor is elevated, and the music has a nice boost to it. It has English SDH subtitles. Season 1 has the 29 minute “Bob Costas Interview”. It has the 59 minute “HBO Special”. Season 3 has the little over 22 minute “Stop and Chat with the Cast”. Season 5 has the almost 30 minute “The History: So Far”. It has the little over 24 minute “The History: Even Further”. Season 6 has the little over 11 minute “On the Set”. It has the little over 5 minute “Gag Reel”. It has the almost 23 minute “The Conversation” with Larry David and Susie Essman. Season 7 has the little over 8 minute “A Seinfeld Reunion”. It has the little over 11 minute “Rebuilding the Seinfeld Sets”. Season 9 has the almost 2 minute “Memorable Moments with Susie”, the little over 2 minute “Memorable Moments with Larry”, and the little over 2 minute “Memorable Moments with Jeff”. Season 10 has the little over a minute “What Finally Broke Them”. Season 12 has the little over 2 minute “Leon’s Bungalow Tour”. It has the under a minute “On Set with Susie”. It has the little over a minute “Last Day on Set: Speeches”. It has the under a minute “Last Day on Set: Gifts”. It has the almost 4 minute “Last Day on Set. It has the under a minute “First and Last Scenes”. It has the almost 3 minute “Larry’s Favorite Episodes”. It has the almost 2 minute “Larry-isms”. It has bigger DVD sizing packaging. 2 big sets with 12 discs each separating the seasons are in inside a high quality slipbox. I’m honestly not the biggest fan on how it’s all set up with all of the discs over each other. Regardless, it’s a must own for every collection. It’s available everywhere right now including MovieZyng.com, CHECK IT OUT!!!!