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Best seinfeld episodes12/5/2023 ![]() However, as someone who finds this mode of storytelling not only antithetical to Seinfeld’s identity (its original outmoded premise, its false “show about nothing” suggestion, and the lingering realism/relatability on which it continues to bank), but also destructive to a genre dependent on character-driven comedy, it’s tempting to cite the many instances here in which story is abundant, character is second fiddle, and the laugh quotient may not be peak level, as constituting lows lower than past lows. The argument towards which I currently lean is that, because the writing has grown better equipped to support the complicated narrative style with which the previous year often struggled (when inorganically accelerating this trend), the seventh season has an elevated base level of quality that yields a greater episodic success rate, therefore finding more consistency in our enjoyment. (Actually, in study, I think the number of above-and-beyond-stellar contributions is equal in both years, but the seventh appears stronger because it boasts even higher highs – including the beloved “The Soup Nazi,” which, you may be surprised to note, I believe deserves most of the praise it receives more below.) Now, I’m of two figurative minds as to the relationship these so-called “higher highs” have with the rest of the season. I won’t be excessively flowery or pedantic as to why, for the reason, as usual, is fairly simple: it seems like Season Seven contributes a greater number of classics. We’ll begin with this: Season Seven is more enjoyable than Six. I note this in advance to contextualize Season Seven’s place within the series and why I feel about it in the various ways I do. Yes, the show will be continuing without Larry David’s direct influence, but it’s still Seinfeld… and Seasons Seven and Eight flow into one another just as much as Six does with Seven, regardless of how perceived differences impact our notions of their quality. ![]() Over the remaining weeks of my Seinfeld coverage, there will indeed be plenty of differences to discuss – mostly in how trends are accelerated or regressed – but maybe not as many as one might initially assume. However, dividing the post-David years from the with-David years sometimes makes it seem like there are bigger differences between the two eras than there might actually be. It’s a point-of-view to which I too, a natural categorizer, will subscribe. Generally, most conclude that what’s to transpire over the next two seasons (again, with the wonderful and now hard-to-ignore benefit of hindsight) is inferior to the majority of what was produced in the preceding years. I’m opening the commentary on the seventh season of Seinfeld rather abstractly, I know but the end of this year marks the point where many viewers craft another figurative line, for this, as the last year with co-creator Larry David (whose annual threat to leave the series finally became reality), offers a handy moment to stop and reflect on what’s already happened and what happens ahead. At the risk of pinning too much analysis on the inevitable benefit that is hindsight, we’ve often found here that most of the unfortunate developments (and even the fortunate developments) that we observe in long-running situation comedies (and also the genre as a whole) are rooted in choices made prior to the moments in which we, as rightfully subjective consumers and connoisseurs, decide that something has happened to alter our enjoyment-deriving capabilities. Often, winds of change (to be poetic) are blowing long before we feel the big show-turning, line-drawing, gust. Let me tell you something I’ve discovered on this blog: our natural inclination to divide and categorize sometimes obscures the truth that change, at least in series television, is seldom abrupt. Seinfeld stars JERRY SEINFELD as Jerry Seinfeld, JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS as Elaine Benes, MICHAEL RICHARDS as Cosmo Kramer, and JASON ALEXANDER as George Costanza. I’m happy to report that the entire series has been released on DVD. Welcome to a new Sitcom Tuesday and the continuation of our series on the best episodes of Seinfeld (1989-1998, NBC), one of the most popular and critically lauded American sitcoms ever produced.
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