Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 14, 2025

It may be salient to "confess" up front that I am evidently one of very few people in the world who generally did not find Seinfeld: The Complete Series to be a so-called "laff riot", which is not to say I didn't appreciate its often snarky humor. Seinfeld's very particular brand of comedy might frankly engender grudging smirks of recognition in me, maybe, and occasional giggles, but very few outright guffaws, if I'm being completely honest. Occasionally the show's weird off kilter detours would actually hit an absolute bullseye for me, as this vignette did for me as your resident Sergio Mendes obsessive and inveterate record collector. For those acquainted with some of the great used record stores that dot (or at least used to dot) the Pacific Northwest, I went into the late, great Bird's Suite on Hawthorne Boulevard in Portland when I was a starving youth and, yes, attempted to sell a Sergio Mendes record. The clerk was even more dismissive than the one on Seinfeld, and in fact mispronounced Sergio's name, but I arguably outdid Kramer and Newman in my umbrage by "informing" the clerk that the album I was trying to sell actually had a (minor) hit single written for Sergio by Stevie Wonder. (My closing comments below share some more information on why that particular Seinfeld vignette was so memorable for me personally.) My only intermittent moments of hilarity watching Seinfeld may indicate some kind of deficit in my funny bone which I'll willingly cop to, but rather interestingly, at least given the many tethers between Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, the Larry David HBO outing regularly tickled my personal funny bone more than the adventures of Jerry and his often (always?) dysfunctional cohort.

Of course there's a shared sensibility between Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, one which famously centers on so-called minutiae and often hyperbolic overreactions to it, but Seinfeld often struck me as overly scripted, as if each and every picayune detail had been analyzed and (if I may co-opt a term that I can imagine Larry David himself skewering) "architected" by both Seinfeld and David to the nth degree. Curb Your Enthusiasm is more "loosey goosey", so to speak, not to mention considerably more foul mouthed courtesy of its cable presence, all of which may help some of the comedy to land in some more surprising ways, even if it's undeniable that characters and even some plot lines in the HBO series can be virtual mirrors of various aspects of Seinfeld.

That may be nowhere more apparent than in the celebrated series finales of each show, wrap ups that in more than one way could be imagined with character "body swaps" a la Freakier Friday (especially since there would be more than two characters switching) without any appreciable disruption in either show. Curb Your Enthusiasm is undeniably "meta" a lot of the time, probably even more so than Seinfeld even if both offered a focal character in showbiz, and that sensibility is also completely on tap in the finale, which overtly references the earlier series, not to mention offering Seinfeld himself as a veritable Deus ex Machina.

That "meta" element certainly pervades the series from the get go, though, with David playing a slightly (?) fictionalized version of himself, surrounded by a coterie of well known folks who are also playing versions (??) of themselves. One notable exception might be Cheryl Hines as David's wife (for a while, anyway), who like virtually all of the characters plays someone with her own first name, but who is obviously modeled on David's first (and now ex) wife, Laurie. Also in the same "playing a character probably more than themself" camp are Jeff Garlin as manager Jeff Greene and Susie Essman as his wife. Otherwise, though, a parade of guest stars including all four of the main Seinfeld alumni, Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, Richard Lewis, Wanda Sykes, and a host of others, show up as (supposedly) exaggerated versions of themselves.

What might ultimately set Curb Your Enthusiasm apart from Seinfeld, at least for curmudgeons like yours truly, is the fact that Seinfeld for all its snarkiness and hyperbole was supposed to be about more or less "real" people, even if those people acted like caricatures. Here, in Curb Your Enthusiasm, part of the fun of the series is the unabashed presentation of several well known people obviously overtly playing caricatures (one hopes, anyway) of themselves. It's maybe a distinction without a real difference, but for me it offers a contrast between occasional giggles and pretty consistent moments of hilarity.

Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Series is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Warner Brothers Home Entertainment and HBO with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in 1.78:1. That constant aspect ratio will probably be the first thing to chafe at videophiles' sensibilities, since the first six seasons were originally broadcast in 1.33:1, and the reframings can lead to some odd things like the tops of heads largely missing. Aside from the aspect ratio rejiggering, what will probably really set some teeth on edge or eyes in need of some kind of masking is the totally bizarre decision to present the first six seasons at circa 24 fps . That gives the native 30i material a jerky quality that may be more distracting for some viewers than others, perhaps in an analogous way to how some people have greater or lesser issues with parallax misalignment in 3D presentations. That combined with a not particularly attractive upscale of the standard definition source is probably going to lead to pretty significant disappointment from longtime fans wanting some kind of "definitive" release. Video quality takes a major uptick in more ways than one starting with the digitally captured seventh season on. Suddenly fluidity is markedly improved, the palette is healthier and clarity takes a major step forward. The whole mishandling of the first six seasons would make a perfect "very special episode" of Curb Your Enthusiasm, but the upshot is fans of the series may need to take the series' title to heart with regard to the first six seasons. My score is an average, with the first six seasons getting a 1.5-2.0 and the latter seasons getting a 4.0-4.5.

