Larry David has never apologized for the much maligned “Seinfeld” finale. And he’s not about to start now.
The acclaimed writer and actor used Sunday’s end of his long-running HBO series “Curb Your Enthusiasm” to double down on the last episode of the NBC 1990s mega-hit, daring viewers to hate it all over again.
The results were less than hilarious, but it was an appropriate, clever act of defiance.
More than 75 million people watched that 1998 episode of “Seinfeld,” but you might not remember the details. A quick recap: Jerry and the only three people on Earth that can stand him are arrested for breaking an obscure Good Samaritan law in Massachusetts.
They are imprisoned after characters from their past pop up to give jurors past examples of their extreme indifference to other people. David, who co-created the series, came back after a two-year hiatus to help write the send-off.
The entire 12th season of “Curb,” which had its debut season in 2000, has dropped hints that its finale would echo the end of David’s previous show. In the season premiere, Larry gets arrested in Georgia for giving water to someone in a voting line, violating a state law.
The trial, which took up much of Sunday’s 55-minute episode, consisted of characters from the past getting one last chance to gripe, triggering clips of Larry’s most cringe-worthy moments: Stealing shoes from a Holocaust museum, beating a black swan to death with a golf club, hiring a prostitute so he could use the carpool lane.
The trip down memory lane did give us one last chance to salute some beloved guest stars, from political whistleblower Alexander Vindman to Bruce Springsteen, but it felt more like one of those high school reunions. The series finale seemed like a good idea on paper, but once you’re there, you kind of regret making the trip.
