--- title: 'Curb' Finale Strayed Further From 'Seinfeld' Than You Think description: Larry David never changes. But, as he subtly points out in the 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' series finale, society has taken a turn for the worse. canonical: https://time.com/6964642/curb-your-enthusiasm-finale-seinfeld/ author: Judy Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-04-08T16:50:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:52:28.685Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: 'Curb' and 'Seinfeld' Finales Were Less Alike Than You Think og:description: Larry David never changes. But, as the 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' finale points out, society has taken a turn for the worse. og:url: https://time.com/6964642/curb-your-enthusiasm-finale-seinfeld/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1168f41e62880a7/698a556a09208fd78241d015/larry-david.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: larry-david og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Curb' and 'Seinfeld' Finales Were Less Alike Than You Think twitter:description: Larry David never changes. But, as the 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' finale points out, society has taken a turn for the worse. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1168f41e62880a7/698a556a09208fd78241d015/larry-david.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The _Curb Your Enthusiasm_ and _Seinfeld_ Finales Were More Different Than You Think  by [Judy Berman](https://time.com/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman TV Critic Apr 8, 2024 4:50 PM UTC  David on trial David on trialCourtesy of HBO  by [Judy Berman](https://time.com/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman TV Critic Apr 8, 2024 4:50 PM UTC **_Spoiler alert: This piece discusses the_** **Curb Your Enthusiasm** **_series finale._** “I am 76 years old, and I have never learned a lesson in my entire life," [Larry David](https://time.com/6590886/larry-david-curb-your-enthusiasm-season-12/) informs a little boy in a hotel lobby, early in Sunday's [_Curb Your Enthusiasm_](https://time.com/6622181/most-controversial-curb-your-enthusiasm-episodes/)series finale. Then, for those who weren't already convinced by 12 seasons and 24 years' worth of Larry the TV character's antisocial antics, David the creator goes on to prove it by wrapping up his HBO comedy in much the same, wildly unpopular way he ended [_Seinfeld_](https://time.com/6103335/seinfeld-netflix-business/). Once again, a trial unites some of the series' most memorable minor characters in an indictment of the protagonist's selfish, petty behavior. In place of Soup Nazi and the low talker, we got Mocha Joe, Rachel Heineman of ski lift fame, and the girl Larry traumatized by giving her a hug with a bottle of water shoved down his pants—now a grown woman who's still working through the incident in therapy. And once again, the verdict is _guilty_. David's motto for [_Seinfeld_](https://time.com/3934188/seinfeld-original-review/), which flew in the face of 1980s and '90s broadcast-comedy norms shaped by saccharine family sitcoms, was "no hugging, no learning." The title of the _Curb_ finale, "No Lessons Learned," reiterates that TV Larry and real-life David have been, for the past 35 years, the same _schlemiel_ we first met in the form of David's hapless _Seinfeld_ avatar, George Costanza. Yet, if you look closely at the end of _Curb_, you'll find that _something_ notable has shifted since a Massachusetts jury sentenced the so-called New York Four to a year behind bars. While Larry remained in arrested development, the world around him took a dramatic turn for the worse.  David, on the defensive, in the Curb finale Courtesy of HBO Consider the court cases that end each series. Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer are dragged before a judge for failing to intervene in a carjacking. Instead of helping a man whose vehicle is being stolen, at no apparent risk to themselves, they violate a newly enacted Good Samaritan Law by cracking jokes about the victim's weight while videotaping the crime for their own future amusement. When they're condemned to a year in prison, it's because they violated society's moral standards. The New York Four, who mock and manipulate and obsess over minutiae while shrugging off the wellbeing of others and the world at large, are essentially convicted of being bad people. _Seinfeld_ fans who hated this conclusion felt implicated in David's condemnation of his characters. **Read More:** [_J. B. Smoove on Why Leon Finally Watched_ Seinfeld _in the_ Curb Your Enthusiasm _Series Finale_](https://time.com/6965023/curb-your-enthusiasm-finale-jb-smoove-interview/) The Larry we've gotten to know in _Curb_ is no better than those characters. But the transgression that lands him in an Atlanta courtroom is in no way symbolic of his moral bankruptcy. The law he breaks, [Georgia's Election Integrity Act](https://time.com/5950231/georgia-voting-rights-new-law/), which prohibits the distribution of food or water on voting lines, is one that no fair-minded person—and certainly not David, a liberal who