Larry David: Genius

In the summer of 2008 ETTL found himself bereft. The love of my life had left me. It felt like we had packed in seven years of adventure into less than one.

Yes, August saw ETTL enjoying the last episode of The West Wing, a programme I had learned to love with all the intensity that a fat kid has for cake. What to do? Where would I find another quality US show to rebound into? I found my answer in the sublime Curb your Enthusiasm, a show which could not be less like TWW if it tried.

For both shows, I am years behind their original US airing; nevertheless Larry David's material is as fresh as ever. At times cringeworthily honest, David is a man adrift on a sea of confusion, nearly always with good intentions but finding himself evermore deep in social offence and exclusion. ETTL can, unfortunately, relate to that.

So watch it - even if you have never seen Seinfeld (I hadn't - much of the 90s seems to have passed ETTL by). If you have ever offered to write an obituary for your wife's aunt and found the newspaper has written "beloved cunt" in place of the correct name, or accidently caused escalating offence via a joke about affirmative action, or been caught watching a porn film featuring a friend by another friend's parents, Curb is the show for you.