Larry David’s foray into historical comedy, Life, Larry and The Pursuit of Unhappiness, arrives June 26 on HBO. Produced produced in collaboration with Barack and Michelle Obama’s company Higher Ground, the seven-episode limited series features an array of star-studded guest appearances, including Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Hamm, and Rita Wilson, spoofing the greatest hits of American history. While critics find it provides plenty of laughs, many complain that it borrows too liberally from the Curb Your Enthusiasm playbook, as indicated by its solid but not spectacular 60% score on Rotten Tomatoes and 65 rating on Metacritic.
Here’s a sampling of what the reviewers are saying:
THE GOOD
Praising the project as a “clever, insightful, and politically savvy series,” Richard Roeper of RogerEbert.com commends the writing, stellar guest cast, and a fast-paced format that keeps the premise from stretching thin. “The premise for the clever, insightful, and politically savvy series is simple, and virtually foolproof: we travel back in time for re-creations of pivotal moments in American history, only Larry David is in the middle of it all and continually mucking things up,” Roeper writes, adding that the historical tampering is “pretty, pretty, pretty funny.”
Writing for the Financial Times, critic Rebecca Nicholson describes the show as essentially “Curb Your Enthusiasm in period costume, and as such it is a treat.” While Nicholson notes that the relentless rhythm of awkwardness devolving into shouting can occasionally feel wearying, she praises David’s comedic finesse in tackling sensitive subjects. Rather than traditional political satire, she observes that the series positions itself as “a howl of fury and despair” that hilariously channels modern-day frustrations through a historical lens.
THE MIXED
Alison Herman of Variety writes, “Like all sketch shows, which have to start a story from scratch every few minutes, Life, Larry is inherently hit or miss.” While finding that the formula breaks little new ground, Herman feels it succeeds when focusing on the minutiae of human pettiness, serving as a reunion of sorts for David and his frequent collaborators. However, she says the show peaks when it uses historical frameworks to mirror contemporary neuroses and “capitalize on this theme: that history is driven not by great men nor high-minded idealism, but by the foibles and failings that more accurately represent our true nature.”
Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter also says the show is a mixed bag. “Having run out of aspects of contemporary American culture to kvetch about, Larry David turns his sights to the past with mixed results in HBO’s Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness,” Fienberg writes. He notes that while the series features an impressive lineup of guest stars, it quickly defaults to recycled gags from David’s previous work. Ultimately, Fienberg characterizes the series as “formulaic and familiar, but not without high points,” concluding that out of the entire season, “maybe only five or six of them, including that extra-long Lincoln piece, are actually good.”
THE MEH
Delivering a disappointed review, Nick Schager of The Daily Beast says that despite a promising premise, the show quickly becomes exhausting by leaning entirely on a single, predictable joke. Schager argues that the series struggles to justify its historical framing, notes that it “more often than not earns dead silence,” and concludes that this particular project “seems destined to go down in history as merely an ill-advised footnote.”
