Seinfeld: The Series Finale

[simpsons_fanatic742]

I was watching the previous season of Curb Your Enthusiasm where they were setting up a Seinfeld Reunion Show and something that was talked about during the show got me thinking. The cast of Seinfeld kept bringing up, to Larry David, that this Reunion show would be a good idea so that they could make amends for the brutal series finale, although Larry David didn’t think the series finale was bad. That right there was what got me thinking.

Was the series finale of Seinfeld a disappointment to you or was it done well?

Now I thought long about this. Personally, I thought the series finale (both episodes) was done well and was a good way to end the show, but since the actual cast of the show didn’t like it I began to wonder what they thought the problem was because they never went into specifics about it.

My thought on the finale was that it was probably the best way to end the show. Look, Seinfeld was a show about nothing so to make the finale something theatrical wouldn’t be the style of the show. The whole plot was perfect: The gang was caught in a seemingly harmless situation, but it ends up being blown way out of proportion and they end up in prison. That’s what the show was based on, stupid scenarios that are taken to a different level because of the personalities of the characters. So I’m trying to understand the criticism of the series finale, but can’t find any so I come here and ask all of you Seinfeld fans to come and discuss the finale of one of the most watched sitcoms ever.

 

[justinsayne]

Ok, I'm pretty sure the cast didn't have a problem with the finale at all, if you watch disc 1 of the season 9 dvd set there is a special feature called the Final Lap where the talk about the finale, and on there they pretty much say nobody on the cast or crew had a problem with the finale, and it wasn't until the next day when all the reviews came out that they questioned it, and if one the of critics that gave it a bad review then said that now looking back it really wasn't as bad as he originally thought, I think the biggest problem with the finale was that it had way way waaaaaaaay to much hype going in, there was no way that they were ever going to live up to it no matter what they did in the finale, there was just no way there were going to make everybody happy

 

[LigerBomb]

For me it was lacking. I would have preferred them have a 3rd part as I've always felt that the finale had a strong suitable first half while the second half disastrously meandered into glorified clip show territory...
The end of course was classic Seinfeld as it was tongue in cheek and self referential even mockingly so in the fact that they were basically saying we've nothing left to say (to each other and to the audience) and we're now just repeating conversations had years prior... Always a sign a relationship has run its course and that no one has grown or learned a thing over the course of the series.
Overall, good not great. Glad Curb got the shots in as they did. Personally I hope when this CYE season comes out on DVD a bonus feature will be the ability to watch the "show within a show" reunion episode uncut and in it's entirety with filled in blanks as if it were an actual stand alone Seinfeld episode. THAT would be worth the price of the season alone...

 

[Razor]

I think the ending was fitting. It was the cast and writers acknowledging what the show was about...nothing, and the lives of 4 people who honestly were huge piles of shit. Jerry, Elaine, Kramer, and George were horrible people. Jerry was superficial, Elaine was a bitch, Kramer was fucking crazy, and George was so petty it seemed impossible to be that neurotic over silly mannerisms. They were ultimately jailed for being the bitches that they were for the what, 10 years prior?

I liked the show, and I thought that the ending fit them. I'm with Justin, and will say that the ending seemed so lacking because it suffered from soooooooo much hype. If anything killed that Finale, the hype did.

 

[It's...Baylariat!]

What Seinfeld did was what a lot of sitcoms had done, which is why the series finale was a little bit disappointing. Now, I still loved it and the ratings were going to be there regardless, but going with an old fashioned sitcom standby for a series finale wasn't what many of us expected. I'll explain what Seinfeld did.

The ending of the show was called the 'Full Circle' ending. Cheers did it, Family Ties did it, lots of shows used this ending. It's basically using the first scene of the episode and using it in the last episode. Remember the last conversation between Jerry and George? They talked about George's button. "It's in no mans land. If that thing breaks, the shirt's ruined.", Jerry says. Then George says, "Have we had this conversation before?" Jerry replies, "Yea, I think we have." Why? Because in the first scene from the pilot episode of Seinfeld, Jerry and George were in Monks talking about ... George's button on his shirt.

Full Circle. Overall, the ending was a little underwhelming, but it was good.