Curb Your Enthusiasm-Complete First Season (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Audio Commentary-Episode 1: The Pants Tent Synopsis Featurette-Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm Interviews-Cast-Larry David, Conducted By Bob Costas
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	280:38 (Case: 240)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (3)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Andy Ackerman Larry Charles Jeff Garlin Bryan Gordon
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Larry David Cheryl Hines Jeff Garlin
Case	DV-4
RPI	$49.95	Music	Wendall J. Yuponce

    Larry David moves from behind the scenes to the starring role in this follow-up show to his hit creation, Seinfeld. After Seinfeld ended its successful run, David needed a new project, new in this case meaning a rehash of the old, updated for the new millennium. There is nothing original here, with David being a reincarnation of Jerry Seinfeld, complete with his nit-picking and selfish attitude. Just think of Seinfeld being married and bald.

    The show is half reality and half fiction, the reality half consisting of numerous guest stars making cameo appearances as themselves (Ted Danson and Julia Louis-Dreyfus being two of the bigger names). Following Larry David's life of looking to create a new television show, each episode shows him getting into trouble with his friends, co-workers and people in the street, not to mention his wife Cheryl. Larry hangs out with his friends Jeff and Richard who make frequent guest appearances.

    The show is a new-age comedy, following in the footsteps of Malcolm in the Middle. These and other similar shows do not use the proven formulae of "canned laughter" or of using a studio audience. Without this assistance, the show leaves it up to the viewer to determine what is funny, making sure you pay attention to the whole episode, otherwise missing vital joke points. Unfortunately, the laughter does not flow as often as the canned laughter alternative. Half the fun of such shows comes from the continual laughter of the audience making the on-screen situations funnier, although Curb Your Enthusiasm would not work with canned laughter, as jokes sometime take entire episodes to surface.

    The complete first series of this show is presented as a 3 disc set. The first two discs contain four episodes, with the third finishing up with the final two episodes, as well as a featurette.

    The episode listing is below -

    The Pants Tent 28:53

    Larry is concerned about his pants having a tent shape, making him look like he is having an erection. He goes to the movies with one of Cheryl's friends to meet up with his friend Richard Lewis. Larry gets into an argument with a woman in an aisle seat, who is unwilling to let him pass. Little does Larry realise that this is Richard's new girlfriend.

    Ted And Mary 28:25

    Larry and Cheryl have a double date with Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen at a bowling alley. Larry enjoys Mary's company so much that he goes shopping with Mary and her mother for clothes. Being so infatuated with Mary, he buys the same jacket as her. Cheryl becomes suspicious of Larry's actions.

    Porno Gil 28:17

    While on a golf driving range, Larry refuses to help the golfer next to him by picking up a ball that rolls over to him. Larry and Cheryl are invited to a party at Gil's house, a former porn star. Driving with bad directions in the countryside, Larry pulls over a fellow driver for help, who turns out to be the man from the golf driving range. Obviously, there will be no help from this guy.

    The Bracelet 27:33

    Larry gets into trouble with Cheryl for watching a football game while she explains her time away on a trip, thereby ignoring her. Larry is left a wreck and looking like a bum. In order to make it up to Cheryl, Larry decides to buy a bracelet that she has been admiring. Unfortunately, Larry is unable to get into the jewellery shop because of his shabby clothes. In order to get the bracelet, Larry calls up Richard to get the bracelet. Problems arise when Richard likes the bracelet and wants to get it for his girlfriend.

    Interior Decorator 28:51

    Larry is headed off to the doctor's. He holds the elevator for a woman, who ends up going to the same doctor as Larry. This annoys Larry, because she gets in ahead of him, despite having a later appointment. This leads Larry to question his doctor about his policy of earlier arrivals getting first treatment. On leaving the doctor's, Larry forgets his change and cannot pay the parking attendant. He promises the attendant that he will pay her back later, but events following this make this an impossibility.

