The Prestige TV Podcast - 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' Season 11 Episode 2 Recap

Episode Date: November 1, 2021

Bill Simmons is joined by Joe House to discuss Season 11 Episode 2 of ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm.’ They talk about their favorite scenes, the funniest bits, their cast and non-cast MVPs, and grade the episode. Hosts: Bill Simmons and Joe House Production Assistant: Isaiah Blakely Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Exclusion supplies to homedipo.com slash price match for details. Prestige TV podcast, November 1st, 2021. My name is Bill Simmons. Here with Joe House. We're going to talk about Kirby Enthusiasm, Season 11, episode two. And I'm here with my little angel muffin Joe House. How are you, House? You don't get the wow, Bill Simmons.

That's not the wow. I'll tell you the wow. That's not the wow. This is a weird episode. I think I guess we're headed toward a season now where it's just going to be no thread plot because the Netflix show is out. Young Larry is gone.

Young Larry was murdered. I don't think it's gone. I think that's going to be the thread plot. He's going to shop the show. Maybe he'll find another taker. maybe Netflix will come back. I hope Netflix comes back because I personally love Don Jr. Me too.

And his little assembly of multifaceted assistance. Yeah, who never say anything. Yeah, Don Jr. has emerged as the villain of the show and with reason, because he's perfect. He's the perfect, annoying, seems great on paper, TV executive. Is he really a villain? Is he? I mean, speaking of full of shit. Well, he's a urinal liar.

No, he's not. This is the whole point. He went to the, to the janitor. And as was demonstrated and proven beyond a reasonable doubt in the last 50 seconds of the show, the janitor is a unreliable non-performer. Non-performer. I get it. I still don't believe that Jr.

He wouldn't have named the character, Dod Jr., unless it was a villain. He's trying to make a post. He's trying to say something. Let's talk about the storylines for this one. We had four storylines this time. Shorter episode, 35 minutes. Casting of Young Larry. Jeff's abortion extortion.

They really went for it with that one. That was their line cross for this one. It's like, oh, my dental hygienist has extorted me for an abortion. Unisex toilets being a complete disaster. And then Mary Ferguson, the sequel, which turned out about as well as Mary Ferguson, the first one.

So we'll start with young Larry. I don't, who do you think they're trying to parody with that actor, singer character? Who, I feel like that was targeted at somebody, but I don't know who it was. I mean, it felt like, I don't know, because I have to confess, I had to look up Dylan O'Brien. Me and I'm not, he's not in my walk of life, right? Young, the Teen Wolf on MTV, I didn't, I was not a devotee of that. And then the Maze Runner movies. you know that not not all not in my wheelhouse but it felt like generic uh hollywood millennial

i don't know is there is there a particular one you couldn't i was trying to think is it i it there seemed like a little jared letto in there okay what jared letto you know years ago when he when he was a rising actor but then had that band some of these people have had at actor bands. But he was clearly parroting somebody because when he was singing peaches by the presidents of the United States of America and

really, really adding some gusto. I felt like somebody was being targeted there. I just wasn't smart enough to know who. Isn't Jared Leto the one who was fronting a band for a bit? Wasn't that Jared Leto? But that was 15 years ago. So I don't know if that was him. But maybe it's just the concept

of these actors who think they can also sing. I thought Dylan O'Brien, was really good. I loved him. I hope he's back. He's my secret underrated MVP of the show. He's he's MVP up to. Unless we're just going to give it to J.B. every episode, which I'm happy to do. Maybe he's the non-JB MVP. It was a guest appearance by Delano, Brian, but hopefully he sticks around for a little bit because that was terrific. The dog, him holding the dog backstage. I loved his concert performance. I thought that was so good.

I loved how he sang Peaches and he was like doing like the over, you know, like the thrusts and stuff. I thought that was really funny. I also like that there wasn't a lot of people there. The whole thing was perfectly conceived, perfectly executed from the perspective. And I really don't want to confess how relatable I found it. But perfectly. Being an old person at a concert.

person had a concert. You and I were being a jet. That's us at a Super Bowl party. Holy shit. It's just loud. So loud. Yeah. Oh my God.

What's happening? This stinks. This stinks. It's not anything good. One of the things that the show has really tapped into this year, and I don't know how intentional it is, but just how old Jeff and Larry seem now, they had that wide shot of them in the concert, and they just looked like two old buddies who were just in the wrong place. It was really smart.

