Larry David is back (with some help from his Curb friends) with a pretty, pretty good take on US history

Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness ★★★★

Larry David, back on TV? Pretty, pretty good. Just two years after Curb Your Enthusiasm’s finale, the Seinfeld co-creator returns to HBO with a sketch comedy series that skewers US history with a simple, effective premise: what if Larry David was there, too?

Across seven episodes of Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness, the 78-year-old causes curmudgeonly chaos through American history, whether playing a founding father or a man on a bus with Rosa Parks.

Scratching an itch for anyone who misses watching Curb’s riches of embarrassment, the sketch show doesn’t mess with its formula for cringe comedy. Turns out petty arguments about queue etiquette or selfish parkers aren’t exclusive to David’s fictionalised life in LA; they work just as well in the Great Depression’s soup kitchens or when a cowboy’s horse takes up too much space.

Much like the long-running series, Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness is largely improvised, leaving its all-star cast to run wild within David and co-creator Jeff Schaffer’s prickly social scenarios.

While HBO requested critics not spoil specifics, most of Curb’s cast and memorable guests pop up across Life, Larry’s skits – with the announced cast including Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Hamm, Isla Fisher, Jane Krakowski and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

The series even opens with an introduction from former president Barack Obama framing its sketches as a celebration of America’s 250th birthday. (He and former first lady Michelle Obama are also co-producers, via Higher Ground.)

“What truly makes America unique is that we’ve always been a work-in-progress. We’re not perfect,” he remarks, while David looks on nearby wearing a powdered wig, posing among models of the founding fathers. “We can be irascible. Petty. Selfish. Cheap. And, let’s face it, some of us will always find something to complain about.”

Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness’ best sketches include America’s heroes in the “some of us” camp. With four or five sketches each episode, the show’s funniest resemble mini Curb episodes, as a pile-up of awkward moments and social transgressions – a stolen scarf, an owed nickel – become the catalysts of major historical successes and failures, ranging from the moon landing to Lincoln’s assassination.

It’s inevitable there are a few duds, largely the sketches that target President Trump and his ilk, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr (whose wife Cheryl Hines, incidentally, is one of the few Curb cast members not to appear). Politics isn’t the problem; these sketches stand out because they’re single-minded, with punchlines amounting to “Trump is bad”. Thankfully, they are few and far between.

Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness streams on HBO Max from June 27.

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