Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season 7

When the next season of Curb Your Enthusiasm airs in the fall, Larry David will have officially overseen more seasons of his new show than Seinfeld. Sure, he only has to whip up half the episodes each season and can work at whatever pace he damn well pleases, but it's still hard to believe that this show, which began as a one-off side project, will be heading into an eighth season. While Seinfeld remains the go-to answer for "best sitcom ever" debates, at this point, Curb has had a similar impact on television. When the show first debuted on HBO, the fact that it was shot with handheld cameras, had no laugh track, dealt with R-rated material and featured famous faces playing themselves was a novelty. Now, with series like 30 Rock on network television, it's a standard. Few people can claim to have had such an irreversible impact on TV comedy as bald, bitter, professional curmudgeon Larry David. Of course, if you were to ask him how he feels about his remarkable career, the guy would probably just whine about how much work it's been. Season seven sees David and company in top form, cranking out one of the finest seasons in the history of the series. All manner of terrible human behaviour is spun into comedic gold: Larry kills a swan; Jeff sleeps with a mental patient; a chubby midriff becomes a life saver; disabled sex is played as physical comedy; and Michael Richards offends the African American community all over again. It's a dark and disgusting examination of human nature, as well as proof of Larry David's comedic genius. The big selling point for this year was the season-long arc about David creating a Seinfeld reunion. With the entire cast returning and new Seinfeld material popping up in the finale, it felt like a logical conclusion to Curb Your Enthusiasm. However, the season was so incredibly hilarious and was clearly such a blast to make for everyone involved that they've decided to do it for at least one more year. While that might kill what could have been a perfect ending for a remarkable run on HBO, these new episodes are so funny that you can't help but hunger for more. The DVD features a few brief documentaries focusing on the Seinfeld reunion that are cute, but feel like the kind of mindless puff piece material these guys would be ripping apart when the cameras were turned off. Still, you don't buy a season of Curb Your Enthusiasm for insightful extras. You buy it for the episodes, and this set offers 320 minutes of pure comedy gold. May Larry David never be happy; his unique ability to funnel neurosis and tragedy through comedy makes the world a better place. Well, at least for similarly fucked-up individuals with sick senses of humour.