Curb Your Enthusiasm Coverage: Dead Dogs and Ice Cream

Episode Commentary: “Vow of Silence”

This isn’t a bad episode of Curb, it just once again fails to pack the same punch as the magical episode two weeks ago. With no Leon and barely any Funkhouser, this episode doesn’t have the same level of supporting comedy many others this season do. Richard Lewis has his moments here, as well as Susie Essman and Jeff Garlin, but overall, it’s just not a hilarious episode.

Like similar mediocre episodes of the series, the outcome became pretty predictable after a few minutes and several of the small plotlines feel too inorganic. After Larry catches a line-cutter at the Greene’s going-away party, the creative team goes to the same well once again a few minutes later and it just doesn’t catch the same fire. While this doesn’t hurt the storyline surrounding the Greene family dog too much, it hurts the pace of the episode.

In a half hour show, one bad skit can sometimes ruin an episode. That’s not what happens here, but it slows down the action enough to derail the rest of the laughs induced.

In spite of this, what ultimately does this episode in is the fact that the end climax was obvious. After Larry and Jeff were almost tattled on by Vance, who luckily for them, was taking a vow of silence, who didn’t know what was eventually going to happen?

Anyone who has watched this show for years could smell that Vance was not only the bad parker, but would break his vow to make a fool of Larry. Isn’t that the point of the show, after all? The best episodes follow a similar formula, but throw a realistic curveball at the end that you were never expecting. The past few episodes have had off-speed pitches of sorts, but ones that missed the strike zone of hilarity by a long shot.

The one good thing that came out of this episode was that Larry and the Greene’s will now spend the rest of the season in New York. What surprises could be in store for Larry there? Can the change of scenery help induce some more laughs? Lets hope so. With almost eight seasons under its belt, this show must pick up its pace or else it’ll suffer the same fate as the Greene’s family dog.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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