It’s hilarious because David’s exhilaration feels so familiar to anyone who knows an extremely common type of boomer male. He combines that history-dad energy with his relentlessly inappropriate “TV Larry” alter ego, as perfected in Curb Your Enthusiasm, in HBO’s Life, Larry, and the Pursuit of Unhappiness: An Almost History of America. Premiering June 26, in anticipation of July’s semiquincentennial, the 7-episode sketch comedy series comes with the presidential imprimatur of executive producers Barack and Michelle Obama. As co-creator (with series director Jeff Schaffer, a Curb and Seinfeld alum) and star, David casts himself as the fly in many historical ointments. The show is safer and less inventive than his best work. Still, there’s fun to be had in this time machine whose ultimate destination is dad-joke heaven.
From left: Jane Krakowski, Larry David, and Toby Huss in Life, Larry, and the Pursuit of Unhappiness —John Johnson—HBOAs in Curb, the list of guest stars is long, distinguished, and smartly deployed. Core citizens of Davidworld (Jerry Seinfeld, Susie Essman, J.B. Smoove, Vince Vaughn) mingle with comedy virtuosos (Kathryn Hahn, Bill Hader, Jane Krakowski) and celebrity history buffs like Lin-Manuel Miranda. (I’ve been asked not to reveal some of the other big names who appear.) Most of the premises are iterations on familiar Davidian scenarios: Larry selfishly capitalizes on a tragedy. Larry and a male friend scheme their way out from under a rightfully wary woman’s gaze. In one sketch, he’s Meriwether Lewis spuriously assuring his wife that it’s going to be all business on a westward expedition with his good-for-nothing pal Clark. There are amusing lines and casting choices in these segments, but four consecutive “Larry being annoying” skits can get repetitive. Occasional callbacks to actual Curb bits only draw attention to the material’s staleness.
Larry David, left, and Jerry Seinfeld in Life, Larry, and the Pursuit of Unhappiness —John Johnson—HBODavid also has a flair for funneling characters’ bad behaviors into storylines that, over the course of a half-hour episode, braid together until they’re knots of miscommunication and offense that must be exploded because they’re impossible to untie. Most of Life’s sketches are too short and simple to facilitate such plot maneuvers. The few that do veer off in unexpected directions—including a delightfully silly take on the Alamo—are some of the show’s best, using the Larry character as a springboard rather than an end in himself.
A different format might have helped. An episodic anthology would’ve cut down on the repetition within each installment and given David more space to craft storylines. A feature-length special could have distilled the project to its best, least redundant ideas or introduced an interstitial narrative. Life, Larry, and the Pursuit of Unhappiness is destined to go down in history as minor Larry David. But for a certain kind of dad—and, perhaps, the family members who love him enough to tolerate his geeky excesses—it will surely still be a pretty, pretty, pretty good time.
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