Before I get into the plot, I want to make a brief mention of the beginning. After Larry David left the series, the standup routines we see at the start of every episodes were done away with since Jerry Seinfeld couldn't take on so much work at once. So to see the finale open with a classic routine, the subject this time being the importance of sitting, standing or lying down for an important conversation was very nice to see. I remembered then how much I had missed them.
Jerry and George get the big break they've always waited for: Their show Jerry is given a second chance and picked up by NBC! This also means they'll have to move to California, but decide to take their friends Kramer and Elaine on a fun trip to France first. But is this seemingly perfect dream just an illusion?
I dreaded watching the final episode of Seinfeld. Not because of its divisiveness, but simply because it felt sad having to say goodbye to all these characters. I suppose that's the case with all great TV shows, but with some it's especially hard. Thankfully, for the most part they put in a good effort at delivering a memorable final outing to finish on.
The dialogue-driven witty humor is present as usual. Jerry having to reel George in because he can't help his whiny nitpicking provides some funny moments.
When they are at the meeting with NBC he for some reason corrects the executives on calling it a watercooler show since coffee machines are more popular now. He also objects to the idea of Jerry and Elaine becoming a couple since the show does not rely on relationship humor. Ironically this is kind of inaccurate since Seinfeld does relationship stories all the time, just not really in a serialized sense.
But what amuses me the most is that he even has to poke holes at the choice of fruit being offered, highly exaggerating how spiky pineapples are.
Luckily for both of them, his comments are not enough to deter the executives from picking up the series, and they are fully set on the future containing greener pastures.
Newman tries and fails to make Jerry include him on the trip since he has a sick cousin there. Whether he's telling the truth or just making it up to get out of the postal working tedium for a while is left unknown.
But one thing is for sure, when you piss off Newie he is not gonna take it lightly. We get a hilariously overdramatic yet also slightly ominous rant where he promises the four of them are gonna pay dearly for what they have just done.
In hindsight this is kinda interesting since he and Kramer are the only two to have some kind of a friendship. But his deep hatred of Jerry is so strong it must affect his opinion on the group as a whole.
Once the foursome get on the plane it's smooth flying. Of course though George can never be satisfied and complains about how generic and barren the inside of the private jet looks. You gotta love how this guy can find a negative in literally everything, no matter how good it is. Kramer still has water left in his ear from his recent beach visit and keeps shaking the plane so wildly it starts going down.
This results in a parodically sinister suggestion that this is how the story will end. They are so sure they will die all sorts of secrets come out. George cheated on the masturbating contest and Elaine almost tells Jerry she still loves him. It actually makes sense George would have cheated in the contest since we so rarely ever see him win anything.
To everyone's relief the plane lands safely and they take some time off to eat in Massachussets. Shook up by the scary plane trip, they settle on going back home in a normal flight.
Before they have a chance to do so however they witness an overweight guy getting mugged. Instead of intervening they stand by cracking jokes, particularly at how husky the man getting robbed is. This is some of the most heartless the gang has ever been, but the callousness makes it ridiculously funny. I can't think of many other characters who would be witnesses to a mugging and essentially treat it like a funny clip on America's Funniest Home Videos. To their surprise a police officer comes forward and arrests them for this due to a new Good Samaritan Law that has been passed in the state.
All hopes and dreams dashed, they are forced to enter a trial defending, you guessed it, the freedom of doing nothing. And to make it more entertaining we get the appearance of one of my favorite recurring characters Jackie Chiles. He has this quick and confident delivery to his lines that makes his scenes such a joy to watch. This would be everybody's dream lawyer if he existed in real life. On top of that a lot of the most iconic characters (As well as a few less-famous ones) return to testify and prove to the world just how despicable the four friends are. I had most fun seeing The Soup Nazi and Bubble Boy, since their personalities are so off-the-wall they are ingrained into your mind. Babu Bhatt is worth mentioning as well, though I feel kind of bad for Jerry in this case since he had the best of intentions in both encounters, and it's more bad luck that Babu's life went downhill the way it did.
We do get clips from past episodes during the trial, but they are relevant to the story and not as egregriously inserted as The Chronicle. It does slow things down a little, though not to detrimental levels.
