Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Third Season (2005)

CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM: The Complete Third Season

Larry David, Cheryl Hines Unrated, 300 mins., 2002 (HBO)

Curb's third outing puts to rest any notion that David's show is just an R-rated Seinfeld, and establishes his neurotic character as a true American classic. By aiding the songwriting of profane rapper Krazee-Eyez Killa, complimenting a friend on his young son's enormous endowment, and firing a chef who dared wear a hairpiece, David brilliantly echoes W.C. Fields and Archie Bunker as (in the words of director David Steinberg) ''an Everyman that no man really wants to be.'' In 10 riotous episodes, David's vein-popping meltdowns are as inevitable and hopelessly charming as Wile E. Coyote's, succeeding in not only reinvigorating the sitcom but expanding the bounds of comedy itself. EXTRAS The flawed yet beloved characters are so iconic that Susie Essman, who plays the foulmouthed wife of David's manager, reveals in a panel discussion at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival that fans often invite her to curse them out in public. David also explains the improv that yields the spontaneity of the show, and cast and crew share their favorite on-screen moments, such as David's best efforts to protect a Tourette's-stricken employee. Only in Curb could an endless chorus of cussing be so kind. A —Jeff Labrecque

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• DVD Review Curb Your Entusiasm: The Complete Third Season (Jan 18, 2005) | Jeff Labrecque