I'm a third of the way into the first episode of the new season.

Nothing sums up modern-day Curb better than literally the opening shot which has a woman in the background laughing her head off at Larry and Leon as they walk down the street.

Later in the same scene, Larry breaks the selfie stick of two teenagers over his legs. While I share the sentiment (I, too, hate the concept of selfies/selfie sticks), it's not something the Larry of Curb's past would do. He would pass comment about it. Breaking it is something modern, self-aware, Larry would do.

The new Larry reminds me of Jerkass Homer prevalent in Simpsons episodes post-21st century, where he goes out of his way to initiate conflicts with people.

And while this has always been the case, the show used to be a lot more subtle about it. The newer Curb episodes are just dripping with smugness and self-awareness in a way that jars with older episodes where the setups were a lot more organic and believable.

In older episodes, it was roughly 50/50 whether you would take Larry's side on things; the show had a raw, realistic, almost documentary feel.

Now Larry goes out of his way to be an asshole in his interactions with people and is clearly a conduit for the layman's observations of modern social trends.

The show has become way too on the nose with its jokes, and nothing sums this up better than the scene where Jeff's resemblance to Harvey Weinstein is played up for laughs. It also has a tendency to run jokes into the ground, like the repeated occurrences of people offering Larry a belated "Happy New Year".

I know it might be akin to heresy to say this as well, but Leon ran his course a long time ago. There is no way the Larry of earlier seasons would hang around with him period, let alone for a sustained length of time - and his presence seems to serve little else other than being a cheap punchline.

I will try to persevere anyways. I just think the show would've been better off calling it a day after Season 7.