After the high watermark of season seven’s Seinfeld-reunion storyline, Larry David brings us dragging and cringing back into his world of petty obsessions, chronic misunderstandings and friendships permanently teetering on the brink of abrasive dissolution. Curb Your Enthusiasm isn’t for everyone: many shun the whining, shouting and occasionally over-egged neuroses. But for those who can’t get enough of watching rich Californians playing heightened versions of themselves and trying to work out how seemingly unrelated plot-strands will meld together at the end of a 25-minute episode, season eight promises to be a constant treat.

In the series opener, Larry and Cheryl are finally getting a divorce, triggered by their fragile reconciliation breaking down after a row over a cup-stain on some expensive wood (does it get any more Curb than that?). Not one to be shy when it comes to crossing a line, Larry gets overly-chatty with Cheryl’s attorney (a fellow ‘bald man’) while discovering that his own legal representative might not be as Jewish as his surname (Berg) would suggest.

Throw in the standard sweary fallings-out with Susie Greene and Marty Funkhouser, a restaurant ‘incident’ and a vindictive about-turn which has him squabbling with a crew of girls scouts and you have the perfect ingredients for an incendiary Curb. Whether we really need to see Larry giving a young girl advice through a bathroom door about using her first tampon is another matter, but you should know by now that there’s rarely a gratuitous scene in the show. That device is surely going to rear its head again somewhere down the line …

More4, Sun, 11.05pm.

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season 8 Promo "New York"