It's interesting in a way to compare this Blu-ray release to the joint Seinfeld: The Complete Series and Seinfeld: The Complete Series 4K sets that Sony put out about a year ago, in that the 1080 release like this one reframed things to 1.78:1, though rather interestingly Sony's 4K release preserved the original 1.33:1 aspect ratio.

Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Note: I've received several concerned private messages from prospective consumers prior to the writing of this review who report a number of online sites have Dolby Digital audio listed for this release. I have confirmed the codec is DTS-HD Master Audio, as listed above.

There's a slight but nowhere near as dramatic "shift" between the first six seasons and the subsequent years in the audio department as well, with the series opening with DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 tracks and then moving on to at least slightly more immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks for seasons seven through twelve. This is such a talk heavy series that the ostensibly increased channelization available in the later seasons tends to be subtle a lot of the time and frankly intermittent depending on how much "David chaos" is unfolding at any given moment. The series' really fun use of music does get some more spaciousness, and scenes with a bunch of characters (often talking over each other in Hawksian disarray) provide some immersion. All spoken material is rendered cleanly and clearly. Optional English subtitles are available.

Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Note: Unless they're somehow hidden as easter eggs that escaped my diligent searching for them, none of the previously released commentary tracks are included, despite (again from PMs from members to me about this release) apparent online sources claiming they're included. All of the supplements on the first seven seasons look like they're in the wrong aspect ratio, all widened to various degrees.

Season 1, Disc 2

• Bob Costas Interview (HD; 29:19)


• HBO Special (HD; 59:00)

Season 3, Disc 2

• Stop & Chat With the Cast (HD; 22:02)

Season 5, Disc 2

• The History: So Far (HD; 29:34)


• The History: Even Further (HD; 24:14)

Season 6, Disc 2

• On the Set (HD; 11:09)


• Gag Reel (HD; 5:13)


• A Conversation (HD; 22:44) is between Larry David and Susie Essman.

Season 7, Disc 2

• A Seinfeld Reunion (HD; 8:13)


• Rebuilding the Seinfeld Sets (HD; 11:10)

Season 8, Disc 2

• The 92nd Street Y Conversation (HD; 1:28:33) features Brian Williams interviewing Larry David.


• Leon's Guide to NYC (HD; 9:34)

Season 9, Disc 2

• Memorable Moments with Susie (HD; 1:50)


• Memorable Moments with Larry (HD; 2:26)


• Memorable Moments with Jeff (HD; 2:09)

Season 10, Disc 2

• What Finally Broke Them (HD; 1:01) is a gag reel of sorts.

Season 12, Disc 2

• Leon's Bungalow Tour (HD; 2:23)


• On Set with Susie (HD; 00:37)


• Last Day on Set: Speeches (HD; 1:20)


• Last Day on Set: Gifts (HD; 00:40)


• Last Day on Set (HD; 3:39)


• First & Last Scenes (HD; 00:44)


• Larry's Favorite Episodes (HD; 2:56)


• Larry-isms (HD; 1:54)

This is packaged in two oversized keepcases, one for seasons 1 through 6 and one for seasons 7 through 12, each with multi-spindle disc holders, with two discs to a spindle, for a total of 12 discs per keepcase. I frankly had a heck of a time getting discs on and off of the spindles. Both keepcases are enclosed in a slipbox.

Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

While that above well remembered (attempted) used record selling episode of Seinfeld has entered the lexicon of "Seinfeld-ian" quotable dialogue vis a vis the legendary Sergio Mendes (I am a part of his "cult", and proudly so), the inclusion of Don Ho in addition to Sergio struck me as particularly funny for a pretty unique reason, one which I could easily see David utilizing as the basis for some kind of episodic rant about idiots on the world wide web. Years ago, in the very early days of the internet, there was a Usenet group devoted to musical theater that I subscribed to, and who should show up one day but the manager for Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, who announced that the pair was releasing the Original Broadway Cast recording of their musical Golden Rainbow on CD themselves, and that any fans interested could contact the manager personally to purchase a copy. Lo and behold, all of us who did respond then found ourselves BCC'd (we all assumed unintentionally) on an absolutely vicious email chain between that manager and Don Ho's manager discussing an impending joint concert that was scheduled for Hawaii. Ho's manager wanted Don to have top billing due to his Hawaiian imprimatur, but Steve and Eydie's manager was having none of it, and it got very heated, with each of them throwing barbs at each other about the perceived lack of commercial success recently for the other one's client(s). Now, that's comedy.

This is going to be a cup half full, cup half empty situation for many, with an understanding that any Larry David fan worth his or her salt will then go off on a tangent about what kind of a cup it is. I'm kind of on the fence, since the latter half of this set looks and sounds fine, but the botched first half and weirdnesses in existing supplements and lack of other previously released supplements make this a case of caveat emptor for me.