There has never quite been anything like the Larry David whom the comedian Larry David -- late of "Seinfeld" and his alter ego George Costanza -- plays, never anything quite like the malign neglect with which he treats the people in his life, many of whom do a very nice job themselves of destroying whatever they touch. The real-life David, writes onetime New York Observer TV columnist Deirdre Dolan, writes an outline for each of 10 shows each season, charting the course of a big-picture story arc that usually takes the onscreen David from bad to worse. In most instances, the show's players, whether series regulars or cameos, get bits of the outline on a need-to-know basis, then invent their lines as they go along.

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