Well, to pick up on one of the other plays. lot lines, I was amazed that Larry did not fall into the toilet. I mean, among, we're speaking, the unisex, the urinal, the seat, Larry wants the seat to be up. He wants to put it up. He doesn't want to touch the seat. He won't use his hands to prop the seat up. He's using his feet. He climbs up on the bowl.

I just am shocked that he did not go into the bowl at some point. I was, I thought that was a little bit of a force out of our four storylines, the unisex So because they're annoying, but let's be honest, we're guys. We'll just aim for the, for the middle where there's no seat. We're not, if the thing's halfway up, I'm peeing anyway. I'm not going to lose sleepover, whether it's all the way up, all the way down. I know you agree with me on that one. It's an obvious yes, but Larry explained he does not have the same urethral discipline

that he enjoyed as a younger man. His urethal discipline is, is waned a bit. Yeah. So when we get to the funny bits part, I thought there were a lot of like, tiny, funny bits that were clearly written down on a notebook. I forgot to add urethrid discipline. All right. All right.

So the unisex thing was probably, that was probably the most force plot. The abortion extortion, I guess every episode they're just going to try to cross the life. This was just a matter of fact, abortion extortion. They would hush down when Susie re-entered the room. Oh, Susie's here.

Let's not talk about the abortion. The most amazing thing, really, at the guts of it, is how much sex Jeff Garland has? How does Jeff get that much sex? Even Larry says, like, you're amazing. How do you pull this off? Yeah. I mean, from Bam Bam Funkhazer to the dental hygienist to whoever else. Yeah, he's a horny guy.

And he's always getting it in. He's like a character from real world. So we had that one. That was, I thought that dentist one and the Greek music, on the weaker side of the high end of curb, I would say. Well, you know, this episode in terms of pushing forward some of the season long plot lines and reestablishing Larry's petty annoyances, a couple of the petty annoyances like the Greek music went just a tiny bit, you know, we remember what a cranky old dick Larry is. Yeah. And we got like, you know, a dozen cranky old dick moments with him. I just think like nobody would play Greek music at a dentist's office.

I don't see that like really loud music like that. It was too loud. Yeah, it wasn't realistic. They were not going to do that. Dentists are always like worried about the patients. They're not just going to be like, you've entered my domain. Here we go. So I felt like a course.

If it was quieter, I could understand it. Yeah. The last story of the Mary Ferguson, too. She was in what, three scenes total? I wanted more. Yeah. Can she come back? Are we getting her again?

Well, you know, he's got to look for Mary. She was the deuce. He calls her number two. The deuce. He called her the deuce. We need more of the deuce. I mean, hopefully there's a continuing plot line of Angel Muffin's recovery, Larry paying, because Larry's already, you know,

they drew the parallel between the abortion extortion and now Angel Muffin's recovery plan. So hopefully there's a lot more. of Mary Ferguson the Deuce. Mary Ferguson the Deuce was played by Charlotte Newhouse, who I couldn't really find anything about on the IMDB and on the internet's. The last time she was in a show called Mike Tyson Mysteries as a voice, she was in a show called I'm Sorry for one episode. She was an idiot sister, idiot sitter for four years playing Billy.

But really like a big step up for Charlotte. I thought she was really funny. You've stumbled into something here. There is an incredible parallel between her background or sort of, you know, modest background and the plot line of the show, the lack of any background whatsoever from Maria Sophia. Like, the whole thing is about can we get Maria Sophia's tape? Don Jr. just wants to see the tape. It's a fair enough request.

Don Jr. Why is Don Jr. So funny. Because it's just. Every time he says that I laugh. awesome. And the guy kind of looks down juniory too. He just it's a wonderful conceit. But I love

what you've done here in terms of your own sleuthy. The parallel. Yeah. Of Mary Ferguson, the Deuce and Maria Sophia and just, you know, she's a discovery. In the same way Maria Sophia has a discovery. Does she do theater? Does she do theater? Oh, does she do theater?

Charlotte Newhouse does theater. So we had four at four and a half really good scenes. I love lunch with Mary Ferguson too when the whole concept of can I have can I try some of the steak. I can't. I bring it up for my dog, but Larry's paying for the meal was so good. Plus, it was a lot of steak. Joe House definitely would have just, you wouldn't have even asked.

You would have just leaned over and started eating the steak. It is kind of weird though. Why didn't, why did Larry ask for a bite of the steak? If you're at a lunch with somebody that you've just met, do you ask for that person's food? I can't believe you're the one asking me that question. I've seen you lean over and eat people's food. I'm talking about societal norms. I mean,

I literally almost picked up my buddies. There was chicken noodle soup, you know, after I played golf yesterday. And I mean, he was like, oh, this is too salty.

