Curb Your Enthusiasm Complete Series DVD review
Oct 17, 2024- Permalink
Curb Your Enthusiasm ran on HBO from October 17, 1999, to April 7, 2024. During 120 episodes and 12 seasons, Larry David played a fictionalized version of himself, portrayed as a semi-retired TV producer. Cheryl Hines played his wife, Jeff Garlin his friend and manager, Susie Essman as Jeff’s wife and J.B. Smoove as his friend and eventual roommate. The largely improvisational comedy follows David as his lack of social graces or conventions get him into various predicaments. The series earned 55 Emmy nominations during its run, winning two Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series and Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series. The series came out on Digital in April and now Warner Brothers Discovery Home Entertainment has released Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Series on DVD. I had a chance to take a look. The WB likes disclaimers, so here goes: Though Warner Brothers provided me with a copy of this release to review, the thoughts and opinions below are mine.
Curb Your Enthusiasm fans who are physical media enthusiasts may ask why there’s no Blu-ray release. As I always answer, it comes down to economics. TV box sets don’t often sell as well as individual movies unless it’s a show with a rabid, loyal fanbase and/or special effects crying out for the highest resolution. Also, DVD still is the highest selling format as a lot of people and their parents may have a DVD player, but only the home theatre enthusiasts have upgraded to Blu-ray or 4K. So we get a DVD of this series. For aspect ratio purists, the seasons 1-6 air in the 1.33:1 (4×3) ratio they were broadcast in and framed for, while seasons 7-12 are in widescreen 1.78:1 (16×9). The video image is generally quite clean and detailed for the standard definition DVD format.
On the audio side of things, seasons 1-6 have an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack, while it moves up to Dolby Digital 5.1 for seasons 7-12. Seasons 1-5 and 7-9 also have a French soundtrack. Subtitles are available for English (seasons 1-8), English SDH (seasons 9-12), French (seasons 1-9) and Spanish (seasons 1-9). When the soundtrack moves from stereo after season 6, the soundscape is still quite front-heavy, though some audio effects and ambient sounds do make their way into the surrounds. The all-important dialogue is clear and prioritized in the mix.
The Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Series DVD spreads the 120 episodes over 24 discs. The set does not come with a digital code. Though not every season comes with bonus content, there are some fun featurettes, behind-the-scenes, and interviews spread throughout the set.
Curb Your Enthusiasm features a regular and guest star cast made up of comedy heavy hitters. The audio and video is very good for the DVD format. If you love the show or want to get into the show without worrying if it will still be available on a streaming platform, you might want to add Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Series DVD to your collection.