06:00 Seinfeld
11:30 Seinfeld
Seinfeld. Season 9, Episode 19. "The Maid" Angela Featherstone (who I loved in Cracker) guests, but it's a pretty lacklustre episode this "final normal episode" of Seinfeld. The plots are good and they criss-cross just fine, but you have to take some big leaps of suspension of disbelief to make the episode work. George behaving like a monkey? Since when? And there's the whole Kramer storyline: his girlfriend moves downtown and he acts like it's another country! Even going so far as to get lost there. Hmm. The scenes are funny enough, but it doesn't work. Kramer isn't that stupid, George isn't anything like a monkey. There's a long sequence of confusion at the counter in the diner and it's not funny either. And, finally, Elaine's storyline ends with her having to deal with a little boy who hasn't been told that his grandmother has died.
All very unlikely.
Which would be fine, if it was funny. But, it's not.
Seinfeld. Season 9, Episode 20. "The Puerto Rican Day" And so we reach the "final special episode" of Seinfeld. Over the years there were many of these break-the-formula episodes: stories where the regulars were in some location or other on some grand adventure. This time? A traffic jam. Great idea, great episode. One of the best. As well as lots of hilarious bantering and bickering at the start of the story, we get to see of the characters leave the car and head off for some mini-adventures on their own. Some of these are truly inspired: an homage to The Poseidon Adventure for instance and the - truly superb - scene where Jerry, George and Kramer meet in a house-for-sale each one using an alias that has cropped up in the series before. Wow. I love that. It's a classic episode and a fine farewell from the crew that had written the show for two years.
Yet Another TV Review Podcast
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Sat, Aug 9, 08 - Seinfeld
