Seinfeld

Year: 1990-1998, 2009
Director: Various
Writer: Various
Stars: Jerry Seinfeld
Julia Louis-Dreyfuss
Michael Richards
Jason Alexander

Throughout the original run of this series, i know that i watched one episode (The Puffy Shirt) and may have watched two. I didn't like (and still don't like) Seinfeld's comedy. All of my friends raved about it of course, and you couldn't look anywhere in the media without seeing it, but it just didn't interest me.

So last year at the urging of my (then) wife, i started to watch the series from the beginning thanks to Netflix. I watched the series finale last night. Here's the conclusion that i've come up with. Seinfeld was... okay.

THE GOOD: There are some truly hilarious moments in the series. I think that i lol'd once or twice per season. Like the scene where a telemarketer calls Jerry, and he asks if he can have the telemarketer's home phone number so that he can call him back later. When the telemarketer says "no", Jerry says "So you don't want people calling you at home?" The telemarketer says no again. Jerry says "Now you know how I feel." Granted, for me, most of the truly funny moments were Michael Richard's physical comedy, but he's always been brilliant at that.

THE BAD: This group of friends is truly, deeply unlikeable. Except for Jerry, who has his moments, i think that i would cross the street to avoid these selfish, shallow people if i knew them in real life. I like sitcoms where i like and care about the people in the show. Like the group on "How I Met Your Mother". I would genuinely like to hang out with this group, even Barney. But not the Seinfeld crew. The series finale where they're videotaping and mocking the fat guy getting carjacked without helping or even calling 911 typifies this group of losers for me.

THE UGLY: When Seinfeld was on, i couldn't avoid hearing about how it was a "show about nothing". A show about things happening to these people that happen to all of us. Thaat may have been true in the beginning, but as the show progressed it got more and more intricately plotted and became less and less about ordinary things happening to ordinary people. It became less a ground-breaking show and more a typical sitcom, in other words.

In summation, if you want to see Julia Louis-Dreyfuss in much better roles, watch "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" or her new HBO series "Veep". If you want to see Michael Richards at the top of his physical comedy game, watch "UHF".

Peace.
Randal