January 28

The #MeToo theme is apparent in Curb Your Enthusiasm's tenth season but the early returns suggest a tone-deafness that is suggestive of male comedians whose moment has passed and could easily morph into reactionary conservatism.

The premiere episode had Larry questioning his assistant about a tattoo on her forearm while hovering over her in the office. He then reached over to use part of her blouse to clean his glasses. In real life, this kind of behavior would, at a minimum, get you a meeting with human resources, and possibly more. Later on, Larry engages with a catering server at a party, grabbing her clumsily while trying to take food off a tray. 

The actions are murky. Larry does not respect boundaries, so it may be that using an assistant's clothing to clean his glasses was not gender-specific, but rather, just a show of his cluelessness, and the server scene resulted in his hand on her breast when his aim was the food on her tray. But the second episode crossed a line that I am surprised has not received more attention. There was a clunky scene that attempted to comment on consent culture by having Larry record himself as he sought permission from his date to place his hands on her and kiss her. The scene was uncomfortable not in the typical Curb way, but was just regular old icky. 

And while TV Larry usually falls on the right line of satire and commentary, the closing scene, where Larry meets his ex-assistant for lunch in an effort to amicably resolve their differences (as lawyers would say) crossed the line when he grabbed her arm - forcefully - to keep her in place as Larry "side sat" her so Ted Danson could see that was something Larry did not just with Danson's girlfriend (and Larry's ex wife) but with everyone. 

This was the second time in the season's two episodes where David went beyond social commentary and crossed into what would be described by most as criminal conduct. When you have built a career and a brand on shock it may be easy to elide this type of behavior. After all, Curb has struck against many sacred cows - religion, sex, handicaps, and more - but here, seeing that invasion of space felt wrong. 

Curb is one of my favorite shows but the blind spot is glaring. Earlier in the episode, Larry bemoans the idea of dating - he is old and bald, but Jeff points out that Larry is rich and rich beats old and bald any day. Sadly, the same is true of grabbing people against their will. Rich beats guilty any day. 

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