Curb Your Enthusiasm's comforting familiarity was an escape from the shocking Kobe Bryant news

The Ringer

Sunday's episode of Larry David's HBO comedy offered nothing groundbreaking. Yet the episode offered "something of a familiar escape from the shocking day of news surrounding the death of Kobe Bryant in a helicopter crash in the L.A. hills," says Katie Baker. "Curb Your Enthusiasm takes place in Los Angeles, too, but last night’s episode in particular was wholly ensconced in the parochial world it has developed through the years, in a way that was almost a comfort. In the span of a few hours yesterday, I went from watching live, horrid news, to tuning into the (really fun!) Grammys, to waiting for 10:30 p.m. ET to hit so I could hear the 'bump bump bump' of the Curb theme song and lose myself, just for a few minutes, to a bunch of despicable folks." ALSO: Susie Essman says Curb endures because "nothing changes."