Saturday, December 05, 2009

tv highlights of the '00s: curb your enthusiasm

Along the unveiling brick road (you can use that, it's free), I'll mention my favorite TV of the past decade. I'm pretty sure it all premiered after 2000. In fact, TV kicked off after 9/11, didn't it? Wasn't it like, (1) horrible event, (2) we're duped into war - well, some of you were duped, people like me just watched in horror, like watching a drunk mother of five getting into a Cadillac Escalade while our foot is caught in a bear trap and we can't talk, like in nightmares, and (3) American television just up and starts kicking ass.

Curb Your Enthusiasm is not a show that I got along well with, at first. On the whole, improv-y shows have a certain samey-ness in the conversations, the hesitation in the speaking, the halting, the same tics on show after show. That bugged me. Also it just felt sour, mean, and dull. So after giving up halfway through the first DVD of the first season, I took a break that lasted about a year. At the urging of friends, I picked it up again, and I was glad: it's not that the show stops having the traits mentioned earlier. It's that they get under your skin and stay there. That, and the show has dozens of indelible moments and images. I think my favorite is when Larry SLAPS MARTIN SCORSESE ACROSS THE FACE AND SCORSESE JUST KEEPS TALKING AS IF NOTHING HAS HAPPENED.

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Keep an eye on this blog in January, when I'll begin coverage of my "essential films" project. It's...not what you think.

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