Why I liked the finale

Maybe Susan's death was tasteless (who's to say anyway), but I thought the season finale did a good job of showing what a bunch of losers these characters truly are. Sometimes I think it gets lost in the humor, but these guys and gal are really a despicable bunch. I think they are some of the most manipulative and juvenile characters on television today. By no means am I complaining; it's pure entertainment for me and one of the reasons Seinfeld is my all-time favorite show.

What the season finale did was to encapsalate these character flaws into one episode. So there was Jerry horrified that only he and Kramer would be left single, and then there was Kramer acting absolutely childish when it looked like he was going to be the only single left. Of course, George was saying he was going to go to any lengths to avoid getting married. Finally, in one of the best scenes ever, the audience got to see them for how emotionally vacant they really are when they were in the hospital and got the news about Susan. Not a one of them cried, and George was actually rejoicing internally.

Actually, I'm kind of shocked at all the negative responses here. This has been a show that has tackled sensitive subjects before like masturbation, homosexuality, oral sex, etc, and people have not complained. Now they kill off a character in a silly fashion and its fans become disgusted. I don't get it.

Kevin

Kevin R. King wrote:

(snip)

Not only that, but this was hardly unchartered territory. It doesn't strike me as any worse than Chuckles the Clown getting killed by an elephant in The Mary Tyler Moore Show 25 years ago!

The Susan character was an absolute B**** anyway. Its perfectly consistent with the characters, since none of them really liked her.....and George, the selfish, neurotic, socially inept clown was beyond second thoughts.

Lighten up a little, folks!

EJM

[email] (EJM) wrote:

That's not even close to being the same. Chuckles was only on for one episode. It's not like they killed off Ted's fiance, Georgette, or Betty White's character. Those examples would be more relevent.

To you, Susan was a bitch. A lot of viewers liked her (some, way too much). I empathised with her for putting up with somebody like George. For me, the reaction of the George, Elaine, and Jerry is not the point. The writers made Susan likeable to some of us and then killed her off.

This is what I like to call 'The Lighten Up Syndrome'.

Monty

Maybe I just have a strange sense of humor, but I felt the finale was great!! I laughed out loud during the show, the next morning, and at work the next day.....I taped it last thursday and watched it again last night... I just cracked up again.......IMO, this was the greatest show of the season.......

I've been reading the posts of people who didn't mind the episode, and I've noticed a pattern...the ones who don't mind Susan's killing and the subsequent insensitivity have enjoyed Seinfeld because they looked down on the four as being losers. The last episode, to them, just was the latest example of that fact.

Other folks, who were shocked and disappointed with the show (myself included), have conceded that the four have got severe personality flaws, but didn't feel that they were so morally deprived as to show such little sympathy after Susan's demise.

How many of us can say we've never been close to people who were "losers?" You might enjoy their company and try to help them with their problems. You might laugh at them behind their back. But if you had an inkling they were disgusting as well as pitiable, chances are you'd break off ties with them. I think that where a lot of us are at right now.

One more thing..."The Contest" and "The Outing" had this in their favor--they were flat out funny all the way to the end. This ep was not, especially at the end.

I didn't mind Susan's death, and I don't think of the four of them as losers.

I still don't see why people are so shocked over their reaction to Susan's death. None of them liked Susan. George was not in love with her, he had nothing in common with her, it wasn't just that he was afraid of committment, he was completley miserable being with her. Haven't you people seen the scenes where George and Susan are alone at Monk's together, they have absolutely nothing to say to one another. George has no feelings for Susan, he has known since the start of the season that this is a horrible mistake. And the others have even less reason to like Susan. Kramer doesn't even know her name, Elaine was briefly friends with Susan but that ended pretty badly, and even Jerry isn't particularily close to Susan. It would have been a lie for any of them to show grief or sorrow, none of them cared about Susan. I am sure Elaine, Jerry and Kramer would have tried to comfort George if he needed it, but he didn't. He was pretty much in shock that Susan was actually dead, he didn't jump in the air, laughing and saying that he was out, he just stood there more or less stunned that Susan was dead. That seems like an appropriate reaction to learning about the death of a person that has had an impact on your life but who you really don't care about.

Brendan W. Guy

On 20 May 1996, Mr David L. Campbell wrote:

<Snip>

True, this was far from the funniest episode. I really did not find Susan's death just straight-out hilarious. But the reason I enjoyed it was because it did an excellent job of objectifying their loserdom. As I said before, this often gets lost in the humor and witty banter. This episode showed just how pathetic these four characters really are.

I guess that's a strange reason for liking it; rarely do people watch sitcoms for character development, but having been a fan since near the beginning, I appreciated what the finale did.