The Big Picture

Curb Your Enthusiasm’s twelfth and final season is just as strong and hilarious as ever. The season is building towards a potentially ingenious and self-referential finale, surpassing previous finales. The show’s format remains strong with relatable and hysterical scenarios and a genius way of tying everything together.

For nearly a quarter century, Larry David has consistently made one of the funniest shows on television with Curb Your Enthusiasm—and even longer if you consider his time on Seinfeld. While the gaps between seasons have often been substantial (this latest season premieres over two years after the last one), every new season has been worth the wait. For years, every season of Curb Your Enthusiasm has arrived with the fear that this might finally be the last one for David and company. But then, a few years later, David would always grace us with several more brilliant episodes to hold us over for another wait. With the arrival of Season 12, Curb is unfortunately coming to an end. While it’s a shame that we have to say goodbye, Curb Your Enthusiasm is going out just as strong as it ever was.

Curb Your Enthusiasm The life and times of Larry David and the predicaments he gets himself into with his friends and complete strangers. Release Date October 15, 2000 Creator Larry David Main Genre Comedy Seasons 12 Studio HBO

What’s Happening in ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Final Season?
For most of Season 12, Curb Your Enthusiasm relies on the same types of stories and characters that we’ve loved for years. Larry (Larry David) is still letting his grievances get him in trouble with the people around him; Jeff (Jeff Garlin), his best friend and manager, is still his partner-in-crime; Jeff’s wife Susie (Susie Essman) is still a pain in the ass for both of them; and Leon Black (J. B. Smoove) is always around to add commentary to whatever problem Larry has gotten himself into. With the exception of Larry still “dating” Irma (Tracey Ullman)—who is so irritating, she loves singing the JG Wentworth jingle and complaining more than Larry—things start not too differently from any other season. For almost twenty-five years, Curb Your Enthusiasm has relied on the same types of annoyances and odd observations, and it’s remarkable that these frustrations are just as hilarious as they were back when the show began in 2000.

Like the most recent seasons, Season 12 is building towards telling a larger story with each episode of David’s irritations. While only the first nine of ten episodes screened for critics, Season 12 seems like it’s building towards a fascinating conclusion, potentially even greater than the Mocha Joe conflict, or the Seinfeld reunion season. Throughout this season, characters will mention that David returned to Seinfeld to write the polarizing series final episode, and based on the episodes that have screened, it looks as though David is setting up an even more ingenious and self-referential finale than that one. David knows what we can expect from one of his finales, and seems to be playing with us in a way that will surely be a fitting final episode.

After Twelve Seasons, ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Format Is as Strong as Ever
Image via HBO

It’s also impressive how after all these years, David, Jeff Schaffer, and the rest of this writing staff can find even more relatable and hysterical scenarios for these characters to fall into. Curb Your Enthusiasm has perfected its delightful formula, where all of these seemingly disparate stories and peccadillos combine into endings that are always satisfying. Previous seasons have occasionally had episodes where everything didn’t come together solidly, but Season 12 doesn’t have that problem. Curb can almost feel like it’s pulling concepts out of a hat—a dog-eating coyote, Wordle, a neighbor who is a descendant of Harriet Tubman, Oscar-winner Troy Kotsur—before combining all of those disparate elements into an incredible half-hour of television. Over these many years, David and Schaffer have found a way to tie together whatever they throw into an episode in a way that is nothing short of genius.

Season 12 is also a great sendoff for David as a comedic actor, and as he knows he’s saying goodbye, he’s playing to all of his strengths. Almost every episode gets an out-of-control David outburst, and it doesn’t take long into the season before he says his “prettay, prettay good” catchphrase. This is also David’s last opportunity to play against the show’s extraordinary cast, and he makes the most of it. Garlin, Essman, and Smoove are always great for any episode, and whenever these four are together, it’s clear they’re having a ball with each other. It’s also wonderful to watch David play around with Ullman, as every scene feels like he’s fighting not to break. But maybe the best team-up in this season is whenever David and Richard Lewis share the screen. Lewis has had limited availability in recent seasons due to health issues, but he gets plenty of time in this last season, and it’s a delight to see the two together.

‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ Ends on a High Note
Image via HBO

If it sounds like this review has been vague as to the details of Season 12, that’s because part of the joy in every season is what weird direction each episode will go in, and who will show up to get caught up in David’s misadventures. This season has some of Curb’s most spectacular cameos, and people coming in who are ready to play within this wild series. This season ends up feeling both like a victory lap and a reminder of what has made Curb Your Enthusiasm one of the best comedies on television for twelve seasons. There are so many moving parts to each episode, so many cameos, and so many angry David rants to keep track of, yet David and his team make the series—and this season in particular—feel effortless. It’s as if these are simply the adventures of Larry David in the world that have been caught on camera.

Curb Your Enthusiasm was great from the very beginning, but this twelfth and final season is a testament to this show’s greatness. While we can’t comment on the final episode, the buildup to this finale seems as though David is heading towards another iconic end, a meta-joke that the entire season is building towards. After twelve seasons and 25 years of Curb Your Enthusiasm, David’s show is ending on a high note, and for a series that’s been on this long, that’s prettay, prettay fantastic.

Curb Your Enthusiasm REVIEWCurb Your Enthusiasm’s final season shows that Larry David’s series hasn’t lost steam, ending on a high note. ProsAfter 12 seasons, the scenarios of Curb Your Enthusiasm are as strong as ever. Larry David, the rest of the cast, and an all-star lineup of cameos are all brilliant in this goodbye season. Even in this victory lap of a season, it’s impressive how everything ties together in each episode.

Curb Your Enthusiasm’s final season debuts on Sunday, February 4 on HBO and will be available to stream on Max in the U.S., with subsequent episodes airing every Sunday.

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