[QUOTE=Gerald II ]
I really hated the series finale and thought it didn’t fit with the tone of the series at all. They weren’t supposed to be assholes who ruined peoples lives. …
When I first saw Jerry and co laughing at the guy getting robbed it seemed forced and out of character for all of them. …
[/QUOTE]
I still think the final episode would’ve worked better if each character had a different verdict. Kramer, being who he is, would get off scott free because the videotape he took of the carjacking identified the perp and led to his arrest and conviction. Elaine and Jerry would be found guilty of a lesser offense and receive only minor punishment like a fine and/or community service. George, of course, would be found guilty and receive the maximum punishment.
The episode where Jerry steals the marbled rye bread is called “The Rye”. It’s the one where George and his parents get invited to Susan’s parents’ house for dinner and bring a rye bread. When it’s not put out at dinner, Frank Constanza secretly takes it home. George knows that Susan’s parents will think that was rude, so he comes up with a plan to sneak a new rye into their house, so they will think it was just misplaced but there the whole time. The plan hinges on Jerry bringing George an identical rye bread, but he runs into trouble when an old lady buys the last loaf first.
The other thing in the OP, about falsely accusing a foreign neighbor of child molestation, was a horrible scenario completely made up by the OP and not an actual episode.
I didn’t find the show all that funny as a kid when it was on (as my experienced were more suburban, like Home Improvement), and now that I’m older and could appreciate it, it seems a bit cliched and a product of its time. But I did watch sometimes, and my impression was that George was an overgrown baby. Jerry was a bit of a jerk with a heart of Gold, and Kramer was just a weird guy. I don’t really remember getting any clear idea of Elaine.
They didn’t interact well with society, but I never really got the idea they were out-and-out jerks. I would save that term for the misanthropes.
And, yes, I felt the finale seemed strange, and wondered if they’d become much worse people over time, as I hadn’t watched the show at all in a few years.
I absolutely loved the show when it was on (one of the few shows I watched with my parents as a teenager in the 1990s - my dad would lose it at least once an episode) and still to this day love watching it. I agree with those up thread that said the show was about the crazy day-to-day anti-social stuff we dream about doing but never would. This was usually done in service of some sort of proper manners, so while they were intentionally assholes, maybe one could they they were negligently assholes. They chased the right way of doing things so much, that they ended up doing it in an assholish way.
Doesn’t mean it wasn’t hilarious. Still may favorite sitcom of all time.
I think the whole “show about nothing” was simply that it didn’t have a typical sitcom “cliche.” It wasn’t about a white-bread family with the amazing ability to solve someone’s world-ending problem within 22 minutes. It didn’t involve quirky main characters like some people pretending that bad haircuts make them into nerds, or who are secretly aliens.
It’s about a comedian and his circle of friends. It was groundbreaking only in that the"friends" cliche hadn’t been used in sitcoms up to that point. But even “nothing” is “something.”
I always assumed that “about nothing” meant that the plots were usually about very mundane things and no one ever came out the other side showing any impact. You could have people get fired, evicted, die or whatever and the characters would end the episode with a shrug.
I’m reminded of a classic post where the OP was personally offended by almost every film ever made but was only going on what he heard, having never actually seen the films.
I’ve never made such a post, the idea of it is ridiculous on its face because of what a film fan I am.
And for the last time I am not OFFENDED by the existence of any work of entertainment, I am really tired of this. If I say I give up on this show, I hate all these characters and hope they rot in hell, that is not me being offended that is not liking characters. This even happens in damn food threads where I say I love/hate a food item and others feel the need to attack me as being a snob or offending them even though I gave my opinion on a food item and made no judgement about anyone who loves or hates said item.
It is getting to the point I don’t feel to login or post, especially on a Monday morning, but there are some excellent threads here.
A “show about nothing” was how Jerry and George pitched their show(-within-a-show) to the network executives.
[QUOTE=real-life Jerry Seinfeld]
The real pitch, when Larry and I went to NBC in 1988, was we want to show how a comedian gets his material. The show about nothing was just a joke in an episode many years later, and Larry and I to this day are surprised that it caught on as a way that people describe the show, because to us it’s the opposite of that.
[/QUOTE]
(10 Facts About Nothing From Jerry Seinfeld's AMA)
While it is a thread to rant, that Terminator post almost seems like dope bait. No one is supposed to sympathize with a terminator, he never says that line in the movie but does in the sequel, and Arnold’s performance described:dubious: as gleeful.
I think the ‘trial’ in the finale was so absurd that it indicates the plane they were in crashed, they all died, and were in a kind of purgatory. Doesn’t that make sense? They weren’t ‘bad’ enough to go to hell, but were sentenced to spend eternity, possibly, all together in a little cell. Nattering on about nothing, forever.
I never got it either; it was always either a cringe-fest due to painful awkwardness or some style of sitting there in stunned horror at the characters’ sociopathic actions while watching the episodes. Never really saw what was so funny about it.
FTR, I couldn’t watch Curb your Enthusiasm or Arrested Development either, for the exact same reasons. There was just a certain meanness about the three shows, combined with painfully awkward scenes intended to somehow be funny that I couldn’t’ take.
I mean, if any of us were actually in the room with these people doing these awful things, we’d probably speak out, and if we were around during one of thes painfully awkward situations, we’d probably either try and change it up to be less awkward, or it would be something we’d remember with horror for years to come. At no point would they actually be funny, even far in the future.