If he had not just gotten over COVID, if he was not just in his antibody, yeah, I was going to start with that spoon. Eating the soup. Yeah, because it looked magnificent. I didn't want to order my own soup.

Yeah, I think Larry just, without asking, leans over and grabs a steak. Especially if he's paying. Just grabs one of the five slices. Also, she had a tiny dog. She wasn't bringing home five pieces of steak for that dog, Angel muffin.

And Angel muffin couldn't have eaten all five slices. I mean, come on. Come on, Deuce. J.B. Smove has a lot of wheelhouses on this show. But I love when Larry's arguing with somebody, and J.B. Smooth is just the third person in the scene.

And he's just reacting and making faces. I think he's been a heroic performance by him through two episodes. Easily the winner of the season so far. Next best scene was Larry Gono a concert. I love that for reasons we discussed the old guy stuff,

putting napkins in their ears and the performance. I thought that was the best scene. Terrifically, Cheryl, it gave us the vehicle for Cheryl's reintroduction into the so magnificent in that respect. So you've given up the dream of Cheryl.

let's not even talk about it. I don't want to have to edit. Yes, I've given up. From 2000 to 2008, it was every time curb when they showed the initials at the beginning, you were always hoping for the N or the SSC. Yes. It just never happened.

Yes. She's a dignified actress. She didn't want to just give you a cheap thrill, Joe House. I understand. I admire it. The Dylan O'Brien fight was the third best scene. I loved just really good. that guy really kind of hung with Larry in a real way.

The fact that the edible, the rolling edible played. The edible's kicking in, yes. I'm telling you, that, that, I'm going to find out by the, by the time we do the next one of these,

I'm going to find out who Dylan O'Brien was parroting. Good. Because we had dogs. We had over-the-top musical performances. We had edibles and yoga. That guy, that was somebody. I'm going to find out.

The next one was the Angel Buffin intro when Larry finds out the dog is named Angel Buffin. I thought that was really funny because I've had people in my life that you're like, really? That's what you named your dog? You're going to be outside calling that dog's name? You can't and you can't

because if you reveal any of those I can't. Those ill names, they'll know the people will know. I have two particular that are like, really? You have to tell me afterwards afterwards. Oh my God. So I think any other best scenes for you?

Well, I mean, I did just picking up on the J.B. Smooth. His breakdown of Greek music is being very specific. And the music that he uses to get into bed. The stripper, yeah. He had to put the clothes on and then to take the clothes off. And what he requests that the conscientious, you know, medical professionals will ask,

what music would you like? You know what Curbs doing this year? And I don't know if it's Larry in some sort of fine dining stage of his real life. But they're weaving in like top notch LA restaurants this season because there was a ball. There was a ball tear. They did the wide shot of baltare and then they went in the restaurant. But that's one of the top restaurants in LA. So I'm wondering if there's like a little house of carbs angle with curb this year where it's just like maybe it's a Joe House Curb enthusiasm season 11 food tour.

where you just really, Baltair is one of the, one of the good ones, though. So I don't know what he's up to with that. And I think season one, the first episode, I think they did one too.

Usually they would always go to the same restaurant, but this year they're, they're kind of prancing around. Was the Baltair where they had the steak? Yeah. That looked really good. No, Baltair, Baltair was where he was with Jeff.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Well, the steak place looked good too. Funny bits for this one. There's a lot of them. As I said, he emptied the notebook. the P before you leave,

rule is one of his critos. Great one. Where do you stand on that? Where do you stand on P before you leave? I don't. Fortunately for us, we're not quite at Larry's stage of life, is the way I'll put it.

So it's not front of mind for me. But I will, you know, confess, like, you know, once a week I do P planning. Pee planning once a week. Like, oh, I'm about to go jump in the Uber

and I'm going to head to this place or whatever. Let me knock one out. just to be nice and clear before the, you know, the next set of events are in front of me. This is one of my dads. My dad is a long time pee before you leave subscriber, including like if the apocalypse was about to happen and we're like, Dad, we have to get out of here. The world's going to blow up in four minutes. Like, hold on, hold on.

I'm just going to pee. Be one of those. Your dad and Larry, that's the demo. They're the demo. Right. Well, and Sean Fantasy. Wow. Shots.

