It's a pretty tough time to be a human being right now. We could all use a good laugh these days, so I'm beyond grateful that HBO has announced that Season 11 of Curb Your Enthusiasm will premiere in October.
The great question looming large over the new season of Curb is whether Larry David will tackle the pandemic or ignore it entirely. The beauty of Curb -- and Seinfeld -- is that the comedy, for the most part, has aged extremely well. A season driven by the pandemic, with all its bizarre quirks, could age very poorly, and few want to be reminded they're living in a pandemic anyway. Then again, who doesn't want to see Larry yelling at people as they buy an entire aisle's worth of toilet paper?
Remember how scary those early days were? That may be why Curb focuses its energies elsewhere -- because everyone's behavior was a little off, so Larry, Jeff, Susie, and Leon might not even stand out to the extent they usually do.
It's wild to think that Curb Your Enthusiasm originally debuted on HBO in 2001 -- 20 years ago!!! -- and has released 100 episodes to date. The comedy series continues to prove how seemingly trivial details of one's day-to-day life -- like, say, a cold cup of coffee and a dry scone -- can precipitate a chain of hilarious albeit unfortunate events.
David created Curb and executive produced Season 11 with his co-star Jeff Garlin as well as Jeff Schaffer and Gavin Polone. Laura Streicher served as co-executive producer, while Jon Hayman and Steve Leff served as consulting producers. Season 11 brings back Susie Essman and J.B. Smoove as well as Cheryl Hines, though no other guest stars were revealed, nor was a specific release date provided by the network.
I imagine we'll be getting a trailer for Season 11 fairly soon, so you'll just have to curb your enthusiasm until then. It is certainly shaping up to be a glorious fall TV season between Impeachment: American Crime Story (September), Curb Your Enthusiasm (October), and Dexter: New Blood (November) -- and who knows what December will bring? Barry Season 3? Narcos: Mexico Season 3? Ozark Season 4? Michael Mann's HBO Max series Tokyo Vice? Jeff Bridges' FX series The Old Man? The month is there for the taking. Stay tuned...