Has Larry David Become Too Obnoxious?

Well, LD, you have managed to “curb my enthusiasm” for “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
And I feel betrayed. Earlier this year I proclaimed “Curb Your Enthusiasm” my all-time favorite sitcom, and I praised to the hilt the episode titled “The Reunion,” in which Larry got the Seinfeld cast back together for a mock reunion.
But the past three episodes, including last night's “The Bare Midriff,” were in combination the worse sequence of shows in “Curb's” seven year run.
Dare I say that “Curb” has “jumped the shark?”
I hope not, because I really love the show and the characters. And the concept of the upcoming mock Seinfeld reunion is still a wonderful one. The scenes in last night's episode in which Larry is verbally sparring with Jerry Seinfeld were funny and made a fan such as I wonder how brilliant the two of them must have been when putting together the original “Seinfeld” series. It was almost like pulling back the curtain so the rest of us could take a peek to see how Larry and Jerry worked their magic during the 90s.
And I like the building plot twist with ex-wife Cheryl being told by Larry that she has the part of George's ex-wife in the Seinfeld reunion, although Larry told Jerry she is just auditioning for the part. It resulted in some of Larry's best verbal scuffling.
BUT (and you know what it means when the word “but” is capitalized), almost every plot twist and turn in the past three episodes that has nothing to do with the Seinfeld reunion has seemed like filler, just tossed into the script without any creative thinking.
Now Larry has always come across as an “a-hole,” making verbal mountains out of mole hills. His overreacting to the commonplace nuisances of life (and people's overreactions to his reactions) has always formed the meat and potatoes of the humor of “Curb.”
Incidents like not having enough change to get out of a parking lot or not want to give candy to teen age girls not wearing Halloween costumes, or being annoyed when he discovers that a friend lied when claiming his ancestor invented the Cobb salad were hysterical twists on the absurdities of life that confront us all.
How many times have you found yourself in similar annoying situations and remarked “this is like a Larry David scene?” I have countless times. And while Larry's reactions often seemed a bit over the top, they were still reactions to which I could easily relate. Often I have wished that I had Larry's nerve to tell off an obnoxiously pushy salesperson or to complain out loud when I show up at a doctor's office on time and am kept waiting for over an hour.
But in the past several episodes (in the non-Seinfeld scenes) Larry's obnoxiousness has gone too far, even by his standards. Interrupting Jeff and Susie Greene's daughter Sammy who was singing at the Danson's anniversary party, or also interrupting the opera singer at the Italian restaurant, or insisting that his doctor give Larry his home number, or pushing a woman in a wheelchair into a closet, or wrestling Rosie O'Donnell to the floor in a fight over a check, or urinating so hard that the backsplash landed on a picture of Jesus and not bothering to wipe it off.
Most importantly, such scenes were not even mildly amusing.
And being pulled over by a policeman for taking too many napkins from an Italian take out restaurant was also a plot line that was just too absurd, even for “Curb.” (Though I will admit that I laughed out loud when viewing the police lineup, the restaurateur could distinguish between men who were bald with glasses, but not between men of different races.)
But overall, Larry's antics have not been those of the loveable curmudgeon of previous seasons. Perhaps he is intentionally trying to point out that without wife Cheryl to keep him in check, the loveable Larry goes too far and becomes just a purely, obnoxious Larry.
I hope that's the case, and I will continue to watch the show, also hoping that the remainder of the season focuses more on the Seinfeld reunion than the inane goings on of the past three episodes.
After all, the brilliance of the previous six seasons earns Larry my continued faithful viewing. So Cheryl, please take him back, as he is just too much of an “a-hole” without you.