It is the best sitcom ever made. There is no warmup season. It just starts straight in with iconic episodes. There’s no lull in the middle. There’s no desperate attempt to shake things up so people will watch again. And best of all, there isn’t a disappointing last season nor last episode. You can turn on Seinfeld to any episode of any season, and you know exactly what you’re getting, and you’re stoked about it.
Why is Seinfeld so good? Honestly, I’m not sure, but I gathered together some of the reasons I really like it (honestly, my main reason is that the cereals Jerry keeps around his apartment are really good).
The talent of the two comedians behind the show (Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld) can be seen in how tight the comedy is. Sitcoms are a place for simple stories and characters, where the jokes are the star of the show, but in so many sitcoms there’s a long lull in between the 9/10 and 10/10 jokes. You know how it is; you get a really good joke, and then the recovery, and then an okay joke, then a whatever joke, then a pretty good joke, and then eventually you wrap around to another peak moment. But watching Seinfeld, you’re rarely recovered from the last belly laugh before the next one is rolling in. It’s just like as if a tight stand up set if it was turned into a TV show (as a sitcom should be). Every script is packed with jokes like a fat lady’s suitcase.
Of course, the little intros and outros with Jerry actually doing standup are really funny, and they're a unique addition to the show. Besides being a nice little break from normal TV, I think the moments of Jerry doing standup also help ground the character. I feel like in a lot of shows, you either never see the main character work, and therefore it’s hard to believe they do, or you see them at work too much and it’s weird and annoying. Also, the way they show him becoming more and more successful as a comedian is nice and grounding, and it really sets up the whole thing with NBC offering him the chance to write the sitcom (if you haven’t watched, it’s kinda the only through line of the show and maybe the funniest recurring aspect lol).
The characters in Seinfeld are actually perfect. Perfectly written, perfectly performed. As the main character, Jerry, is just normal and relatable enough that the audience easily chooses to identify with him, but he is also insane enough to make for great plot moments. Elaine is in a similar category to Jerry as far as being somewhat normal, and gives someone for the ladies to identify with as well. Then there’s George Costanza. I always say that every single man has a little George in him, and the journey of life is trying to get as far away from the George in you as possible. George really brings the energy to some of the funniest moments in the entire series. As for Kramer, not a lot needs to be said. He is probably the best written and best acted side character of any sitcom ever in existence. Also, you can’t sleep on all the other characters with less screen time: the Pakistani restaurant owner Babu, the soup nazi, and Newman are just a few of the unforgettable faces.
Another thing that they did really well when writing the characters, was not stereotyping them too much. No one is just the dumb one, or the pretty one, or the mean one. Each one has their exaggerated idiosyncrasies, but none of them are completely boxed in by those traits. When the characters need to react more normally to serve the story (as rare as that occurrence is), it doesn’t feel forced or dishonest.
The ending of a TV show, especially sitcoms, is harder to do well than it is to go to work with a hangover (and the headache from the bad endings is even worse). So many great things have ended in lackluster ways. The show either goes on too long and has a drop off in quality, or the ending is just completely dissatisfying and disrespectful to the characters and their journey. Seinfeld stayed away from these pitfalls. When it ended, it was at the height of its popularity. Jerry Seinfeld was actually offered over 100 million to continue the show. But in order to avoid a depressing, drawn out ending, he turned down said money. I’m so glad he did, because the ending is perfect. They finish it by making it seem like the whole sitcom story thread is finally gonna get tied up, and instead all 4 main characters end up being arrested and put into prison. They use the trial as a platform to have flashbacks to many of the best moments of the show’s previous 9 seasons. It’s a really good ending, as we see that the characters will now continue to have exactly the same jokes and vibes, just while being in prison together lol.
I also like how the show doesn’t ever try to be anything too special. They don’t do a bunch of elaborate multi-episode arcs, or over the top holiday specials or anything like that. There’s just a couple two-part episodes, and the holiday episodes feel like normal episodes. I think the simplicity and regularity of the series helps it to not feel like it is ever trying too hard.
There’s a thousand more things I could say, and I’m sure there are a lot more technical and fancy sounding things to be praised about Seinfeld, but these are some of the reasons that I love it so much. I would make a Seinfeld reference here in the last sentence, but that feels cheesy so I won’t :)
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