Curb Your Enthusiasm: 10 Things From Season 1 That Keep Getting Better Over Time

Curb Your Enthusiasm has made quite the journey. The show remains consistent in its style and characters, but like many shows, it came into its own as its personalities and story arcs developed. Several major changes have passed in Curb Your Enthusiasm since the pilot.

Larry David isn’t much of a different person as the series continues, despite his many conflicts. However, aspects of his life, like the way he is presented to audiences, have changed since season one. Looking back at the show’s first season, some things keep getting better with time.

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Simple Conflicts

Curb Your Enthusiasm often ties together subplots in overarching stories throughout episodes and seasons. They frequently involve social mishaps and miscommunications. In later seasons, the conflicts become far-fetched and cartoonish like when Larry opens a cafe to spite Mocha Joe or when he drycleans a Ku Klux Klan member’s robe after staining it.

However, in season 1 Larry’s conflicts are simple. Presented in moments like Larry’s “pants tent” and when he isn’t allowed to enter an expensive jewelry store in his workout clothes, more realistic misunderstandings are presented. The practical altercations are refreshing and feel timeless in retrospect.

Larry’s Style

In the latest seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry wears a different wardrobe than in its premiere. In recent seasons, Larry wears form-fitting clothes and seems attentive to his style. In season 1, however, he wears baggy clothes and his sloppy style seems to underscore his apathetic attitude.

Furthermore, it is referenced as such by the people in his life. Larry’s style in season one ages so well because it suits Larry’s personality. He may have gotten more attentive to his look over time, and his older style is a better fit for his stubborn attitude.

The Timely Guest Stars

The guest stars in Season 1 of Curb Your Enthusiasm are fun to watch and get better with time. They represent the time that the series premiered in the early 2000s.

Kathy Griffin appears in season 1, following timely roles in projects like Eminem’s “The Real Slim Shady” video which debuted the same year in 2000. Julia Louis-Dreyfus guest stars, still riding the height of celebrity just two years after Seinfeld ended. Seeing the style of celebrities during their early projects is entertaining to fans looking back on the series.

Larry’s Friends

While Larry has friends which he has known for decades like Richard Lewis, he meets some early on in the timeline of the show. For example, Larry’s ongoing tumultuous friendship with Ted Danson and his wife Mary Steenburgen begins in the first few episodes of season 1.

Larry and Ted develop a growing disdain for one another throughout the show. Larry might agree with some fans who think Danson is one of Curb Your Enthusiasm‘s least likable characters. As such, it is funny for fans to watch Mary enjoying shopping with Larry and when he and Ted get along in season 1.

Bob Odenkirk’s Appearance

 

Bob Odenkirk makes a guest appearance in an early episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm in season one. Odenkirk die-hards know his comedy well from series like HBO’s Mr. Show.

However, many Odenkirk fans know him most prominently from his success in dramas like Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. As such, his hilarious bit performance as “Porno Gil” gets better with time as he is increasingly known for his bigger roles.

Callback Origins

There are several jokes in Curb Your Enthusiasm that call back to earlier episodes. When Larry visits New York in a later season, he gets into a tipping conflict. He tips one hotel attendant and tells him to split it with his coworker who he neglects to tip.

In season 1, fans see the origin of this joke when Larry does the same thing to two valets at a restaurant. Tipping is a running source of gags in the series, and it’s interesting for fans to see where some of the show’s consistent jokes originate. Over time as the gags repeat more and more, their origins get more fun to watch.

Larry’s Germaphobia

Larry’s germaphobia takes on a new light since the show’s premiere and keeps getting better with time. In season 1, he accidentally uses Mary’s mother’s glass when they are out to dinner, and he causes a scene when he realizes.

The joke is presented as an overreaction from Larry. However, as the public has gotten increasingly sensitive to the passing of germs amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the joke takes on a new depth over time.

Jeff Greene’s VHS Collection

Jeff’s web of betrayal gets more convoluted throughout Curb Your Enthusiasm. He lies to his wife Susie from the beginning of the series, but the timeframe of season 1 allows for different kinds of conflicts.

In the first season, Jeff asks Larry to get rid of his adult movie collection when Susie visits him during surgery. As content takes a less physical form over time, it’s funnier to see Jeff go through the trouble of hiding weighty tapes in a secret cabinet. It underscores the fact that Jeff’s deceit knows no bounds.

Larry’s House

Larry and his wife Cheryl live in several different houses. In season 1, fans get a first glimpse into the couple’s home life. Some viewers might call most of their abodes cookie-cutter mansions.

However, the first season of Curb Your Enthusiasm places Larry in a more modest two-floor house. It’s big, but nothing like the staged luxury audiences see in later seasons. Larry’s wealth and success become more apparent as the plots of the show are developed, and seeing his simple starter house continues to intrigue as time goes on.

Larry’s Demeanor

Larry is an exaggerated version of show creator Larry David. However, as Curb Your Enthusiasm continues, the character Larry David becomes an increasingly outrageous caricature of himself. In the later seasons of the series, he becomes less relatable. However, in Season 1, Larry appears to be a generally temperate guy.

He may be stubborn and self-centered, but he lacks the ostentatiousness presented in later plotlines like when he steals flowers from a dead woman’s memorial in what fans call one of the worst things Larry does in Curb Your Enthusiasm. Seeing how Larry stoops lower than when he started gets better over time.

 

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