'Curb Your Enthusiasm' review: Final season is prettay, prettay good (but not great)

WHAT IT'S ABOUT In this final season, Larry (Larry David), Jeff (Jeff Garlin), Susie (Susie Essman) and Leon (J.B. Smoove) head to Atlanta, where Larry runs afoul of the local customs, specifically one dealing with a polling place. Back home, Larry eavesdrops on a golf lesson; has problems at his country club (which include the use of organic eggs — his own); suggests a baby name for his lawyer's (Sean Hayes) newborn; decides to learn the Gettysburg Address; and helps Richard Lewis buy a classic Mercedes from an old friend (Steve Buscemi).

By the end of the 11th season, Maria Sofia (Keyla Monterroso Mejia) ended up becoming a regular on the TV series based on David's life, “Young Larry,” while councilwoman Irma Kostroski (Tracey Ullman) — who had been living with Larry — fell off the wagon. In the 12th, both are still around.

MY SAY “Seinfeld” began as a special in 1989, and “Curb” as one in 1999, which means that “TV Larry David” has been an on-and-off part of our lives for 25 years, or a total of 35 if you include the alter ego of TV LD (George Costanza). By wrapping his classic on these big anniversaries, could that mean David — the real one — has an eye on his legacy after all?

Approaching the 12th with that assumption wouldn't be wrong, but it would also mean you haven't been paying attention these last 35 years. Legacies are for suckers in Larryworld, where good intentions or happy outcomes wither, then desiccate, like a frog left out in the hot sun. That's mostly what to expect this final season.

HBO offered the first nine episodes for review, but held back the April 7 finale that may (or may not) have something to do with a rumored revisit of the “Seinfeld” capper. No big deal: What's here is good enough, especially Sunday's launch which squarely places Larryworld in Trumpworld, where “line warming” bans are enforced at the polls and Black lawn jockeys are the perfect yard accessory. What gets Larry out to Atlanta is a case of racial mistaken identity — he thinks the billionaire who offers to pay him an appearance fee is actually Black — but once there he stumbles head-first into America's great cultural (and political) divide.

It's a productive place for “Curb” to have stumbled, and an unusual one too. This show has long existed in an unfocused political context because a more focused one might require that TV Larry actually care about who's president or what party is running the country. The unbroken rule of “Curb” is that rich white people — LD in particular — don't have to worry about anything, other than what dinner party they must suffer through, or what tee time they've scheduled.

After the first two Atlanta episodes, “Curb” does shift back to this familiar theme and formula. Larry still uses lies and half-baked schemes to grease his slide past whatever awkward situation he needs to slide past. These efforts (still) reliably turn into the self-destructive loops of any decent “Curb” episode. LD very much remains his own worst enemy, thank goodness.

And more than any other iconic TV star, with the obvious exception of Tom Selleck, David has aged well into his alter ego (he'll turn 77 next summer). He's always been the old guy yelling (figuratively) to get off his lawn, but now the yelling is more shrill, insistent and futile. What hasn't aged well is TV Larry's ability to attract younger women (Sienna Miller, improbably, this season). Meanwhile, a vulgar sight gag late in the 12th isn't just sophomoric but borderline misogynistic.

So, yes, a good final season that doesn't rank with the best but fear not, LD: That legacy is still assured.

BOTTOM LINE Prettay prettay prettay good, not great, final stretch.