FILM FRENZY

Larry David with Jeff Garlin and Cheryl Hines in Curb Your Enthusiasm (Photos: Warner Bros.)

By Matt Brunson

(This seasonal feature highlights some of the best box sets of 2025, ones to consider for gift-giving or, better yet, gift-keeping.)

CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM (2000-2024)

Format: Blu-ray.

Studio / Distributor: Warner Bros.

The Scope: Twelve seasons, 120 episodes (plus the 1999 pilot).

The Scoop: This is cringe comedy at its most cringeworthy. The focus is Seinfeld co-creator Larry David, who stars as himself. Or rather, he stars as a fictionalized version of himself, painted here as an intelligent, amusing, and often insufferable man who never met a social situation he couldn’t make worse. His endlessly patient wife — at least until she divorces him in Season Eight — is Cheryl (played by Cheryl Hines, now forever known as the odious Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s spouse), while his manager and best friend is Jeff Greene (Jeff Garlin). Throughout the run of the show, an astonishing number of celebrities appear either as themselves or as exaggerated versions of themselves; this vast number includes Mel Brooks (who casts Larry and Ben Stiller in a production of The Producers), Martin Scorsese, Stephen Colbert, Lucy Lawless, Sean Penn, Bruce Springsteen, CODA Oscar winner Troy Kotsur, author Salman Rushdie, former Senator Barbara Boxer, and former Charlotte Hornets fan fave Muggsy Bogues.

Arguably superior to Seinfeld (and, my gosh, will people argue), this mines humor from the most awkward of situations, with David perfect as a guy who seems to look down on practically everyone around him yet doesn’t always seem sure how to look at himself. Sometimes he makes any given situation worse, sometimes the situation makes him look worse — either way, embarrassment or indignity are sure to follow. And so, invariably, will the laughs.

Curb Your Enthusiasm was nominated for 55 Emmy Awards over its 12-season run, including 11 for Outstanding Comedy Series, seven for David as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, two for Hines as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, and single bids for series guest actors Shelley Berman, Michael J. Fox, Bryan Cranston, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Bill Hader. Its win percentage was pretty dismal, though, only scoring two (the direction on one episode and the editing on another).

Extras: Interviews with and conversations between David and various cast members; on-set footage; short pieces on the last day of shooting the final episode; a reunion with the Seinfeld cast; and a gag reel.

Retail Price: $129.99.