Curb Your Enthusiasm - "The Smiley Face" Review

DO NOT FUCK WITH BIG DOG

As I said last week, "Palestinian Chicken" was an all-time classic Curb episode, one where I could ignore the directionless movement that this eighth season is making, and just have fun. This week, I was a bit irritated, because while "The Smiley Face" was fairly funny, it was another episode that made me realize that, now 2/5 in, Curb Your Enthusiasm is currently spinning its wheels. It seems that in the aftermath of Larry's divorce from Cheryl, Mr. David ran out of decent story ideas, and decided to gun this season straight for the laughs, so while the show is still very funny, it lacks a strong story to support it. That said, "The Smiley Face" had plenty of merits. The focus on minutiae such as lying being shown through a high voice, or Larry "crapping where he eats" (Yeah, that chick was DEFINITELY NOT dating him for the money). As for the cabinet subplot involving Big Dog and Larry's old receptionist, Antoinette (seen for the first time since Season 6, way back in 2007), that got some laughs, including some oddly meta shark TV show references from Big Dog. Is it possible that this episode airing at the onset of Shark Week is just a coincidence? As for the character, I wasn't a particularly big fan of Big Dog, due to the fact that he quickly went from being a seemingly rational character to totally insane. Although Larry yelling is almost always funny. Overall, this episode was kind of a shambles, random ideas strung together, feeling similar in structure to Season 7's "The Hot Towel", only even more convoluted (coincidentally, they both were the 4th episode in that respective season). Only difference was, in Season 7, the Seinfeld reunion storyline was in full swing by now, giving each episode a sense of purpose beyond nonsensical topical humor. With almost half of Curb's possibly final season (again) over, I wonder when this season will attempt to even try a season-long arc. They managed to successfully launch Larry and Cheryl's separation storyline with only 4 episodes left in Season 6, so there's still time. We know we're headed to New York eventually, but when and why is more of a mystery. From next week's previews, it's likely that it won't happen for a few more episodes yet.

Oh, and no Leon again this week. But we did get some Richard Lewis.

"The Smiley Face" - 3.5/5 stars