DVD Review: Brilliant Seventh Season of ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’

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CHICAGO – The last year in television will be remembered as a very funny one as hit new comedies like “Glee,” “Modern Family,” and “Community” joined seasoned veterans like “30 Rock,” “The Office,” and “How I Met Your Mother” on lists of the best laugh-fests on the tube. Arguably the best of them all was also the oldest — the amazing seventh season of HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” now available on DVD and simply spectacular.

DVD Rating: 4.0/5.0

It sounded like a gimmick when I first heard that Larry David would bring back the cast of “Seinfeld” — Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander, and Michael Richards — for a reunion on “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” Sure, “Curb” has always brilliantly existed somewhere between reality and fiction as some of the actors play variations on themselves, but it’s rare for a show in its seventh season to be anywhere near its creative peak and it concerned me that the “Seinfeld” reunion would merely be a crutch. The concern was completely unfounded.

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season Seven was released on DVD on June 8th, 2010
Photo credit: Universal

The “Seinfeld” arc, in which Larry convinces the cast of one of the most beloved shows of all time to do a reunion episode within “Curb,” is absolutely hilarious, must-see television, but it feels like the creative inspiration from that section of the season rippled throughout the rest as the ten episodes also include several stand-alone plots like those in “The Bare Midriff” and “Officer Krupke” that stand among the show’s best in all seven seasons. The season has more high points than usual and absolutely zero episodes that could be called mediocre or even below par for the series.

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season Seven was released on DVD on June 8th, 2010 Photo credit: HBO Home Video

“Seinfeld” fans, “Curb Your Enthusiasm” fans, television comedy fans in general — everyone should take a look at the seventh season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm”.

Sadly, no one can take a look at this pretty, pretty, pretty good season on Blu-ray, as HBO has inexplicably decided to release the film on standard DVD only. Why are the first season of the inferior “Hung” and most recent installment of “Entourage” being released in HD in a few weeks but not this critically acclaimed season of their best comedy? It’s completely illogical. And the special features on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” are a mixed bag with only a few brief ones centering the “Seinfeld” cast. No commentaries, deleted scenes, or extensive behind-the-scenes pieces; just fluff about how much fun it was to reunite the “Seinfeld” team.

Ultimately, “Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season Seven” is one of the best DVD television sets of the year to date purely for the quality of the show itself, not for its shoddy treatment by HBO Home Video. Even without the bells and whistles, this is must-see television from a year filled with comedy highlights. Arguably none were bettter than “Curb”.

Special Features:
o The Seinfeld Reunion: It Could Only Happen on Curb…
o Rebuilding the Seinfeld Sets
o Larry David as George Constanza
o A Seinfeld Moment on Curb: Interview With Larry David and the Seinfeld Cast

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com