For 25 years, Larry David has been the king of awkward moments and petty arguments. Now that the series has finished, HBO has released No Lessons Learned: The Making of Curb Your Enthusiasm. It claims to be the ultimate guide to the show, and while it looks fantastic, don’t expect any shocking secrets or deep gossip.
The best thing about the book is simply how it looks. It takes you on a trip through the whole history of the series, and it does that job really well. It is full of old photos and shots from behind the scenes that will remind fans of their favourite scenes. But the real standout here is the production documents.
Since Curb didn’t use normal scripts and relied on improvisation, this book gives you a look at the bare bones of the show. You get to see the notes and outlines with Larry David’s actual handwriting on them. This is the only part of the book that feels completely new. Seeing the messy handwritten notes that eventually turned into such a famous show is really interesting. If you like seeing how TV shows are actually made, these pages are worth the price alone.
The writing is set up as an oral history, featuring interviews with a lot of the people involved. Larry David is front and centre here, sharing his thoughts alongside the main cast like Jeff Garlin, Susie Essman, Cheryl Hines, and JB Smoove. It feels like a nice reunion where everyone is just happy to be there and talk about the good times.
However, because this is an official HBO book, it feels a bit safe. It is very professional and clean. If you are looking for drama on set, fights between actors, or the “real” grit behind the scenes, you won’t find it here. There are no scandals. The title No Lessons Learned fits well because you don’t really learn much new about the actors personally. It is mostly stories we have already seen in interviews over the last two decades.
At the end of the day, this is a great coffee table book for Curb fans. It doesn’t have enough deep reading to keep you glued to it for hours, but it isn’t trying to be a biography. It is a celebration of the show. It looks good on a shelf, and looking through Larry’s notes is great fun. It might not be for everyone, but for a big fan, it is a good thing to have in the collection.