has made headlines for [telling off Alan Dershowitz](https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/alan-dershowitzs-marthas-vineyard-cancellation) and [excoriating Donald Trump](https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/larry-david-donald-trump-sociopath-baby-sick-man-1235955042/)—could support. Larry isn't trying to make a statement, in the Season 12 premiere, when he delivers a drink to an overheating Auntie Rae (Ellia English); he's still running damage control after behaving rudely towards her earlier in the episode. Yet his high-profile arrest embroils him in a partisan political war that he experiences as a shortcut to Hollywood heroism and, briefly, the arms of [Sienna Miller](https://time.com/4734270/sienna-miller-the-lost-city-of-z/) (appearing as herself).  David and Seinfeld in the final episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm Courtesy of HBO He's hardly the only character capitalizing on liberal goodwill. Even Ted Danson, who has long played a fictionalized version of himself on _Curb_, is the subject of David's parody when the actor and [sometime activist](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/jane-fonda-ted-danson-arrested-protesting-dc-1249525/) leads a self-serving pro-Larry protest outside the courthouse. Then there's the other side of the aisle. During the trial, David once again pokes fun at Trump. Larry's bribery of a city councilwoman, Tracey Ullman's gloriously crude Irma Kostroski, gives the show an excuse to put [real White House whistleblower Alex Vindman](https://www.thewrap.com/curb-your-enthusiasm-season-11-episode-10-recap/) on the stand to testify to our hero's corruption. "It was a perfect call!" Larry shouts, in an echo of the former President's statement on a phone conversation in which he [attempted to influence Volodymyr Zelensky](https://time.com/5687640/read-trump-whistleblower-complaint/) to investigate Joe Biden. It's no surprise when Larry is sent to prison, after receiving the same one-year sentence as the _Seinfeld_ crew. Yet _Curb_ ends on what appears to be a lighter note: Guest star [Jerry Seinfeld](https://time.com/4939327/jerry-before-seinfeld-netflix/) spots a juror, who happens to resemble Joe Pesci in _Goodfellas_, breaking sequestration. A mistrial is declared. And Larry walks free, musing to Jerry that _this_ is how _Seinfeld_ should've ended. Has the ordeal taught him anything about what really matters in life? Of course not. In the final scene of the series, Larry is on a plane back to L.A. with his closest friends, blithely bickering over whether his nemesis (frienesis?), Susie Essman's Susie Greene, has the right to open the window shade.  David and Seinfeld in the final episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm Courtesy of HBO This is an absurd resolution to a predicament that has been absurd since the very beginning. But there's a certain logic to it, in an era of heightened rhetoric and casual injustice, when so little of the news cycle makes factual, much less moral, sense. While the _Seinfeld_ characters were anathema to the mores of a relatively healthy mainstream society, Larry and his ultimate fate are products of one that is sick. David would probably brush off this reading. "I just try to write funny shows," [he told MSNBC’s Ari Melber](https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/larry-david-does-not-analyze-curb-your-enthusiasm-1235962966/) at a pre-finale event this past Friday, repeating a claim he's made many times before. "That’s all it is. I’ve never analyzed it.” Fair enough. But it doesn't mean that, from the show about nothing to a _Curb_ finale that relitigated that show, he hasn't given the rest of us plenty to chew on. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6964642/curb-your-enthusiasm-finale-seinfeld/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6964642/curb-your-enthusiasm-finale-seinfeld/"},"headline":"The Curb Your Enthusiasm and Seinfeld Finales Were More Different Than You Think","datePublished":"2024-04-08T16:50:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:52:28.685Z","description":"Larry David never changes. But, as he subtly points out in the 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' series finale, society has taken a turn for the worse.","url":"https://time.com/6964642/curb-your-enthusiasm-finale-seinfeld/","keywords":["Television","review","Second click","culturepod"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1168f41e62880a7/698a556a09208fd78241d015/larry-david.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Judy Berman","jobTitle":"TV Critic","url":"https://time.com/author/judy-berman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1168f41e62880a7/698a556a09208fd78241d015/larry-david.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"larry-david","caption":"Curb Your Enthusiasm","creditText":"Courtesy of HBO","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/television/","name":"Television"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6964642/curb-your-enthusiasm-finale-seinfeld/","name":"The Curb Your Enthusiasm and Seinfeld Finales Were More Different Than You Think"}}]}] ```