Star Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Stars: Larry David, Jeff Garlin, J.B. Smoove, Susie Essman, Cheryl Hines, Bob Einstein and guest stars Paul F. Tompkins and Gary Cole

The Big Idea: The season premiere is titled “The Divorce,” and to elaborate on the title specifically would be too big a spoiler. Suffice it to say that there is at least one divorce happening in the episode (and as many as three eventually), and that fact leads Larry to be at odds with a Jewish attorney who turns out not to be Jewish (Tompkins), a Major League Baseball team owner (Cole), a whole troop of cookie-selling Girl Scouts and Marty Funkhouser (Einstein).

There’s also a cringe-inducing encounter involving Larry and a teenage girl who’s gotten her first period (Justified scene stealer Kaitlyn Dever), while Leon (Smoove) continues to be Larry’s seemingly permanent houseguest and source of frank wisdom about women.

To Watch or Not to Watch: Yes, and DVR it, because you’re going to want to watch it more than once. It’s not an exaggeration at all to say that this promises to be the best Curb season ever – no small thing for a show in its eighth season – and there’s one simple reason why. In the past, Larry has always gone about life in his Larry way, but often with an apologetic air. But no more. He’s full-on Larry this season, butting heads with anyone who dares to go against the societal rules by which Lar thinks we all should operate. Girl Scouts, Susie Greene, Susie and Jeff’s teenage daughter, the owner of the Dodgers and a New York mechanic (the inspiration for Brad Garrett‘s overzealous mechanic Tony on Seinfeld?) are but a few of Larry’s nemesis this season, and it’s with pure glee that he tangles with them.

TV Screener Tidbit: Both Ricky Gervais and Michael J. Fox guest star as themselves later in the season (and, yes, will have issues with Larry), but stay tuned for the Sept. 4 episode, “Mister Softee.” Not only does it give us a hilarious glimpse at the teenage Larry, but it also reveals an encounter from his past that really explains a lot about why Larry is so, well, Larry. For more scoop on the new season, check out my Curb preview feature at AOL TV.

Curb Your Enthusiasm‘s 8th season premieres Sunday, July 10, at 10PM ET on HBO

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Last season, with the separated Larry trying to reunite with wife Cheryl and the much-anticipated Seinfeld reunion, was a great one. And now Curb Your Enthusiasm fans can get excited about today’s news from HBO: The network has decided that an eighth season of Larry David‘s hilarious sitcom is a pretty, pretty, pretty good idea.

David and company will begin production this summer on another 10 episodes of the Emmy-winning show, with season eight to hit HBO in 2011.

Any plotline or character wishes for the new season? Do you want to see Larry and Cheryl reunited, or still separated? Which characters do you want to see more, or less, of? I’m hoping J.B. Smoove returns as Leon, whose interactions with Larry are raunchy, ridiculous and so, so funny.

Below, HBO’s official press release on the renewal:

For Immediate Release

HBO RENEWS HIT COMEDY SERIES CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM,
STARRING LARRY DAVID, FOR EIGHTH SEASON

LOS ANGELES, April 20, 2010 – HBO has renewed the hit comedy series CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, starring Larry David, for a ten-episode eighth season, it was announced today by Michael Lombardo, president, Programming Group and West Coast Operations, HBO. Production of the new episodes will begin this summer in Los Angeles and New York, with debut slated for 2011.

Said Lombardo, “Larry always loves to paint himself into a corner, and after the incredibly wonderful seventh season of CURB, you have to ask, ‘How does he ever top this?’ But he always finds a way. We can’t wait to see what he does in season eight.”

“After much soul searching – and by the way, it was nowhere to be found – I have decided to do another season of CURB,” says Larry David. “I look forward to the end of shooting, when I can once again resume the hunt for my elusive soul. I know it’s here somewhere or perhaps in the rugged mountainous regions of Pakistan.”

CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM stars “Seinfeld” co-creator David as an over-the-top version of himself in an unsparing but tongue-in-cheek depiction of his life. The series also stars Cheryl Hines as David’s wife Cheryl, Jeff Garlin as David’s manager Jeff and Susie Essman as Jeff’s wife Susie.

