Reviews & Ratings for
"Curb Your Enthusiasm" The N Word (2007)

1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Forbidden word, 3 November 2009

Author: jotix100 from New York

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Larry, now living alone in the house, has decided to create a little spot in the garden so Auntie Rae can grow her own vegetables. She is so happy that when she hugs him, something an unwelcome reaction as what the woman experiences as she feels something not quite right against her body. The Blacks, Leon and Loretta are offended by the incident.

Larry, who has a way of getting people irate, overhears someone talking on a cell phone while he is in the men's room of the hospital where Jeff is going to be operated to help his snoring. The man mentions the "N word" and Larry is shocked. Retelling the story to Jeff in the cafeteria provokes a violent reaction of a black doctor who happens to come by.

The episode centers around the taboo word which is so offensive, no one should be using it lightly. Larry tackles a few annoyances on the episode, which kept repeating the despicable word a few times. Even though he is not a racist, he is made to be one by people taking his conversation out of context. Since he was seeing a doctor, he takes a shot at the way physicians, in general, scribble things no one can understand. Only pharmacists, used to seeing the writing, can decipher what it is supposed to be.

As a result for getting Jeff's doctor so upset, the surgeon decides to cut Jeff's hair, which makes Larry's partner understand why bald people suffer discrimination. Jeff, courting Ben Stiller, goes to a lunch with his new look, and the star decides to go with someone else. As usual the writing is the best thing of the show. Tom Kramer directed this episode.

0 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Larry dates a doctor, Jeff undergoes surgery, hilarity ensues, 11 August 2012

Author: zlerangis from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

This episode is funny (as usual), but I'm growing more and more frustrated by the declining plausibility of Curb as the show goes on. It seems that during this sixth season, even more so than before, the actions of many characters are completely unrealistic and overblown. In fact, the entire episode rests on several incidents that would NEVER EVER even come close to happening in real life. If a person overhears you saying the N word, every single time they confront you, they'd give you a chance to explain the context you used it in. It's just basic human behavior. Not only that, but in the final scene, why didn't Larry just say "the n word" instead of "nigger"? I understand that characters on a television show have to be somewhat unrealistic to be interesting, but I think this is taking it too far, to the point where the suspension of disbelief is near impossible.

5 out of 33 people found the following review useful:
"Curb" follows the path of other successful sitcoms: down!, 2 November 2007

Author: TheCritic-3 from Arlington, MA

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

It is a shame that a once great show has fallen into the pattern that besets so many shows after they've creatively peaked. That is, many shows descend into annoying mediocrity when they start lazily incorporating weak and obvious comedic ideas and the actors' neuroses are overly exaggerated to the point that they are not only annoying but unlikeable. I can't help but sympathize with Cheryl in last week's episode when she said, and I'm paraphrasing, "Larry, people ask me why I stay with you and I tell them that you have another side. Well, Larry, the truth is, you HAVE NO other side"

**Spoiler Ahead!** This episode while having a few extremely funny sight gags(a bald Jeff...brilliant!, the living room of a doctor arranged like the doctor's waiting room) often resorts to predictable situations, e.g. a passerby overhearing Larry use the forbidden "N-Word" out of context, Larry unable to read a doctor's scrawl which undoubtedly contains something important, Larry hugging the most visually unappealing cast member and getting an erection, etc.

So I can't tell if the real-life actor/writer Larry David has basically exhausted "plumbing the depths" of his neuroses for a seventh season and is just getting by, reusing old ideas without telling us anything new or whether there "really is no other side to Larry".

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