What I have to criticize more though is that some of these testimonies were directly irrelevant to what the trial is about. George's ex bringing up her disgust over the contest would be grounds for an obscenity trial, and even then it wouldn't hold water anyway since that was a private thing which didn't involve anyone else. The same thing goes for Elaine's nipple being exposed in a Christmas photo. It makes the witnesses look more like petty jerks than the group itself.
During the trial Jerry asks Elaine what she was about to say on the plane before getting interrupted. Elaine lies and says she was telling him how much she loves United Airlines. Although considering how terrible their private jet experience was, who knows?
To nobody's surprise whatsoever, they lose the trial. The sentence for all four is one year. Before they are sent off into the slammer however we get one more scene in the holding cell. Elaine, having made "wrong" phone calls to her sick friend Jill all day (Because it wouldn't be Seinfeld if not for trying to follow horribly rigid social rules, such as not calling while you're outside), gets the idea of calling from inside prison. Since you can only make one phone call that would mean she preserves time just so Jill can feel better. And Jerry starts nitpicking the way a button on George's shirt is placed. George points out they must've had this conversation before, which they did in the first episode. It's a nice little bookend to close out the series.
We also get a post-credit scene where we are treated to another standup monologue. Jerry makes some prison-related jokes, which is greeted by hostility from some of the inmates. This only fuels him even further, until he's forcibly taken offstage. It kinda lessens the depressing nature of the previous few minutes, and leaves the audience some final laughs before closing down the curtain.
At the end of the day, is this one of the best episodes or the perfect way to close out the series? Maybe not, but I think it's appropriate to not go with a lovey-dovey happy ending that brings out the waterworks or leaves you smiling at how everything turned out all right in the end. Instead it's sarcastically dark and kind of a downer.
Despite how selfish and egotistic these characters are, we still love them with all our hearts for how much fun they've brought us over the years, complimented by the amazing performances and timelessly sharp writing.
It's so easy then to hope that they walk off into the sunset. Hell, I was totally happy for Jerry and George when their show got picked up by the network. But that's simply not the fate they were destined to have, and it wouldn't have been Seinfeld if everything worked out like a charm.
But hey. Like Jerry said, a year is not that bad. They'll be out and back at it again. Doing absolutely nothing of significance whatsoever.
Jerry and George get the big break they've always waited for: Their show Jerry is given a second chance and picked up by NBC! This also means they'll have to move to California, but decide to take their friends Kramer and Elaine on a fun trip to France first. But is this seemingly perfect dream just an illusion?
I dreaded watching the final episode of Seinfeld. Not because of its divisiveness, but simply because it felt sad having to say goodbye to all these characters. I suppose that's the case with all great TV shows, but with some it's especially hard. Thankfully, for the most part they put in a good effort at delivering a memorable final outing to finish on.
The dialogue-driven witty humor is present as usual. Jerry having to reel George in because he can't help his whiny nitpicking provides some funny moments.
When they are at the meeting with NBC he for some reason corrects the executives on calling it a watercooler show since coffee machines are more popular now. He also objects to the idea of Jerry and Elaine becoming a couple since the show does not rely on relationship humor. Ironically this is kind of inaccurate since Seinfeld does relationship stories all the time, just not really in a serialized sense.
But what amuses me the most is that he even has to poke holes at the choice of fruit being offered, highly exaggerating how spiky pineapples are.
Luckily for both of them, his comments are not enough to deter the executives from picking up the series, and they are fully set on the future containing greener pastures.
Newman tries and fails to make Jerry include him on the trip since he has a sick cousin there. Whether he's telling the truth or just making it up to get out of the postal working tedium for a while is left unknown.
But one thing is for sure, when you piss off Newie he is not gonna take it lightly. We get a hilariously overdramatic yet also slightly ominous rant where he promises the four of them are gonna pay dearly for what they have just done.
In hindsight this is kinda interesting since he and Kramer are the only two to have some kind of a friendship. But his deep hatred of Jerry is so strong it must affect his opinion on the group as a whole.
Once the foursome get on the plane it's smooth flying. Of course though George can never be satisfied and complains about how generic and barren the inside of the private jet looks. You gotta love how this guy can find a negative in literally everything, no matter how good it is. Kramer still has water left in his ear from his recent beach visit and keeps shaking the plane so wildly it starts going down.
