Curb Your Enthusiasm ended its run on HBO after 12 hilarious seasons in 2024, and it’s okay to admit that some seasons of the Larry David sitcom were stronger than others. When it premiered in 2000, Curb Your Enthusiasm revolutionized the half-hour comedy. Sitcoms were traditionally shot with a multi-camera format and a rigorously crafted script for decades before, but Curb came along with its single-camera filmmaking, improvised dialogue, and a cast playing themselves, blurring the line between fiction and reality to completely change the game. Curb quickly became an irreplaceable part of the classic sitcom canon, establishing itself quickly.
From a first season containing such gems as “Beloved Aunt” and “The Group” to a final season with several layers of meta-ness upending the notorious conclusion of Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm never had a genuinely bad season. However, some of the show’s seasons were stronger than others. With some Curb Your Enthusiasm seasons were great without having to go above and beyond, like the fatwa-centric season 9, others were masterpieces, like season 3’s restaurant and season 8’s trip to New York. With so many to choose from, the most iconic Curb Your Enthusiasm seasons may not always be the best.
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Season 9
2017
It’s tough to name the worst season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, because the series never had a truly bad season. But arguably the weakest of the bunch is season 9, in which Larry gets fatwa’d. It was a great premise for Larry to get a death sentence from the Ayatollah, but it didn’t leave a lot of room for progression. Plus, the idea of Larry spearheading a lavish Broadway musical was already covered in season 4’s Producers storyline.
There were some season 9 guest stars who fit the tone of Curb perfectly, like a delightfully self-effacing Lin-Manuel Miranda. But there were a lot of others who didn’t quite gel with the show’s style, like Elizabeth Banks. From a nosy shucker to an employee “foisting,” some of season 9’s storylines weren’t as universally relatable as classic Curb.
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Season 5
2005
After a near-perfect run in its first four seasons, Curb Your Enthusiasm began to falter slightly with an uneven fifth season. Season 5 follows the dual storylines of Richard Lewis needing a kidney transplant and Larry hiring a private investigator to figure out if he was adopted. As it split its focus between spiritual awakening and grim medical drama, the tone didn’t feel quite right in Curb season 5. Episodes like “The Bowtie” and “The Korean Bookie” fell short of the high bar set by Curb’s previous seasons.
Still, there are some great moments in season 5. “The Christ Nail” culminates in a hilarious spoof of Jesus’ crucifixion. Larry makes all his friends and family uncomfortable when he invites a registered sex offender to Passover in “The Seder.” Plus, Larry and Susie impersonating an Orthodox couple in “The Ski Lift” provides endless laughs.
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Season 11
2021
Curb’s penultimate season, season 11, sees Larry working on a new show – an autobiographical series called Young Larry – and being blackmailed into casting a terrible actor in a lead role after the blackmailer’s brother drowns in his unfenced pool. Larry starts dating city councilwoman Irma Kostroski in a bid to get the pool fence law repealed. With all these different threads, season 11 is by far the most complex, densely plotted season of Curb.
This season introduces two of the later seasons’ funniest characters: Tracey Ullman gives a hilarious turn as Irma and Keyla Monterroso Mejia gives a fantastic performance as a bad actor in the role of Maria Sofia. There are some great episodes in season 11, like “The Watermelon” and “The Mormon Advantage.” But the season is a little too preoccupied with its plot to contend with Curb’s best seasons.
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Season 10
2020
After being displeased with Mocha Joe’s customer service in the season 10 premiere, Larry vows to open a “spite store” next door named Latte Larry’s, with the aim of putting Mocha Joe out of business. This was a great overarching premise for the season, with Larry taking a petty grievance to the furthest extreme to date. Mocha Joe is Curb’s greatest villain and season 10 brought his rivalry with Larry to a head in hilarious ways.
On top of the “spite store” storyline, Curb season 10 also has another multi-episode storyline that no other sitcom would’ve dared to do: Larry gets #MeToo’d after a series of unfortunate misunderstandings. The season has some great standalone episodes, too, like the Cabo-set “You’re Not Going to Get Me to Say Anything Bad About Mickey.” Season 10 introduced Vince Vaughn’s Freddy Funkhouser, one of the best characters from Curb’s latter-day era.
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Season 1
2000
The first season of Curb Your Enthusiasm is the only one without a serialized narrative arc. Usually, TV shows need a couple of seasons to find their feet, but Curb is a rare example of a show that found its feet immediately. Some episodes from season 1 still rank among the series’ very best installments, from the shocking obituary typo debacle in “Beloved Aunt” to Bob Odenkirk’s hysterical guest turn as an adult film star in “Porno Gil.”