That's a fantasy. Really small. A little small bladder on that Irish kid. Did Sean Fennessey want that on this podcast today? Yeah, I don't care. We're not editing it out. He pees a lot. It's fact.

But that on the big picture Twitter feed. He deserves better. He's a peer. Next funny bit, dog over man for leftovers. That's a real thing. That's a real plot. It's a great question, too. I think that's legit.

Yeah. If you have to make a decision, between sharing food with somebody that you just met at the table or holding on to some amount of it maybe maybe she didn't need to hold on to all of it but because the the doggy bag i enter it's a legit conundrum legit the real question here with doggy bags as you know i have multiple dogs too many every day i refer Olivia to maybe go to that great light in the sky so we cut down for the no i do i'm not rooting for that i think about it um when you bring food home from a restaurant.

Almost always it leads to a diarrhea. They can never handle it. They can handle it. The whole concept of a doggy bag is just like, oh, let me bring that home for my dogs so that I can wake up to a big shit at four in the morning. Or a puke. I would never. Like Angel Muffin, who's puking in Larry's house.

Exactly. I had a veal chop on Saturday night. That is not for dogs. I'm not bringing it. We had some left. I wasn't like, oh, cool. I'll bring this home for Mer. because it would have been a 430 shit.

Yes. What was the another funny bit, the urethro? What did he call it? The urethral discipline. Urethral discipline. Yeah. That was good. I liked if these,

if those pants touch the floor, they go in the incinerator. That was the line that I wrote down. That was good. Because it really adds to the gymnastics of the whole thing, which is another reason why I thought for sure he was going to end up in the bowl. And maybe as the season progresses, it'll end up in the bowl.

But it what a, I mean, it was a really. a physical act by Larry. He climbed up. He was turning around. He got himself to a place where he could pee straight down. I mean, it was very impressive. Where do you stand on your own ureth discipline?

Scale of 1 to 10. Where are you right now at this point in your life? I'm like a, I got to say I'm like a nine and a half. Meaning the ability to have it all. Like are you like a Tom Brady? Are you kidding? I'm excellent at aiming still. I still feel like we're good.

I feel like 10 years from that. We could be in trouble. Maybe so. Yeah. Yeah, I'm definitely more. Larry's in the Ben Rothesburger stage where you just don't know where the ball is going when you're throwing it. You might be a grounder, you might be sailing it.

You have no idea. I feel like I'm still more Mack Jones. Not Mac Jones yesterday, but Mac Jones on paper. Larry's ratty towels. So my dad is a ratty towel guy. They don't have holes in them. It's just like they look like they've seen better days. It's like go get some new towels.

Well, the thing that could. work and I'm surprised Larry of all people doesn't have the the guest towels like a whole set of towels for for Leon and for everybody else that comes into his house. Yeah. That's you get those towels, not the ratty towels because Larry likes the ratty towels. He's a pat. He likes to pat try. I understand every, every aspect of what he's describing. But like the big fluffy plush towel, let that be for everybody else.

And he never has a common in contact with him. Where do you stand on towels? Are you a ratty towel or a fluffy towel? I'm in between. It depends on whether I'm showering for efficiency, utility, or whether it's a luxurious. I'm just, I want to be in the shower for 20 minutes. I want the hot water to hit all of my achy bones. I'm going to sit here and just enjoy this.

Plush towel for the long shower, thin, thinner towel, pat-dried towel for the utility shower. And I have both. I like fluffy towels, but the problem with fluffy towels, sometimes they have the little threads that come off them when I'm putting my contacts. Oh. And I get like the thread on my eye. And then I put the contact in.

I got like the big thing. Then it's, then it's, then it's, 10 minutes. That is a danger. That's a danger with the fluffy towel. They shed. Arrival time etiquette. I thought was good. I've never understood that either.

It does feel like you're being judged. How early you got there before the appointment. I like that one. The lady who sat in the middle seat of the three seat thing at the doctor's office was great. It's just a snap of the finger. Just a snap of the finger. Really? The middle. Yeah. He says it. We all think it and he says it. Dentist office music we covered. Who, who said vets are like car mechanics? That was J.B. Yes. That you go in and they're just adding stuff to the bill and you don't know what's going on. That's right. I thought that was great.

I think vets are among the biggest crooks we have in society. My wife has changed vets multiple times. and I think they over and over again add things, exaggerate things, make up things, and they charge highway robber, especially in L.A., because everybody's got a fucking dog here, and they just make up their own prices. It's unbelievable.

And nobody can say anything. That's exactly right. They're dialed into the psychological vulnerability. Of course you're going to do anything at any cost for your, it did make me angry for 45 seconds. because I just had an experience with a car mechanic, where the car mechanic, we needed brakes and rotors replace in a car that I don't want to say how old it is,

but it's more than five years old. And we've had to do it multiple times because we live in the city. And I'm going to say this delicately. My wife is a tiny bit heavy on the brake. She sees something, anything coming at her from any angle, bam, we're on the brakes. And so these brakes and rotors have need to be replaced a number of different times.

and these guys did the old bait and switch. Oh, that was just the price for the parts. Here's the price for the labor. And it's like, you know, it's a real. It's a full rear-ender. It's a full rear-ender, buddy. It's $200 an hour for the labor. Yeah.

And then the last one were the earplugs at the concerts, which. So I had a question about that. I feel like our hearing is worse as we get older, right? Like, I'm really concerned about it. Of course. So why do you need air plugs? What do you mean? Why do you need air plugs?

Because you can't hear anything anyway. Well, because still, it's the sheer sonic wall is still bad for your ears. If you're starting with ears that are declining already, you don't want, oh, my dogs wanted to make an appearance. You don't want additional impairment. And anytime you go to a concert, you're in a small room like Dylan O'Brien in the intro. All right, I get it. I don't know. I would never do that.

All right, Larry, non-Lary MVP, non-Larry cast MVP is the guy who played Dylan O'Brien, I think. I agree, although I really love the Angie plotline, and I hope that it continues. I hope the abortion extortion continues. Part of the conceit that drove me absolutely bonkers that I couldn't get enough of is the idea that Larry is the one that Jeff asked to go on the secret mission.

Larry's the one that's going to go gather the intelligence about Angie. Right. Jeff should know by now. He's done him for 30 years. He said he couldn't pick a worst person. Magnificent. Magnificent. I love it.

Larry cast MVP. I think J.B wins two episodes in a row. Two episodes in a row. It's J.B. He might sweep. He might sweep every. Susie is now a caricature of Susie, which I'm, I'm kind of fine with. But yeah, it's tough to overdo J.B.

They give J.B. Such rich opportunities to share some of life's tiny moments, tiny pleasures, the music thing, in with stripper out with Bosanova. I mean, that's just... Jeff's been really good this season. Justin terrific. So you think we see Dylan O'Brien again or no?

I hope so. I have no idea. I mean, it's, you know, it's... And you think they're going to... You think they're going to shop young Larry again. Oh, God, yes. Absolutely. I think that's going to carry us because we're going to see a lot more. We already know that we're going to see Maria Sophia.

They're going to do a tape for Maria Sophia, even though the Netflix is out. They know now, oh, we better have a tape of Maria Sophia. And Cheryl is going to do it. And this upcoming third episode is, I'm already, you know, why don't you pull some Hollywood strings and get us that episode so we can watch it now? I might be able to do that. Actually, don't.

I like watching it on Sundays better. It's more fun. I agree. It's my Sunday night. I have all Sunday night football plus succession plus curb is right now, you know, what a time to be live. I do Sunday night football, do my podcast with Sal, finish the pod, go right upstairs, bang out curb. But I got the, I got the succession screeners ahead of time. So I watch this on Friday nights. Okay. You're allowed. You have your time for them. Episode three, banger. I'm,

I'm watching succession after curb now because curb comes on at 1030 on the East Coast. And that means I can see most of what's happening with Sunday night football. And then I want, because of Succession requires a kind of attention, especially like the detail. Curb, you don't, curb, I'm taking quick notes for this podcast so we can have some ha-has. Succession is like big stuff that's happening. There are a bit, I need to, I need to ponder it a little bit. So it's like I'm watching it around midnight now. That's a twice show for me.

Yeah, sure. First time I'm watching just for the plot and just to be surprised by thing. Second time I'm actually watching to try to understand what they did. All right, curb, season, episode two, season. in the books. I'm going to give it. I think it's a B. It's a B.

Yeah, it's a B. First show is an A-minus. I think this one was a B. I think this season has a lot of promise. House, good to see you. We can hear you on Fairway Rowan. We can hear on Friday, Ringer NFL show.

Listen to the rewatchables tonight. The three heat is coming. Wow. You're not allowed to say who the special guest is? It's somebody who is involved with the movie. That's all I'm going to say. Amazing. This podcast was produced by,

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