Curb Your Enthusiasm: A Headache, But a Funny One.

I used to hate Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Mostly because of its star, Larry David. He has got to be the most annoying guy on earth. Seriously. He walks around dressed like a casual schlub and his TV wife, played by Cheryl Hines, is young and gorgeous. Larry is everything I hate about sitcoms like According to Jim and The King of Queens, which features old/bald/overweight/neurotic husbands paired with young/attractive/skinny/sensible wives.

And yet, this season of Curb is surprisingly good. I can (almost) look past Cheryl Hines' attraction to Larry. I'm eh about the Seinfeld reunion plotline, because truthfully, those parts aren't what I find funniest. For example, two episodes ago, JB Smoove's character (who's black) pretends to be an adopted Jewish guy with some weird disease that Michael Richards thinks he has. JB goes to counsel Michael, telling him everything will be OK, he just needs to wear a certain kind of hat that'll keep him alive. When Michael finds out JB was lying, he finds JB in the crowded parking lot and starts screaming at him. Everyone around them holds up their cell phones to take video. I'm glad Michael Richards can poke fun at himself for that whole n-word debacle now.

There was also a great episode with Larry pretending to wear women's underwear to help out his friend Jeff, whose wife thinks he's cheating on him. No, they did not address why "Larry" would store "his" panties in Jeff's glovebox, but whatever. It was still funny.

The thing you have to watch out for with Curb is the giant headache waiting for you at the end of the episode. I'm even getting a headache typing this. Basically, there is a LOT of yelling about really stupid stuff. Everybody manages to start a really dumb argument about really dumb things with everybody else in every scene. I'm not kidding. These arguments go on and on and on and the only thing that ends them is the music signifying a transition to another scene. Which of course includes yet another screaming argument. By the end of the episode, you want to lie down with a cool compress on your forehead.

The fiance, of course, loves this show. He doesn't mind the husband/wife double standard I described earlier. I think he likes the idea that if he ever gets old/bald/schlubby, that there is a chance I will stay with him because Cheryl Hines stayed with Larry. Although it is weird he likes a show about arguing over stupid stuff when he and I basically do that 24/7. (We have a thing about how to change the channel on the remote control. I tell him to just hit the channel number we want but he likes hitting the +/- until he gets to it. Arrgh! I'm getting aggravated just thinking about it.)

Anywho, the nice things about Curb are a) the episodes are only a half-hour long, and b) the seasons are short. I like my headaches in small doses.