As Always, ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ Might Be Ending... Unless It Isn’t
Earlier today, HBO set a release date for Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 12 for February, 2024 as rumors swirl that this may be Larry David’s last ride – just like the last eleven seasons were, too.
For someone so self-admittedly averse to doing anything that requires leaving his house, David has been prodigiously productive since the end of Seinfeld and the beginning of Curb at the turn of the millennium, especially when compared to that less important Seinfeld co-creator, who has spent that same time driving around drinking coffee with his friends. Following the unprecedented success of his first sitcom, HBO gave David a blank check to make as many new episodes of classic television as he wanted – or as few. Curb fans are accustomed to David’s signature multi-year hiatuses, having waited six years for Season Nine with all the saintly patience of George R.R. Martin’s editor.
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Back in March, a couple ominous tweets from Curb decision-makers (including the iconic director Robert B. Weide) seemed to suggest that, with the wrapping of Season 12 filming, they were finishing the series for good. HBO still has not made any indication that the upcoming season will be Curb’s last, so fans are left re-reading those cryptic messages with the same apprehension we’ve had all the other times we thought Curb might be coming to a close – a simple, melancholy feeling of, “Fuck you, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”
When asked about David’s possible decision to finally – and for real, this time – bring Curb to a close, HBO head Casey Bloys evaded making any strong statements, simply telling the press, “We generally leave that up to Larry, and I think he’s thinking about what he wants to do.” Bloys continued, “(David) knows it’s kind of been an open invitation, so I think he’s going to decide whether he wants to continue or make this the final season. I would guess before it airs, he’ll decide.”
Of course, this isn’t the first time David has danced around with a possible final finale of Curb – in fact, it’s starting to become an annual tradition. Eight months after the end of the most recent season, Curb showrunner Jeff Schaffer revealed that he and David wrote the final episode of Season 11 as if it would be the end of Curb, saying, “This last one, more than any, was built to be a finale. … We shot as if it was going to be the last one ever. I had to at least prepare for it.”
As the many alarming tweets from inside the Curb production suggest, right now, David is likely mulling over the Season 12 finale as a possible send-off for his second consecutive smash hit sitcom – assuming he hasn’t already made a decision either way. If Season 12 is to be Curb’s last, let’s just hope David ends it on a slightly less off-putting note than he did Seinfeld – and let’s start looking forward to his next all-time great TV show.
