Serious analysis of the Last Seinfeld

On 15 May 1998 03:21:17 GMT, [email] (Ken) wrote:

You don't write for the "American Spectator", do you?

OK, admittedly it wasn't a hilarous or even funny episode. But I don't think that was the point --- the whole show was about nostalgia to some extent, but mostly it was a sharp biting social commentary.

Explaining nostalgia would be easy. The episode begins with Jerry doing a stand-up routine --- something he hasn't done in the beginning of an episode in years. The plot involved a LOT of allusions to the past (NBC "Jerry" series, George bringing up "The Contest"). The last 30 minutes brought back just about every single guest that ever came to the show. The last conversation in the 9-year series (about the buttons on a shirt) was the exact same conversation on the very first episode.

As for the "deeper" meaning, I found this show was the most depressing Seinfeld ever.

The final jail scene was pretty much a social commentary on how amoral the four "friends" are. We see these four people in jail and they don't even realize what they've done wrong. They were convicted for a year in prison, but you wouldn't know it from the way they talk. They might as well have been in the coffee shop. Elaine wondering if a phone call to her friend (with the sick father) would be appropriate. George and Jerry talking about trivial things like shirt buttons. In the background you have Kramer still trying to get water out of his ear. The whole scene was bizarre --- none of them realize the kind of trouble they're into. They don't even know what they've done wrong. It also completes the transformation of the foursome. They started out as normal (early season episodes). Then they lost their moral compass... but atleast they still knew what was wrong ("look at us, we're not men! we're boys!"). The last jail scene pretty much confirms that they have become oblivious of any moral compass whatsoever. It completes their transformation. We've seen just how uncaring and hateful all these people are, with a courtroom full of people cheering their demise. This is the most biting social criticism of a dispassionate and amoral society that I've ever seen from a sitcom. Clearly, not a show about nothing...

One of the biggest ironies was Newman's warning to Jerry at the beginning of the episode. He warned Jerry that one day, an evil wind would blow by Jerry's way and get him into trouble. Newman then says he will gloat as jerry laments his own downfall. By the end of the show, we DO see Jerry's downfall. He's in jail and lost his NBC show (presumably). But instead of lamenting, he hardly cares about what's happening. Seinfeld is so dispassionate that no good or ill fortune affects him.

The final Seinfeld episode wasn't sad like Cheers or MASH was, but it certainly sums up what the show was about very well.

my god, you've done it. yeah, i think you make some very good points. they indicted themselves, put themselves on trial and lost.

the problem is, ken, i wanted to laugh...

So you've never enjoyed any programs whose intent isn't to make you laugh? That's the problem with highly specific expectations causing you to not enjoy something you might have if you kept an open mind about what it would be. Anyway, I laughed a lot at the usual absurdity floating around the perimeter of this episode. Simple laughs just weren't what was at its core. Well-written doesn't mean pushing the laugh button every other second. I'd put you in the class who will appreciate it more when they see it again.

-Eric S.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." -Albert Einstein

Gotta agree. I read a news article in which Jerry was taking questions from the audience during the taping of the final show (although which of the final audiences, it didn't say) and when asked if they were going to go out on a schmaltzy tear-jerker mode like MTM did with the group hug shambling off to turn out the light, Jerry said something like, "No, tears really wasn't a way for us to go. See, this is a comedy."

I never thought of the characters as being real, quasi-real or even surreal. They were just there to get big yoks, which they did very well. So ending on a semi-serious, introspective note wasn't what I wanted, I really had hoped for one of those frenetically funny freeze frame endings, not a long reverse dolly fading out.

And, not for nothing, with the fragmentation of broadcast TV, Seinfeld in its heyday never had more viewers than Who's The Boss in the 80s.

I thought comedy was always the point.

ABearAt420 wrote:

It goes deeper than that.

biohazard wondered:

Makes me wonder what happens when the prison review board decides a couple of 'em ought to be released on probation? (Does Massachusetts have an Interstate Agreement on Detainer with New York, to retrieve and transport fugitives??) Now, /there/ is a topic for the American Spectator to deal with.