Curb Your Enthusiasm, "The Smiley Face": You never give up a cabinet

My review/recap of last night's episode after I play "Danny Boy" on my flute.

Eleven years of Curb Your Enthusiasm has spoiled us as viewers. It has been one of the funniest and most consistent shows during its run. However, it has also become predictable, which hurt last night's episode.

What makes Curb so great is that there are so many plot points that interweave with each other, and that one part early in the episode will create a hilarious payoff at the end. Unfortunately we know that is how all of the episodes are.

This episode had so many plot points in it, that not all of them paid off or really worked for the entire episode. Big Dog (Harry Hamlin) taking over the kitchen was funny by itself, but it was predictable from the very first few moments of the show, ruining the eventual payoff. Also, there was no real end to that story.

Larry's secretary was another good plot point, with her missing three weeks because her father was dying (but hasn't actually died yet). She comes back for a day to help Larry, only to have her father die while she isn't by his side. The funeral served as the payoff to many of the jokes used throughout the episode (especially with Richard Lewis finding out that Larry lied about Dr. Rifkind, and then the other people at the funeral canceling their appointments with him). The part that didn't really work though was the secretary's mother. I don't believe that she wouldn't grieve for her dead husband for less than a day. It just seemed out of place.

Larry's new hostess girlfriend, was another plot that had its moments, but nothing too spectacular. The idea of his friends not wanting him to "shit where he eats" and Larry saying that he will be able to be the first to pull it off was good, but the rest (and majority) of it didn't really click.

Was it a good episode in terms of every episode of television currently on? Probably, but it wasn't a particularly good episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. The funniest parts of the episode were the discussions about how you can tell when someone is lying when their voice goes up, but the rest of the plots just didn't have solid resolutions.

AND WHERE WAS LEON? He is by far the funniest character on the show. He is needed in every episode. I'm sure next week's episode will be funny, but it will also be predictable. That is what we have to accept as we continue to watch Larry get into trouble. But it sure can be funny.