Larry David in New York

Elle Orlando brought up a funny topic in her most recent podcast “The Elle Diablo Show” episode, episode nr. 56 (https://youtu.be/z0FqhMaQDVI?si=ZuQ7Lv45ooTdKmdx&t=14:54 - I know, writing out links is so outdated man, but this lazy Wix webservice is so ass it can’t even manage proper markdown or I‘m just too stupid to use it) to be precise, where she wondered how Larry David from CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM would handle a day in New York.

He would enter the train, she says, and be annoyed with the person having their phone on loud without using headphones – and probably get killed not knowing how crazy random people in NYC can be. I want to continue the thought experiment, since I started watching CURB a week ago and have enjoyed it a lot so far (I reached S01EP8 btw.).

What I enjoy about CURB is that every episode revolves around people (sometimes only physically) close to Larry, each representing typical relationships and situations that we all face in our day to day. It’s his wife that is upset about something he did either at the end or beginning of the episode, friends or work colleagues he then spends time with, and a problem he is trying to solve in the midst of everything. Only few interactions are actually story, while most seem more made up in the spur-of-the-moment, making me wonder whether the script comprises “Improvise a discussion about XYZ” and the like only. Alright, enough with the shenanigan! We need a problem:

Larry is planning to pitch a new script to Netflix that he named „Jeans aren‘t blue“ where he enacts Levis Strauss‘ rising to the creator of one of the most successful Denim brands in the world today. He was invited to an in-person meeting in their Brooklyn subsidiary, so he booked a room in Bushwick a few stops away along the L. On the day of the meeting, he is already running late and is rushing to the L, which is packed to the fullest. It’s summer and one of the few days that turns public transport into a sauna. He squeezes inside and grabs the main bar, next to a young lady in her early twenties, blasting IG and TikTok reels on loud without headphones on. The reel hasn’t even started yet and she keeps swiping, swiping, watching, and swiping another six times. Larry is obviously annoyed and tries to make the girl understand passive aggressively: “You can’t even ride the train in good-old silence anymore, can you?”, he says while heaving a long sigh. Nothing happens. She goes on and on, and doesn’t bother looking up even once.

That should be the primary problem he encounters. However, we are talking about CURB, so it’s lacking a lot more conflict.

Imagine the episode starts with him receiving a call from Netflix, urging him to come to the office the next day already, since the people interested in the script don’t have any other slots available in short term. Larry rushes to NYC and checks into the hotel late at night.

<Conversation between receptionist and Larry>

Larry could not tell from the receptionist’s accent whether the door number was 311 or 211, and tries to read the information off of his room card – with no success. He meets another lady waiting in front of the elevator door who just pressed the second floor. Larry goes ahead and presses “3”, since he is pretty sure it was the third floor and not the second. It takes a good 30 seconds for the door to open, and both of them enter. After a few more looks at the card, he notices the room number written on the lower right corner of the card. The lady is slowly showing signs of nervousness around him, the small space and extremely slow elevator adding to her discomfort.

As she exits the elevator, Larry confidently steps out as well, causing her to speed up to her room, with a few looks back to check whether the guy from the elevator is following her. As it so happens, the lady’s room number is 218, further back along the same hall as Larry’s room. Larry makes another left following the hotel signs to his room, when he realizes that the lady started sprinting the second she made the very same turn, and was struggling to open the door to her room. Larry sees that and instinctively shouts out: “HEY, ITS NOT, MY ROOM, ITS RIGHT HERE, IM NOT FOLLOWING YOU”, while the lady shuts her hotel room.

Larry goes to sleep. Next, you see him waking up and realizing that he overslept. He rushes to the bathroom, cuts himself shaving a few times, wearing a black worn-out suit, and jogging to the elevator. He meets the very same lady again in front of the door, and tries to explain himself:

<Conversation between lady and Larry in front of the elevator>

She shouts “Get away from me, creep!”, and runs down the stairs.

TBC