Concluding its seventh season last November, with 70 episodes to date, CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM is HBO’s longest-running scripted comedy or drama series. Season seven inspired critical raves, with the Washington Post calling the show “side-splitting,” and hailing David as “the best thing to happen to TV comedy,” while Newsday declared, “Larry David is a comic genius,” and the Boston Globe described the series as “the funniest show on television.”

Season seven credits: CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM is executive produced by Larry David, Jeff Garlin, Gavin Polone, Alec Berg, David Mandel, Jeff Schaffer, Tim Gibbons and Erin O’Malley.

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All the tube news that’s fit to surf …

– Two bits of great news about the upcoming season of Curb Your Enthusiasm: It premieres on Sept. 20 on HBO and Larry David has confirmed that all four Seinfeld cast members will reunite for a five-episode Curb storyline arc.

– More HBO: The network has renewed Hung, True Blood and Entourage (which has just not gotten better since its lackluster season premiere).

– AOL TV has my round-up of scoops and spoilers for Mad Men‘s third season.

– Amy Poehler will return to co-host a couple of Thursday night editions of “Weekend Update” on Saturday Night Live this season.

– Conan O’Brien‘s overall ratings at The Tonight Show continue on a downward spiral.

– Who else thought Sheree was gonna smack that party planner on The Real Housewives of Atlanta season premiere last night?

– Lorenzo Lamas says he hopes the new reality series he and his family are doing for E! will help repair his relationship with his son, who is rumored to have slept with his dad’s ex-wife. Well, if there’s anything we know about reality TV, it’s that it helps bring people together, right Gosselins, Jessica and Nick, Carmen and Dave, Linda and Hulk, Britney and Kevin, Whitney and Bobby …

– PopSugar has high school photos of More to Love bachelor Luke Conley, back when there was less of him to love.

– And this weekend in primetime:

FRIDAY
– In case you missed it, NBC begins re-airing its fab cop drama Southland, beginning with the pilot (8PM ET)
– MTV2 has four classic Beavis and Butt-Head eps (8PM)
– Holly J tells Spinner how she feels about him on Degrassi: The Next Generation (8PM, The N)
– If Superman, a.k.a. Dean Cain, can’t answer yes to the question Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (8PM, Fox), what hope do the rest of us have?
– Bono and The Edge guest on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross (8PM, BBCA)
– New Mental at 9PM on Fox
– Actor and real-life Marine R. Lee Ermey hosts History Channel’s new series Lock ‘n Load with R. Lee Ermey (9PM), which examines the history of firearms
– Are Eureka‘s (9PM, SyFy) rivals in bowling also behind a series of pranks in town?
– New weight loss requires new clothing on What Not to Wear (9PM, TLC)
– Whale Wars turns civil – as in civil war – in a new episode (9PM, Animal Planet)
– Poor pup – Cesar helps out with a five-legged pooch on Dog Whisperer (9PM, NG)
– On Say Yes to the Dress (10PM, TLC), a bride-to-be who gave her fiancé a kidney shops for her gown
– The team tries to protect a beer cave made out of hundreds of bottles of ale on Catch It Keep It (10PM, Science)
– Back-to-back My Super Sweet 16 episodes on Style (10PM)

SATURDAY
– It’s a seven-hour Golden Girls marathon (6PM) on WE
– Food Network has a three-hour marathon of Diners, Drive-Ins and Drives with Guy Fieri (8PM)
– And TV Land hosts 12 hours of Roseanne (8PM)
– Dogs are behaving badly on back-to-back eps of In the Dog House on Animal Planet (8PM)
– BBCA has a repeat of the series premiere (8PM) and a new ep (9PM) of its new drama Being Human
– Amateurs try to win big cash from poker pros on NBC’s new series Face the Ace (9PM)
– Bill tries to be romantic on The Bill Engvall Show (9PM, TBS)
– Suze dishes tips on how to explain the current economic climate to your kiddies on The Suze Orman Show (9PM, CNBC)
– SyFy’s guilty pleasure movie of the week: Dragonquest (9PM)
– Nick and Karen admit they’re in love on Dirty Sexy Money (10PM, ABC)

