Curb Your Enthusiasm is back on HBO, with the season 9 premiere 'Foisted!' airing in the US last night (1 October).
The critics' first reviews are in, and it seems like Larry David's fictionalised version of himself is still as curmudgeonly and contrary as ever. And little has changed – but most reviewers seem to think that's a pretty (pretty) good thing...
"After six years of being away, HBO wasn't being coy about what had changed on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Nothing. And that's great news, as HBO's wink that Larry David was still Larry David rang ultra true in the ninth-season premiere Sunday night (which wasn't sent to critics because, well, at this point pretty much you're on board or you're not, and it's not like HBO needs to sell Curb to the uninitiated)."
"After six years off the air, Curb Your Enthusiasm returned with an episode in which the passage of time was a noticeable feature, but what stood out most was how little has changed — for the better."
"The primary takeaway from Curb Your Enthusiasm's long-awaited ninth-season premiere, 'Foisted!,' is that the show — its style, its characters, its tone — is almost exactly what it was when it aired its Season 8 finale in 2011. It's welcome, but a little strange, too. Could six years really pass by quite so seamlessly? Could so little, really, have changed? ... Presidents and hurricanes come and go, but Larry David's petty grievances stay the same. It's a sobering view of our time on earth."
"From the second the opening bars of Curb Your Enthusiasm rang out, it was as if no time had passed; and for the most part, that's a good thing. Despite a six-year gap between Season 8 and Season 9, Larry David's attack on uncomfortable social customs felt right at home in 2017. Some things never change, and David is certainly one of those things. Thank God.
"Despite the break, the Season 9 premiere, 'Foisted!,' didn't overwork itself to reintroduce characters, setting, or set-up. This is the show as it has always been, and anyone expecting David to spend time playing catch-up on everyone's lives doesn't understand the impatient, uncaring man driving the conceit of the show: David is on a mission to civilise, and he got right down to it."
"The updated, upscaled camerawork might have thrown the viewer a little, but the chemistry in front of it picked up right where it left off, with all the Curb favourites on as good improv form as ever and clearly having a fantastic time being back on the show, which is essentially a playground for the cast."
