Curb Your Enthusiasm - Season 5

The fifth season of Larry David's farcical look at how people interact is about as good as any other. You have to figure he'll run out of ideas eventually, but for the time being he still knows how to come up with ridiculously convoluted plots that almost always come together in the end, putting a nice bow on each encounter. Most of the first few episodes I actually ever saw were from this season, and they still hold up, doing even better when watched in order so you get the whole picture.

The two intertwining stories this time are the true nature of Larry's parentage and his friend Richard Lewis' need for a kidney. The former manifests with him hiring a private investigator to find out if he's adopted, which always seems to wiggle its way into other events. Larry takes a test and finds out he's a match to give Lewis his kidney, but still goes out of his way to find any other source so he doesn't have to do it himself. The extended finale resolves both of these issues well, featuring a great scene that I won't give away but will say includes great appearances by Dustin Hoffman and Sacha Baron Cohen. The sixth season is the most recent one, and I've already jumped into it. It's a quick, fun watch.