This results in a parodically sinister suggestion that this is how the story will end. They are so sure they will die all sorts of secrets come out. George cheated on the masturbating contest and Elaine almost tells Jerry she still loves him. It actually makes sense George would have cheated in the contest since we so rarely ever see him win anything.
To everyone's relief the plane lands safely and they take some time off to eat in Massachussets. Shook up by the scary plane trip, they settle on going back home in a normal flight.
Before they have a chance to do so however they witness an overweight guy getting mugged. Instead of intervening they stand by cracking jokes, particularly at how husky the man getting robbed is. This is some of the most heartless the gang has ever been, but the callousness makes it ridiculously funny. I can't think of many other characters who would be witnesses to a mugging and essentially treat it like a funny clip on America's Funniest Home Videos. To their surprise a police officer comes forward and arrests them for this due to a new Good Samaritan Law that has been passed in the state.
All hopes and dreams dashed, they are forced to enter a trial defending, you guessed it, the freedom of doing nothing. And to make it more entertaining we get the appearance of one of my favorite recurring characters Jackie Chiles. He has this quick and confident delivery to his lines that makes his scenes such a joy to watch. This would be everybody's dream lawyer if he existed in real life. On top of that a lot of the most iconic characters (As well as a few less-famous ones) return to testify and prove to the world just how despicable the four friends are. I had most fun seeing The Soup Nazi and Bubble Boy, since their personalities are so off-the-wall they are ingrained into your mind. Babu Bhatt is worth mentioning as well, though I feel kind of bad for Jerry in this case since he had the best of intentions in both encounters, and it's more bad luck that Babu's life went downhill the way it did.
We do get clips from past episodes during the trial, but they are relevant to the story and not as egregriously inserted as The Chronicle. It does slow things down a little, though not to detrimental levels.
What I have to criticize more though is that some of these testimonies were directly irrelevant to what the trial is about. George's ex bringing up her disgust over the contest would be grounds for an obscenity trial, and even then it wouldn't hold water anyway since that was a private thing which didn't involve anyone else. The same thing goes for Elaine's nipple being exposed in a Christmas photo. It makes the witnesses look more like petty jerks than the group itself.
During the trial Jerry asks Elaine what she was about to say on the plane before getting interrupted. Elaine lies and says she was telling him how much she loves United Airlines. Although considering how terrible their private jet experience was, who knows?
To nobody's surprise whatsoever, they lose the trial. The sentence for all four is one year. Before they are sent off into the slammer however we get one more scene in the holding cell. Elaine, having made "wrong" phone calls to her sick friend Jill all day (Because it wouldn't be Seinfeld if not for trying to follow horribly rigid social rules, such as not calling while you're outside), gets the idea of calling from inside prison. Since you can only make one phone call that would mean she preserves time just so Jill can feel better. And Jerry starts nitpicking the way a button on George's shirt is placed. George points out they must've had this conversation before, which they did in the first episode. It's a nice little bookend to close out the series.
We also get a post-credit scene where we are treated to another standup monologue. Jerry makes some prison-related jokes, which is greeted by hostility from some of the inmates. This only fuels him even further, until he's forcibly taken offstage. It kinda lessens the depressing nature of the previous few minutes, and leaves the audience some final laughs before closing down the curtain.
At the end of the day, is this one of the best episodes or the perfect way to close out the series? Maybe not, but I think it's appropriate to not go with a lovey-dovey happy ending that brings out the waterworks or leaves you smiling at how everything turned out all right in the end. Instead it's sarcastically dark and kind of a downer.
Despite how selfish and egotistic these characters are, we still love them with all our hearts for how much fun they've brought us over the years, complimented by the amazing performances and timelessly sharp writing.
It's so easy then to hope that they walk off into the sunset. Hell, I was totally happy for Jerry and George when their show got picked up by the network. But that's simply not the fate they were destined to have, and it wouldn't have been Seinfeld if everything worked out like a charm.
But hey. Like Jerry said, a year is not that bad. They'll be out and back at it again. Doing absolutely nothing of significance whatsoever.