10 Bad Episodes Of Otherwise Perfect TV Shows

And so we come to the second Larry David show on this list. Acting as the season 5 finale, The End starts strongly and has a funny premise. In it, our misanthropic hero discovers that he is adopted and (oy vey!) not actually Jewish.

Upon hearing this bombshell, LD heads out to Arizona to find his real Gentile parents, resulting in some great scenes featuring him embracing his newfound Christianity. So far it sounds like classic Curb - so why’s it on this list? Well unfortunately the episode veers dramatically downhill around the halfway point, with a disappointing U-turn that Larry wasn’t adopted after all, and a bizarre, un-Curb like fantasy sequence in which he briefly dies and goes to heaven, encountering his guardian angels in the process.

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.