The show’s very first episode, “The Pants Tent,” introduced its unique brand of cringe humor and its ingenious ability to bring storylines colliding together in a final twist. The season finale, “The Group,” introduced Curb’s ability to wring laughs out of the darkest subject matter. Curb Your Enthusiasm hit the ground running with a stellar first season.
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Season 12
2024
The 12th and final season of Curb Your Enthusiasm sees Larry being charged with breaking an obscure local law in Georgia, hilariously setting up a subversive redo of the Seinfeld finale. On the way to the trial, season 12 was jam-packed with great observations about the universal minutiae of daily life, from the thin-walled doctor’s office in “Disgruntled” to the Disney-obsessed adult in “Fish Stuck.” Guest stars like Conan O’Brien, Sean Hayes, and a surprisingly hysterical Bruce Springsteen made this a memorable swansong.
Curb’s long-awaited series finale, “No Lessons Learned,” didn’t disappoint, either. It recreated the Seinfeld finale, as expected, with Larry’s enemies resurfacing to testify against him, but then upended that polarizing finale with an unexpected twist ending. Curb Your Enthusiasm season 12 was a fitting conclusion to one of the greatest TV comedies ever created.
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Season 6
2007
Leon and his family move in with Larry after being displaced by a hurricane in season 6. This season kicks off with one of the strongest three-episode runs in Curb’s history. “Meet the Blacks” introduces the Black family amidst Larry’s plan to avoid party obligations going hilariously awry; “The Anonymous Donor” is a classic standalone episode about philanthropic phonies; and “The Ida Funkhouser Roadside Memorial” pits Larry against a beautifully deadpan Marty Funkhouser when he steals flowers from Marty’s recently deceased mother.
There are a couple of weaker installments in the middle, like “The Lefty Call” and “The Rat Dog,” but there are more than enough great episodes to make up for it. As the season that introduced Leon, season 6 marked a watershed moment for Curb. After Leon’s arrival, the funniest show on TV became even funnier.
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Season 2
2001
The second season of Curb Your Enthusiasm introduced the serialization that would play into every subsequent season. Larry starts off developing a new sitcom with Jason Alexander, then swaps him out for Julia Louis-Dreyfus for a typically petty reason: Larry and Jason couldn’t decide on an equidistant location for their meetings. Season 2 has some of Larry’s funniest antics, from running afoul of a wrestler in “Thor” to tripping Shaquille O’Neal and provoking the ire of the city of Los Angeles in “Shaq.”
Season 2 is also host to the first true Curb Your Enthusiasm masterpiece, which still ranks among the very best episodes: episode 7, “The Doll.” This episode has a classic Larry mishap, a classic Susie showdown, and a brilliantly ironic final twist. “The Doll” alone makes season 2 one of Curb’s best.
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Season 7
2009
Larry reassembled the Seinfeld cast for an in-universe reunion in Curb Your Enthusiasm season 7, with the ulterior motive of getting back together with Cheryl. This was an ingenious way to do a Seinfeld reunion without really doing a Seinfeld reunion. It was a joy to see Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Michael Richards all playing Curb-ified versions of themselves, with Richards in particular satirizing his public controversy in an on-screen disagreement with Leon.
As much fun as the Seinfeld elements are, season 7 has plenty of classic standalone episodes that are pure Curb. “The Black Swan” is a Curb whodunit involving Larry trying to silence witnesses. “Funkhouser’s Crazy Sister” features an unforgettable guest turn by Catherine O’Hara. “The Bare Midriff” takes an awkward workplace situation to the extreme, culminating in a wonderfully farcical payoff.
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Season 4
2004
Mel Brooks casts Larry as the lead in The Producers on Broadway in the Curb Your Enthusiasm season 4 premiere, “Mel’s Offer.” Larry spends the rest of the season rehearsing (and trying to cash in on Cheryl’s unique anniversary present) before heading to New York for the premiere in the super-sized finale, “Opening Night.” There are a couple of less-than-stellar episodes along the way, like “The Blind Date,” but overall, it’s one of Curb’s strongest seasons.
Curb Your Enthusiasm season 4 is jam-packed with great storylines. Larry hires a sex worker to get to a Dodgers game faster in “The Car Pool Lane.” A Holocaust survivor meets a contestant from the TV show Survivor in “The Survivor.” From Ben Stiller to David Schwimmer to Brooks himself, this season also had a ton of hilarious guest stars who nailed the deadpan, cringe-inducing vibe of the show.