I should probably declare a bias here and state right now I am a proud worshipper at the church of Larry David. The man can do no wrong in my book he basically rewrote the book on comedy with Seinfeld, then did it all again with Curb a few years later. Christ, I even sat through that Three Stooges remake to watch him play a nun (he was robbed of an Oscar for that one). But The End is, bluntly, a terrible piece of cr*p. It starts strongly enough, with the funny premise that Larry is in fact adopted and (oy vey!) not actually Jewish. He goes to meet his real, Gentile parents in Arizona and embraces his new-found Christianity. However, the episode goes rapidly downhill, with a disappointing plot U-turn that LD wasn't adopted after all and a bizarre fantasy sequence in which he briefly dies and goes to heaven, encountering his two guardian angels in the process. Of course, he comes back to life anyway and the whole season finale feels like a massive waste of time. The fifth season of Curb is widely regarded as the show's weakest, but this episode was a major misfire. Curb works best when it centres around Larry challenging familiar social conventions and watching how the smallest incident escalates until it all blows up in his face. The overlong surreal dream sequence in this episode just feels out of place and against the spirit of the show. Plus when you consider the guardian angels are played by none other than Dustin Hoffman and Sacha Baron-Cohen, it all seems like a missed opportunity. Luckily the sixth season was a return to form for the show, and The End wasn't the "jump the shark" moment it could have been.
Northern Irish man living and working in London. Heroes include Ledley King, James Ellroy and whoever invented elasticated sweatshorts. Follow me on Twitter - @MJLowry23