SUNDAY
– Ty Pennington makes over the park in a small British town on Ty’s Great British Adventure (8PM, ABC)
– New Merlin ep on NBC (8PM)
– Ruby‘s (8PM, Style) weight loss means she can get rid of old clothing
– Nominations for the next eviction are revealed on Big Brother 11 (8PM, CBS)
– Shark Week 2009 kicks off (9PM) on the Discovery Channel!
– Admitted gold digger Megan Hauserman tries to land a rich dude on her Rock of Love spin-off Megan Wants a Millionaire (9PM, VH1)
– Sookie desperately needs Bill’s help during her mission with Hugo on True Blood (9PM, HBO)
– Dawson’s Creek star James van der Beek stars in the conclusion of the weather-themed miniseries The Storm on NBC (9PM)
– Jane gets caught up in Deb’s parents’ divorce on Drop Dead Diva (9PM, Lifetime)
– Office Space star Ron Livingston is an astronaut who embarks on a long mission to Venus in the new ABC drama series Defying Gravity (9PM)
– Back-to-back new episodes of Gene Simmons Family Jewels on A&E (9 and 9:30PM)
– Melissa or Jeffrey becomes the Next Food Network Star in the fifth season finale (9PM, Food Network)
– A bride threatens to poison her hubby-to-be on Bridezillas (9PM, WE)
– On Ice Road Truckers (9PM, History), spinouts and unsecure loads plague the drivers
– A male model bites the dust on Law & Order: Criminal Intent (9PM, USA)
– On a new In Plain Sight on USA (10PM), an employee has to go on the run after turning in his shady boss
– Claudia Joy helps Haneen head back to the Middle East on Army Wives (10PM, Lifetime)
– Kendra and Hank get married on Kendra (10PM, E!)
– Amazing Wedding Cakes (10PM, WE) will feature a Lakers cake
– Jesse hopes into a World War II fighter plane on Jesse James Is a Dead Man (10PM, Spike)
– Back-to-back new episodes of Pawn Stars on History Channel (10 and 10:30PM)
– On Hung (10PM, HBO), Tanya goes on a date with Floyd and one of Ray’s “happiness” clients isn’t happy and demands a re-do
– And Ari continues to make Lloyd jump through hoops for that promotion on Entourage (10:30PM, HBO)

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All the tube news that’s fit to surf …

– The Seinfeld cast reunion on Curb Your Enthusiasm is shaping up to be bigger than it was originally rumored to be. Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and the newly-“reformed” (according to Larry David) Michael Richards will reportedly appear in half the episodes of the upcoming season of Curb, which is scheduled to premiere this fall.

– It’s a definite go: Tom Cruise and J.J. Abrams are teaming up again, to make Mission: Impossible IV for a 2011 release.

– In addition to tonight’s “The Last Supper” special episode (Bravo, 9PM ET) of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, the network is stretching the show’s first season to July 9 with three more episodes, including two reunion eps and a “lost footage” installment. The so-called season finale that aired Tuesday night drew 3.5 million viewers, the highest number ever for an episode of the Housewives franchise.

– Will you really make it to your destination if Homer Simpson is giving you directions? You can find out with a TomTom GPS and the company’s celebrity voice navigator feature, which now includes Homie as an option. Other TV celeb voices available from TomTom: Kim Cattrall, Mr. T, Burt Reynolds and Dennis Hopper.

– T.R. Knight‘s definitely vamoosing from Grey’s Anatomy, which just makes the show even more tiresome as the off-camera dramas continue to overshadow the on-screen action.

– Twin Peaks lives again, as an Internet series? It is if original series star, and current Desperate Housewives baddie Kyle McLachlan, has anything to say about it.

– And, Twitter tip, the always awesome John Lithgow will play a serial killer on the new season of Dexter, and he’s Tweeting about it at @John_Lithgow.

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