Having tired of "House" (and wondering how Hugh Laurie continues to endure the title role), I'm glad to have discovered "Curb Your Enthusiasm," starring its apparent creator (as himself), Larry David, who we're given to understand had something big to do with "Seinfeld."1 The program seems to have debuted on HBO in 2000 (according to the Wikipedia).I wonder whether one of the "big things" Larry David did on "Seinfeld" was to create the character of George Costanza, whom my wife couldn't stand (or the character Elaine, whom she can't stand either) and thinks the Larry David character resembles. I can see the resemblance, but the Larry David character seems much more sympathetic to me. Rather, George Costanza didn't seem sympathetic at all (although I find it impossible to dislike Jason Alexander in the role, same as I find Julia Louis-Dreyfuss too appealingto dislike her as Elaine). And the Larry David character somehow seems very sympathetic. To me.
The character seems driven to try to be liked but cursed by a warped sense of what he should do (and not do) to obtain the result, his actions usually turning out disastrously, mainly for himself. I much enjoy the artistry of the elaborate plots the writers have devised to bring these disasters about, with Larry David inevitably left standing there looking into the near distance trying to absorb the pain of it all and understand once again where he went wrong.
The same as when we walk dazed out of a darkened movie theater, with its gigantic screened faces and jacked-up sound, and we find ourselves taken over by one of the dominating characters (so that we hear ourselves talking with his voice and moving our bodies the way he does), I've started occasionally to have the unelected sense that I'm myself Larry David, in all his sympathetic foible and bewilderment. I think I've become a "Curb Your Enthusiasm" fan not only because I'm hooked on the artistry of its writers (although I don't care much for the "Woodly Allen style" of improvisation or for the hand-held camera), but also because I identify with the Larry David screen persona, however like or unlike the unsympathetic George Costanza he may be.
The resource center also has the DVDs for Seasons Two, Three, Four, and Five. You know I've the second to start watching this evening!
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- According to the Wikipedia, Larry David "teamed up with Jerry Seinfeld to co-create the television series 'Seinfeld,' where he also acted as head writer and executive producer. David's work won him a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 1993. In 1999, he created and stars in the HBO series 'Curb Your Enthusiasm,' an improvised sitcom in which he plays a fictionalized version of himself."
I detested House from the first episode I saw, and I’ve only seen 2 or 3, and that only for the sake of my wife. Doctor shows almost always annoy me; unfortunately, my wife enjoys them…..mostly because healthcare is her field.
ReplyDeleteThis Larry Show I’ve never heard of. I have seen a few Seinfelds and they are funny, so I’ll keep an eye out for Larry. Are you off movies and on TV series for awhile? My daughter a few months ago made me watch Office, and by now I’ve seen most episodes. Lately my wife and I have been watching As Times Goes By. (BBC) Frankly, TV is much more enjoyable when you can do it straight from DVD.
I was wondering if you and Carolyn made it back from California. Also if you were going to post again.
ReplyDeleteSteve in Germany
Tom, apropos your comment, I want to share with you a note that I just wrote to an old friend of mine who chose to comment by e-mail. He raised the question of what my "guilty pleasures" are when it comes to TV. He defines "guilty pleasure" as
ReplyDeletea show that you enjoy but, because it is logically flawed, insulting, or absurd, you know you should not enjoy. Example: I love watching "Walker, Texas Ranger," which has been in reruns for years. The star is Chuck Norris of martial arts fame. He plays Walker, a lawman who simply cannot be bested in a fight. Doesn't matter if he's fighting 10 at a time, or even if some of the villains have knives or an occasional gun. And he can save a person who's heart is pure no matter how dire the person's plight. I've seen his girlfriend, an assistant DA, on the verge of being whipped, drowned, raped, and mutilated by hulking men with faces like ogres. No matter – they don't have a chance. Walker will burst into the scene and thrash them. Last night, one of his comrades fell out of a plane without a parachute. Walker strapped on a chute and dove after him. Unless gravity is selective, there should be no chance for Walker to catch up and rescue the poor clod. But he assumes the shape of an arrow, catches up, latches on, and opens his chute. I could go on, especially about his moral purity, but you really have to see it to get a proper sense of it.
I responded:
Ah, that sense! First, though, I have to say I had no idea that "Walker, Texas Ranger" (a few minutes of which I probably watched at some point many years ago) was quite so "Marvel Comics" as it appears to be.
Something on TV that I enjoy but know that I shouldn't for intellectual (not moral) reasons.......hmm, I'm not thinking of anything, but I am thinking of some novels that seem to sort of fit that description. All of Dick Francis's novels, for example (all of which [my wife] and I and our daughter and [a mutual friend], who put me onto them, have read). And perhaps the Travis McGee (and other?) novels of John D. MacDonald? Detective fiction pretty much generally, and perhaps most "thrillers," too. I read quite a few of these when my nephew the would-be published novelist came to me in 1999 with 50 pages of a thriller he was trying to write. (I encourage him, and he finished it and wrote two more, but I was never able to sell any of them to a publishing house. One of these is for sale on the Broken Bench Press website, by the way. I had a couple of dozen copies published locally at great expense. The sales price is about half of what it cost to produce. Prophecy of the Medallion.)
Guilty TV pleasures....Well, "House," perhaps? I don't know how many doctors I've asked whether they watch it, and the vast majority abhor the show for cogent intellectual reasons. Ah, now I seem to be loosening up. The "Mystery" dramatizations of Agatha Christie perhaps. Her stories were, both in print and as dramatized in films and on TV, so contrived as to be indefensible. Contrived in a transparent, ridiculous way that the also contrived plots of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" successfully avoid by making them seem entirely possible (which Agatha's probably never do). Yet, I've watched everything of Agatha's that has come down the pike via "Mystery." Ah, the "Die Hard" thrillers of Bruce Willis. I really enjoy those, yet they're...execrable? And the "Lethal Weapon" thrillers of Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. And the...But these are feature films rather than TV programs. I don't watch much TV, actually, although "Mystery" and "Masterpiece" are programs we've watched "all of" for forty years. I guess that makes us devoted TV watchers in some sense. We've also seen all of the episodes of "All Creatures Great and Small," "Fawlty Towers," "As Time Goes By," and "Keeping Up Appearances." Hmm, maybe we've watched more TV than I realized. Could that be my "guilty (TV) pleasure," watching a lot of BBC TV and pretending (because I watch little American TV) that I "don't watch much TV"? Anyway, I think I feel a little guilty of something for confessing this.
By the way, speaking of "House," my friend
find[s] "House" as compelling as ever. There was a bit of a lull in the plotting, but it picked up again. I see new drama in the House-Cuddy and House-Wilson relationships.
Tom, when I was surveying staffs of doctors' offices whether they watched "House," I found one notable exception in a lab technician who said that he never missed it. I'm glad to find another exception in your wife (although you didn't specify just what she does in the field of healthcare).
Also by the way, I watched the entire second season of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" Friday and last night. I may post about it.
I'm not off movies; it's just that the UNC collection has grown by the acquisition of dozens of DVD collections of TV programs lately (the library received a huge monetary donation to be used for that purpose), and I'm checking them out. How do you think I heard of "Curb Your Enthusiasm"? (And I've recently checked out "Extras" and "Strangers with Candy," two programs that might deserve my UBOO rating.)
I agree that I'd much rather watch TV via DVD (or at least recorded so that I can fast-forward through the commercials).
Steve in Germany, good to hear from you too. Yes, we made it back. And I've taken much longer than I had hoped or expected to get back to my blog. As usual, I came home from cross-country travel really wasted physically. I even seemed to have a mild sinus infection, despite the surgery I had last summer. I'm sure, though, that without the surgery I'd have been really sick and required a prescription of antibiotics.
ReplyDeletePlus, our temporary lodging in an apartment until our new house is finished has been very disruptive and, I'm sure, has taken its toll on my energy (from stress, even if mostly unconscious).