Episode Commentary: Officer Krupke
No matter where Larry David goes in “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” arguments and frustration seem to follow him around like a shadow. In the most recent episode, entitled “Officer Krupke,” he turns the mundane into a hysterical look at society. This episode is layered with unusual situations and random events to propel David’s anger and still manage to make us laugh.
Shopping for pants at the Banana Republic is where the episode begins and David seems to believe that this activity is incredibly annoying. The fire alarm in the store goes off and he is forced to leave his pants in the dressing room and exit the store. He makes small talk on the outside with an Officer Krupke and the conversation mostly consists of how Krupke’s name is exactly the same as the cop in “West Side Story”.
Krupke has never seen the movie and informs David that it may take up to two hours for the store to reopen after the false alarm. A frustrated David decides to leave his pants in the dressing room and walks away with stolen pants.
On the other side of town, Jeff and Susie Greene (Jeff Garlin and Susie Essman) are driving when Susie decides to look for a tissue in Jeff’s glove compartment. She discovers a pair of women’s panties from Jeff’s mistress. Of course, a scarred Jeff decides to lie and tell Susie that they are David’s panties and that he enjoys wearing them from time to time.
David unhappily decides to play along with this charade, while Susie remains suspicious. By the end of the episode, David hatches a way to finally convince her that, “He is Larry David and he enjoys wearing woman’s panties.” Of course, by then it is almost time for Jeff to be in more trouble in the funniest episode closing of the season.
Now while all this is unfolding, the “Seinfeld” reunion is in the casting process and Cheryl David (Cheryl Hines) is one of the two women up for the part. The other woman is Virginia, who is played by the lovely and talented Elizabeth Shue (who has not seemed to age much from her “Karate Kid” days). Needless to say, complications arise when trying to pick the right one, and even when the results do come in, expect the unexpected.
David still gets into three more arguments, one being when he brings the stolen pants back to get his old ones and they are officially missing. He gives the store clerk Hell, and continues to make the writing sharp and original. Just wait until you hear what David’s fake sign on his bedroom door says.
The second of the arguments involves some lousy lemonade that he bought off some children with a lemonade stand. He feels that he deserves his dollar back and the children stand up to David.
Then finally, Cheryl is invited by Virginia’s husband to join them in the bedroom. Will Cheryl join in on the kinky threesome? David seems to think so and creates more havoc based on his assumptions.
A good episode is just the teaser for next week’s hour-long “Seinfeld” reunion, which is in production on the series. With this promising season, this episode has the potential to be the best yet. Sadly, there are only two left in the season.
Leave a Reply