Prettyyyy, Prettyyyyy, Prettyyyyyy funny.

Curb Your Enthusiasm returned for a 7th season tonight on HBO. This year is highly anticipated because of the two year hiatus since the last new episode and because of the "reunion" of the Seinfeld cast that will take place during the season.

Impressions from episode 1:

LD still has it. Not even Frazier could make me cringe from so much anticipated foot-in-the-mouthery and yet laugh time after time (with Frazier it was just cringing). It's not annoying when Larry David questions (and ultimately violates) the social norms of handicapped bathroom-use-etiquette, or what's up for grabs in other people's refrigerators. It's funny. In fact, these are practical issues I'm glad he's bringing to the forefront of watercooler discussions.

Also crucial to episode one's levity was a typical Curb play: the reappearance of "lesser" characters, such as Leon "Get in That Ass" Black. LD, as Leon prefers to call him, does a good job with this -- surrounding himself with other funny characters and spreading the laughs around. In fact, the jokes aren't usually Larry's; rather he's the punchline. Just like with Seinfeld, a good team makes this show continually funny. And the first episode had some of my favorite plays: A profanity- and racially-laden rant from the Blacks (re: how black people like higher temperatures than white people), a Susy freakout towards Larry (re: dinner party guestlist conjecturing), and LD getting screwed in the end, a victim of his own schemes.

The season's only heating up as Big Sein prepares for his return.