    The Wire 29:27

    Needing to bury an ugly overhead wire in their backyard, Larry and Cheryl petition the neighbours to get it relocated. One couple realises Larry's fame, deciding to only sign the petition if they get to meet their favourite Seinfeld star Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Despite not wanting to give in to this blackmail, Cheryl convinces Larry to get Julia to make a brief appearance at their house. The timing is not the best, though, for the appearance.

    AAMCO 26:50

    Jeff buys a new '57 Chevy and asks Larry to test drive it. While driving, Larry yells at a driver behind him, who in turn rams the mint condition car. Larry and Cheryl host a dinner at their house. Larry finds out one of the people attending, Mike, is a repairman for that model car. Larry asks for the car to be repaired, but is unwilling to follow up his request when Mike sits at the head of the table at dinner.

    Beloved Aunt 29:37

    When Cheryl's aunt dies, Larry offers to write the obituary and uses Jeff's connection at a paper to get it printed. However, when the paper comes out, a typographical error places an incorrect letter in front of "aunt". This lands Larry in big trouble with the family, resulting in him being kicked out of his house for the night. Staying at Jeff's place, Larry accidentally brushes up against Jeff's mother, making her believe that Larry was groping her.

    Affirmative Action 29:43

    Cheryl has a skin condition and requests that Larry pick up some medication at the chemist, which he forgets to do. Later, Larry and Richard are out for a walk, when Richard meets an old dermatologist friend. Larry is amazed by the coincidence, but makes a mistake by recounting an affirmative-action joke to the black man. This leaves the doctor angry and Larry questioning his sense of humour. When Larry loses Cheryl's prescription at a dinner, Larry has no option but to get Richard to request a prescription from the angry doctor.

    The Group 30:36

    Cheryl is asked by Jeff to reignite her acting career by starring in The V***** Monologues. Larry runs into an old flame, which makes Cheryl jealous, and even more so when they go out for lunch.

Video

    Curb Your Enthusiasm is presented in the original broadcast aspect ratio of 1.33:1. It is not 16x9 enhanced.

    Despite being made for television, the show looks infinitely better in the DVD format. The first thing I noticed is the sharpness of the image. Every frame is crisp. There is no noticeable edge enhancement. Colours are reproduced accurately.

    There are no film artefacts to be seen. The production quality is high, with the film being scratch and speck free. There are no MPEG compression artefacts to be found, mainly due to there being only four episodes per disc (two on the last disc with the special features), each of which has a sub-30 minute runtime. The norm these days is to put four 45 minute episodes on each disc of a series releases (think Star Trek and Buffy).

    The subtitles available are English, French, Dutch, Arabic, Danish, Greek, Portuguese, Swedish and English for the Hearing Impaired.

    The discs are dual layered, with the layer change placed in between episodes. I hope I never have to make note of a mid-episode layer change on any television show on DVD.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    We are provided with an English 2.0 channel audio track encoded at 192kbps, as well as a French 2.0 track at 192kbps. The first episode contains an audio commentary, also in 2.0 at 192kbps.

    There are no hisses or dropouts. Sound is clear all the way through.

    Dialogue is in sync, as well as being very easy to understand. It would appear that very little ADR was done, but conversations on streets are quite understandable, with the background traffic noise not interfering.

    The surrounds are not overly used. Scenes filmed out in the streets have the occasional passing cars in the surrounds, however, dialogue dominates this show, leaving the centre speaker to do most of the work.

    The subwoofer gets switched on for the start of each show, with the HBO introduction. Like the surrounds, it is not a requirement, nor is it missed.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Audio Commentary - with Jeff Garlin, Larry David, Robert Weide and Cheryl Hines

Synopsis

Featurette 59:03

Interviews-Cast

    The Region 1 release appears to have been released as a 2-disc set. This leaves the Region 4 to be theoretically slightly better compression-wise, spanning across a third disc. I am not wanting to argue the case of NTSC versus PAL, so get whichever one is more convenient.

    A great comedy series makes a first appearance on DVD for all to see. Unfortunately for Australian TV, it was not seen by most due to the after-midnight timeslot it usually had. Curb Your Enthusiasm is a great comedy that should not be missed.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall