"Curb Your Enthusiasm" still compulsory viewing

[Brian Damage]

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Here are three reasons to watch the new sixth season of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" or impose on your friends to tape it for you:

1. It is the most perfectly plotted comedy on TV. At the end of the half-hour, all the seemingly random strands of story lines always manage to come together in a way you never expect.

2. It is constantly funny. Not most of the time. Not with the right guest stars. Each and every episode.

3. Who knows when you'll see it again? Like a comet in the sky or the McRib sandwich at McDonald's, it comes and goes without rhyme or reason. Maybe the mood will again strike creator and star Larry David and he'll do another season. Maybe not. Even this one has just 10 episodes. Enjoy it while you can.

By this point, we've become so familiar with David's character that we laugh simply by anticipating his next politically incorrect opinion or corner-cutting scheme. Should we feel guilty when we secretly agree with self-centered Larry? Never. We know that, in the end, Larry gets away with nothing.

In the opener, Larry uses a bat to silence a fire alarm, invents a not-so-foolproof excuse for missing the parties of friends and stirs up a domestic hornet's nest by giving a too-honest answer during a "Newlyweds"-style game. The latter gaffe leads to him and Cheryl (Cheryl Hines) opening their house to a homeless family of hurricane victims (including guest star Vivica A. Fox). The contrast in lifestyles will provide comic fodder for several more episodes.

Whether HBO is in something of a programming down cycle, as long as it has "Curb" and "Entourage," it will have the last laugh.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter