Curb Your Enthusiasm: Denise Handicap

Posted by: Shane Hallam  •  October 23, 2009 @ 12:01pm

Filed under: Recaps & Reviews

To anyone who has ever read my reviews of this program, it is no secret that I am a rabid fan, and that I can't get enough of Larry David. From his Seinfeld days to his much overlooked Woody Allen indie comedy Whatever Works, I have essentially seen everything he has done. Therefore, it should come as little suprise that my column here about his program Curb Your Enthusiasm is quite biased. I have noticed of late that all of my reviews for Curb have been exceedingly glowing, though I must admit that I cannot help this fact. The man is a genius, and he rarely slips up (though his 1998 film Sour Grapes is so awful I can hardly bear it). This episode was no different, and it had everything in it but the kitchen sink.

Ted Danson appeared to accost Larry when Larry refused to accept a piece of pie sent to him from Danson within the restauraunt they were both visiting. Rosie O'Donnell appeared on two separate occasions to physically assault Larry, and Larry found himself dating two different handicapped women within the same episode. It is this mixture of guest stars doing outrageous things, coupled with outrageous plot tactics such as these which make Curb the great show that it is. The plot of these episodes is always too complex to summarize satisfactorily within the context of this article, as explaining such a thing becomes a cyclical and rambling endeavour. I'll try it anyway, however, and will make this as brief as possible.

Larry finds himself inadvertently dating a handicapped woman, with whom he feels too guilty to break up, though he eventually elects to leave her anyway as the sexual uncertainty becomes unbearable to him. However, in the fashion of the show, just when he is about to end the relationship over dinner, he discovers the upside to dating a disabled person, including such perks as cutting reservation lines, getting preferential seating and parking, and just all-around amiable interactions with people.

Things start to go downhill, however, when Larry has his Blackberry hurled into the ocean and thus loses the phone number of this women, whom he dubs "Denise Handicap". While out looking for her house in order to regain her number, Larry, on some basis of assumption that all handicapped people in area know each other, decides to ask a different disabled woman if she knows anything of Denise. In the process, he finds himself dating her instead due to convenience and the desire to continue to date a handicapped person for the purposes of appearance. However, he invites this new woman to a party in which the old handicapped woman is also present, causing his deceit to be exposed, and ultimately inciting Rosie O'Donnell to chase him down and physically assault him.

There you go, and that was just the brief, abridged version. If you like what you read, you will certainly enjoy the program, which is much more involved, yet is extremely easy to follow, surprisingly. All of you fans out there, unite and send me your comments on recent episodes and we'll see if we can start a mild movement.

Tune in again this Sunday at 9 on HBO when Jerry Seinfeld reappears in an episode entitled "The Bare Midriff".

Tags: curb your enthusiasm, denise handicap, denise, handicapped, rosie o'donnell, blackberry

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