Did people really want Jerry turning off his apartment lights over some sappy piano music? The finale was as bizarre, inconclusive and frustrating as the rest of the show lol true to the spirit of the writing
Fun fact: There was actually an episode that did something like that. 'The Highlights of 100', halfway through 6th season. It was like breaking the 4th wall style with Jerry taking with the camera, turning the lights off and leaving the apartment. Then clips from previous seasons came on for the rest of the episode.
@@Piticlir Out of tune? They were horrible people. That was the point. Example of each four: Jerry stole a rye from an old lady, Elaine selfishly bought the entire Sponge catalogue in a pharmacy, George pushed down kids AND an old lady when a fire went out so he can selfishly go first in a kid's birthday party, and Kramer pretended to be mentally challenged. That was the point and they got what they deserved. It's not wishy washy happy pappy sitcom like Cheers or Friends.
I'm in the tiny minority that liked the finale. It was VERY consistent with the rest of the show. The show never pretended to be about character growth. The REAL point of the finale is not them going to jail. The real point is what's in the final credits, where we see that Jerry hasn't changed. He's the SAME person in that stand up routine for the prisoners as he was in the very first routine he did it the pilot.
@@gibiscus People have baked-in expectations, fan entitlement, and generally with TV, unfortunately very little respect for creator vision. I'm certain half the viewership expected an ending where Jerry and Elaine got married, George got his dream job, and Kramer wins the lottery. Standard happily ever after tropes. Or at the very least it ending ON them getting the NBC show rather than that just being a setup device for the episode. But none of that would have reinforced Larry David's consistent notion that these people don't change. Any change is temporary at best, or like George's stint with the Yankees actually a curse in disguise.
Just a point of order... I liked Quantum Leap's much hated finale too. Also, St. Elsewhere. Also The Sopranos (which some people love and some SUPER hate). Although I will admit, like the rest of the universe, I DID hate How I Met Your Mother's finale. And Lost's ending was wishy washy if not outright bad. The ones I love are the ones that were deliberate bold creator statements, versus just patch jobs. HIMYM and Lost were cases where the Creators both eventually admitted they compromised, or the show wasn't following the original creator vision anyway. But the Seinfeld finale? That was all Larry David (even though he'd left the show otherwise).
I liked the episode. I was a fan from very early on, so it was a return to its roots. It wasn't so slapstick, at least from what I remember. In retrospect, I'm not a fan of the last two seasons, so this episode stands out. I think the show easily could have ended with Susan's death.
@@craigcavaliere6744 I'm not sure of the exact timing of Larry David leaving the show, but I think it may have been during those last two seasons most people are ambivalent about. But he DID write the finale.
The show was about 4 sociopaths taking advantage of people and getting away with it. And in the end, they finally got caught. What makes it so funny is that what they get arrested for is so absurd and not as bad as other things they’ve done
It wasn't really. They're not evil people. They're dumb and unchanging. Self involved. The show IS about nothing in the sense that the finale had to push back against the idea of character growth. Them going to jail was irrelevant. The point was Jerry's stand up after that. He was the same person doing that as he was in the first episode. Unchanged, despite the deliberately over the top change to his environment. They could have had them travel into Space to an alien world and had him do a routine of the same style jokes and delivery in front of said aliens and made the same point. I'm not saying they SHOULD have done that. Just that the jail thing was just window dressing.
@@edgregory1 I guess I'm in the minority here in thinking Zane's is totally the wrong analysis. That's the SURFACE explanation of what's in the episode narrative, not what's behind it. The episode has a deliberately over the top illustration of them as that, but it's meant to be taken as silly. The real exercise here are the writers (well, Larry David, who single handedly wrote the finale) mocking us, the audience. In a typical Larry David move he's tossing us the middle finger (and I personally love it). He's saying the show, and your assumptions about it, are bullshit. He MEANT the bit about it being about nothing, so interpreting this as about them being sociopaths getting what's coming to them is you falling into his trap/mockery. His real point is how wrong we all are if we assign meaning to stupid sitcoms. Jerry DOESN'T CHANGE. it's no accident the episode ends with him doing the same thing in jail he did outside.
The finale seems to be saying "these characters are assholes and you were never supposed to see them as the good guys." I think the writers realized that too many people related to them and found them likable.
Yeah, from what I hear Jason Alexander gets Seinfeld fans approaching him often and happily telling him that they can relate super well to George, and he hates that because George is supposed to be an awful person.
I mean, the main thing that makes them “awful” is that they actually express the way they feel. The reason why the show is so relatable to so many is because we have the same gripes and urges as the main characters, but we mostly aren’t brash enough to actually act on them in the real world, at least not without a little more grace
@@TheSameYellowToy Then I think he's missed the point. If people couldn't relate to him, he'd be an evil villain or an NPC. The characters were caricatures, designed to amplify personality traits we all share, but would prefer not to admit, even to ourselves. We've all had George moments, and when we see the character do something relatable, it doesn't mean the personality fault isn't bad, but it does mean we shouldn't kick ourselves so hard for having it. Maybe by helping us to recognise it, we can start to do something about it. Call him an entertaining black mirror.
I thought about that too. Especially because- Kramer? Pff. He'll be fine. George and Jerry were embarking on life-changing journeys anyway, but Elaine... She probably just put in some vacation time at work and was probably due back in a week or two. Then her whole life got turned upside down.
It was the perfect finale for the show. I liked it a lot. No hugs. No learning. They went to jail for doing nothing. Perfect way to end the show about “nothing.” People hating it doesn’t make any freaking sense to me.
GOT and HIMYM's finales failed is because their endings were inconsistent for their shows. HIMYM ignored all the character development and GOT's ignored the shows realism. Seinfeld might not have lived up to the hype but at least it was true to the show.
I would argue GOT ignored it's character development too, seeing as how all those seasons of growth were thrown out the window with characters behaving out of character, or reverting like Jaime Lannister.
@@Dermetsu They sure did. What I meant was that in the last episodes the characters started surviving things that would have killed them in earlier seasons which made the finale very boring.
IMO *The Take* is such a fantastic channel. From the more socially relevant, to something we might just enjoy a deeper dive into (like the subject of this video), regardless of the subject they always make it worth my time.
@@lh9591 I've always thought the best shows were about the journey, not the destination. So many bad finales can be overlooked if you just refuse to acknowledge them.
Lewis Fraser Yes, the story IS about the journey. The problem is, a bad ending can overshadow a great journey. Same applies when a shit journey has a great ending.
Air Quotes The OC, Scandal, MASH, Grey’s Anatomy, 24, Catastophe, NYPD Blue, Dallas, Murphy Brown... I could go on. But I never said anything about a show. I said the JOURNEY. This applies to movies & books too. Plenty of shitty movies with great endings that cover up the fact that the movie is weak. Stop trying to be a smart ass and read comments next time.
Anastasia D Yeah, I never thought it was a bad ending. I can see people being underwhelmed, but the echo chambers and tunnel vision of expectations tends to make it all seem worse than it is, and people get stubborn about their opinions once they decide they didn’t like something. Like the argument that the show always sided with the characters and it feels like a betrayal to turn on them in the end... I don’t agree at all. For one thing, I think the show was always saying “These characters are petty, obsessive people with little regard for others’ feelings.” and was making fun of all the little unspoken “rules” in society and relationships by having terrible people be the ones who care about them. They’re assholes. But assholes are entertaining. If people were watching it and seeing themselves in the characters, then that’s supposed to make you think “Huh... maybe I should lighten up about petty shit like this.”, but a lot of people don’t respond well to being made to self-analyze. They liked the characters genuinely, and didn’t like being told outright that they were assholes. I think Game of Thrones suffered this same problem, where people didn’t like being told that their love for Daenerys was all part of an ironic lesson in glorifying fascism because you like the person or agree with what they’re being fascist about. It’s a valuable lesson, especially for a lot of particular people these days... but people don’t want to hear it or feel like a show manipulated them to teach them something. They’d rather just call it an unwelcome inconsistency, so they can continue looking at the rest of the show the way they did before instead of changing their perspective. Cognitive dissonance.
*Please talk about close platonic relationships between women and men in film and television!* Examples: Harry and Hermione from HP, Olivia and Elliot from Law and Order, Ellie and Paul from The half of it, etc. How society views these relationships as just a building step for a romantic relationship and somewhat forces us to view them as such to the point we can even start to confuse our own feelings when we're faced with similar situations and believe we're ~in love~ with the other person. Like, yes we love them but not in that way.
I applaud this ending. It completely subverted AND lived up to all our expectations at the same time. This was the logical conclusion of a show that was built on making a big deal out of small things and a small deal out of big things.
Irony of the ending: The group got into trouble for doing nothing (while recording the robbery), which is very much the same how society is these days.
This would've been a good way to let Seinfeld continue. Legal Eagle has said none of the witness' testimonies would've held water and in a real court-case, all dismissed as improper character-witnesses; but it would've given Jerry and George a ton of material for their proposed sitcom; but because of their personalities, their success wouldn't have fixed anything and petty grievances would still rule their lives (The exact premise of "Curb Your Enthusiasm")
It was simply Adria ex machina That broke character with the entire series. And Larry David said a big fuck you to the audience, Breaking the fourth wall and treating them like idiots for liking it.
enkiitu Lost was meandering around for a few seasons, Friends was on too long. Breaking Bad ended at the right time and the final season of GOT was a disaster
Right before the finale aired the network broadcasted a best of Seinfled clip show. Imagine watching that and then having it followed by yet another clip show that was the finale. It really took the wind out of the finale's sails.
Ending was brilliant. I knew what it was in advance through cultural osmosis, but I had the inkling people were exaggerating and they were. The show is highkey all about how awful these people are, therefore it’s a blessing. If something like that didn’t happen people would complain they never got their just desserts. Everyone’s a critic.
ORORORORO!!! I spend half of my day sleeping! ORORORO!!! Then I sometimes get up and tell you that I am a famous content creatorORORORORO!!! Please don't sleep while driving, dear sa
My hope is a Final Destination type ending, but stretched over the whole season. Every time character gets killed off they have to keep hanging around as a ghost watching the others untill they are all dead.
@@hayleym1483 Final Destination, so weird and absurd coincidences. If I was going to do the murder route I would have Dennis be the red herring only to reveal it really was him, only reveal it was really Dee.
They spent entire episodes dedicated to reminding us how shitty they were. Of course they stayed in jail. I think the problem is that the audience had gotten too used to seeing them get away with it. It's like seeing Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid actually get gunned down. It's not the fun times we're used to so it's a shock.
I agree. The cast of Seinfeld are antiheroes, and a lot of times I see fans of various media with antiheroes get upset when the protagonist gets what's coming to them. We're so programmed to sympathize with and excuse the main character of a show, that it shocks people when main characters who are objectively bad people and who we would love to hate if they were antagonists get their just desserts.
I enjoyed the finale. I thought their selfish decisions coming back to haunt them was very appropriate. Especially with George. How George wasn't charged with murdering Susan (or at least being charged with negligent homicide because he was warned about the envelopes but bought them anyway) still makes me scratch my head, especially since he had NO guilt over losing the woman he was going to spend the rest of his life with. (though he was going to do it out of pure spite.)
His character was one of the biggest weasels in tv comedy history. He could never just dump a girl in a normal and respectful way. I wonder how many cons were born because they identified with him...
The actor actually didn’t get along well with Susan’s actor, and was pretty disappointed when they decided to continue their relationship. So it makes sense if he never actually comes across as sad or anything about her death
Okay, I haven't seen the entire show, in fact I've only seen parts of the envelope episode, but how would he have been charged? Unless I'm missing something, nothing he did constitutes a murder or negligent homicide/manslaughter charge.
@@sadezem991 LOL calling Jason Alexander a "terrible actor" is fucking ridiculous. George Constanza is considered one of the best characters ever onscreen and it's because of Jason Alexander portraying an exaggerated version of Larry David. And the actress who played Susan was the bad actress who had little to no range - go watch her "crying" scene, it's terrible. And it's no surprise that she did very little acting since.
Eh, there was definitely emotions in the Seinfield finale. It was just that rather than there being heartwarming emotions (like in a typical sitcom), it was just uncomfortable watching them go through a trial about their morals and then going to prison. I agree with Jerry's comment that they could've kept it small because the series didn't go big even though that's what they did for the finale. I think I would've preferred something closer to a regular episode.
When seinfeld ended I was 16 and out of the country at the time. A friend of mine had mailed me a letter all it said was seinfeld ended, they all ended up in jail. I was so confused at the time. I needed more context and then thought yeah sounds about right.
It should've been a normal episode like any other. If it would've been, we'd all be talking about how brilliant it was that a show about nothing ended with nothing. No send off. No sentimentality. Just do another show and end it.
@@othmankamel7206 an episode that leaves people thinking "was that really the finale? No maybe it was a rerun" is a dumb idea. The finale was great the way they made it
@chrisrj9871 Absolutely. I think if they could've found a way to work Jerry's and George's final discussion on the button making or breaking the shirt into a normal episode, that would've been a great way to end it. It's just the right amount of sentimentality/self-reflection and would've been a subtle nod to the writers' mantra, "No hugging. No learning." b/c it shows they're the same people they've always been.
I'm not a fan of the last episode. Whenever I binge watch the show I end it at the last episode before the finale. But Jerry was on point when he said they should have ended the show with the four of them back in the diner after prison. George's line," That was brutal" made me bust out laughing.
I've never understood everyone's negative opinions of the final episode. I just figured the writers got into a room and openly asked, "If this were real life, where would these characters end up?" And then one of them responded, "They'd probably all be in jail." It was also the perfect vehicle to bring back so many cameos and reference past episodes without doing a clip show. I think it's one of the best finales ever written and shot.
@@anesu846 i think that's it. people who have lessons to learn will never learn them. it would have been ruined if they each had an epiphany and changed their lives
At least the ending had no impact on the watchability of the series as a whole. I can't even watch GoT now because the ending made clear they never actually knew what the hell they were doing.
I love the first 5 seasons so much I wilfully put myself in denial over the last three seasons ever existing. Like, the ending of that world will only happen once the books come out.
All this exposition and you left out one important fact: The ending was foreshadowed several times throughout the run of the show. Larry David love foreshadowing jokes that would play out in later episodes. And many times during the run of the series, people told these four they belonged in jail. It lived up to Larry David's brilliant use of foreshadowing and was the logical conclusion for the series. Anybody saying otherwise wasn't paying attention.
I think the ending should have just been a simple Seinfeld episode, all the basic plot points, not at all big and an ending in the Diner, where they talk about the button again.. Showing that these people will ALWAYS be jerks and they may never be held accountable. They will still go onto more adventures, we just don't get to see it next week.
The ending is actually perfectly in sync with the whole series. We loved the characters so much that we wanted them to a actually succeed and have a better happy life. But those idiots never learned.
I've only seen the finale once but i remember it just had a darker vibe than the rest of the show. They could have come up with a lighter way to wrap it up.
It was the best ending for a sitcom. Not a goddamn cheesy one where everyone is happy but one that absolutely subverts your expectations, and of which you can do nothing about it.
when I first saw it I was disappointed because I expected something spectacular. but as the years went by and I thought about it and saw other shows' endings, I started to see the genius of it, and I feel like it's among the best series endings ever.
One of the things i loved about the show was the fact that the characters were actually horrible. This so didn't beg you to like them for you to enjoy the show Elaine Jerry George and Kramer were self-absorbed mean phony and George and Kramer were incredibly irritating and annoying while Elaine and Jerry were pretty pretentious and conceited. I remember watching the show as a kid and feeling like they got exactly what they deserve and watching all of the stories recounted back-to-back was hilarious
I loved the finale, LOVED IT! Never has a finale so fitted a story arc from beginning to end. Here we had 4 people who were petty at best, and absolute sociopaths are worst...breezing through life destroying people with not even so much as an after thought (l always thought "Darrin" should've been included for the oil ball); finally get their comeupperance from the most minutia of transgressions, finally allowing Karma to have it's day. It was brilliant in my opinion.
The one thing I didn't like about the finale was that there were moments where certain scenes weren't funny. For Jerry George, Elaine, and Kramer to go to jail for all of their actions, it does show that your actions will have consequences, and they will come back to get you. I can see why people hated how the series ended, because people wanted these characters to have a happy ending, but in the show about the quarks of every day life, not everything has a happy ending, especially to those who have done so many misdeeds to the point where they end up coming back. With how the gangs trail was stupid, we still can't deny that these 4 protagonists had it coming in some way. I'd personally rate this show a solid 7/10. Isn't terrible, but could have been a little better.
“Hated” is such a strong word. How about “confounding“? The last episode was perfectly written to mock the general audience’s expectations. In a way, it turned the callousness and indifference of the characters onto the audience. And people didn’t like that, but that is what made the episode so brilliant. Just like The Sopranos, Seinfeld didn’t do predictable fan service in their finale like Breaking Bad. At the same time, it didn’t completely f*ck up the ending like Game of Thrones.
My issue is the fact that the Seinfeld world was made up of a lot of pretty bad and self-involved people, but the finale is supposed to make out the core group as being the worst. It was just a bad ending. Seinfeld didn’t need a grand send off.
I was a teenager at the time and didn’t like the finale. I think I felt sad that beloved characters were going to jail. But watching reruns over and over again, I understand the show so much better. The take really made clear how horribly sucky those sappy sitcom endings are. This was a great finale. And while I don’t return to it often during rewatches, I’m still happy it’s there as an ending. I’m sure their fame would’ve been picked up and they would’ve reconnected to their lives and in that same amused distance. And as others pointed out, maybe Elaine would’ve finally cut those toxic men from her life that kept her from growing and finding some joy in life.
If anything, this analysis showed that maybe they tried so hard to buck convention when it comes to series finales that they forgot one thing that wasn't really covered in this video - to make it funny.
Pretty much my thoughts on the finale. Thematically it's all good and sound, it's just at the end of the day it's not all that entertaining outside of a few jokes and character cameos.
The last episode was genius. The problem was the last scene was boring, when the camera slowly pulled back, leaving them in a jail cell. It would have been FUNNY if they won the case on a technicality, then the all their victim witnesses attacked them, and the camera froze so we never know what happened to them.
I remember watching the finale in my college cafeteria in '98. Everyone was pissed at it, but honestly, I didn't think it was that bad. There really wasn't a clean, satisfactory way to end the show with a cute little bow wrapped up, without succumbing to cheesy fan service. It was a funny show about, frankly, hilariously awful people who in the end kinda deserved what they got.
I highly recommend watching Legal Eagle's video on the Seinfeld finale. And paying very close attention to what he has to say about Good Samaritan laws. Not the fictional Good Samaritan law from the episode - but Good Samaritan laws as they exist in the real world. (Spoiler: Everybody's favourite internet lawyer agrees with the Seinfeld group's lawyer.)
The problem in the end should’ve been solved by overruling the whole case. I mean, everyone did have testimony but in court 90% of those could be overruled simply as hearsay. There was no way to prove it. Same finale with the difference they don’t go to jail, as a one last time to show that IT WAS JUST A SHOW THAT IN THE END THEY WON’T BE PUNISHED FOR THEIR “bad” ACTS.
Wow. An excellent analysis. We didn't want them to get their comeuppance. They were darker shades of ourselves, our ids. We could see ourselves being so petty and craven at times while we struggle to be better. They were us. We didn't want to see us be punished.
Just finished watching the show for the first time in my life (yeah, I’m not from states so I couldn’t get my hands on it till I got amazon prime). Didn’t like the ending. It was bleak. I totally got the whole “they didn’t change and yada yada yada” but it just was so unfunny. But again I’m not a fan. Oh and also it felt like the authors were preaching the audience. I mean that speech from the judge is just ugh.
Referenced in this video, it would've been much better to just end on a normal 30 minute story (or maybe an hour-long episode) where the same types of things happen as they had in all the previous episodes. And when the credits roll, there is no sign of anything--characters, relationships, jobs, etc.--changing in any way. Would've been a nice 🖕🖕🖕 to end the series on.
I feel like the finale was just missing that final scene, where they all got out of prison and went to the coffee shop, and went on as normal. I actually like the trial and how they went to prison, but I just wish the show didn’t have to end there, and could instead end in a more familiar location.
Exactly. It didn't end on a big laugh like the rest of the series did. It just went out on them sitting there... no final joke. They did that scene during the credits, with Jerry doing stand-up in prison, and getting booed... but it was too little to late. We were already scratching our heads about the jail cell scene.
Not to mention that their conviction would definitely get overturned on appeal. As their trial was incredibly legally inaccurate. See legal eagles “gets lawyerd” on Seinfeld
I still think about the ending every now and then. I've just started the show from the start for the first time. I loved the ending it was perfect. The only dislike was that it actually ended but I'm glad they stopped when it was still on a high note. My all time favourite show. ❤☕
Thank you. A surprisingly good video essay about nothing. I really didn’t expect much. But you did a great job covering it from all angles with some great clips and editing. And the copy was good. And however the narration was done or read, it was good.
At the end of the day, that finale was all about calling out how awful Jerry, George, Elena and Kramer are as people. It's pessimistic, but it still fits a certain logic about the show's comedy.
I'm one of those Seinfeld fans who HATED the finale when it originally aired............................but now I realize it was GENIUS! Glad I finally came around and realized Larry and gang had the right idea when doing this.
Most people were wanting a "Seinfeld movie". This was their chance, and they blew it. The characters didn't get a chance to shine or grow, or resolve. It was just a "greatest hits" rerun. :/ I see the finale as the only major misstep of an otherwise near-perfect show. For the public, the let-down was huge. Their disappointment was palpable. We wanted much more from these characters.
Biggest problem was it wasn't funny, spent too much time trying to be big while simultaneously subverting expectations, and forgot to write any actual funny bits.
Yeah. I feel like it should have ended funny and not emotional or something. They should have ended with the judge declaring them guilty and order them to be the victim’s butlers for 1 year, just like George’s idea for the sitcom Jerry.
The main problem is that for a finale, more time is spent on guest characters than the regulars. Which is very much an issue when it's the last time you're going to see them. Plus it's not that funny.
I always thought the Series Finale was incredibly ahead of its time, and too high in concept for most people to really understand and complain it wasn't enough like a warm and fuzzy traditional show ending... it was the... opposite... ironically like an ep once tried to do for a character, but in this case... in themes and tropes. But at the sametime, I get why people also don't like it because it was still an overglorified clip show and not that funny... but the concept was really interesting to me. IMO this finale foretold the type of things that would be very present and even popular hallmark of Larry David's future project... Curb Your Enthusiasm.
First of all as a lawyer myself, Jackie did a terrible job as a defense counsel. His start was good talking about bystanders being innocent. Since then no proper argument. If they hired me I would've got them out 😁
Thematically, the finale felt like a natural conclusion to Seinfeld with the gang's narcissism and past exploits coming back to bite them. I have no problem with the gang getting punished in some form because despite them being funny and endearing, at the end of the day they were not good people. The final scene in which Jerry and George start talking about buttons was not only a great call back to the pilot ep but a perfect showcase that all these years later, the characters have not learned a thing. I love that! The ultimate problem I have with the finale is that Larry David pulls out a lot plot contrivances (Ex. The Good Samaritan Law, The judge allowing for character witnesses) that end up compromising the down-to-earth tone of the show and there are not that many good jokes to be had. While some of the cameos during the trial sequence are fun (Ex. Mr. Bookman, Babu), it ultimately felt like a glorified clip show. It's a finale that I can respect but it doesn't manage to be nearly as entertaining as other eps of the series. I've certainly seen better finales than Seinfeld, but it's far from the worst. Although a part of me feels the penultimate ep (The Puerto Rican Day Parade) was a more fitting series finale.
I loved the finale. It brought together all the characters that made it a great show, and ended with the button line from the first episode. The pulling back of the camera from the cell gave the feeling of withdrawing from their lives at the same time as knowing nothing will ever change with them, imprisoned in a vacuous little world of their own making.
I don’t hate the ending. I’m sure that they got what was coming to them but at the same time, It makes me a little bummed. Despite the negative interactions the 4 made with people around them, I still couldn’t help but feel bad for them. I don’t condone for some of the things they did, but still. Plus, most of the people the group interacted with, they weren’t saints either. I like to think the previous episode with the ending of the song “Time of your life” with the cast members as the last episode. If you like the finale, like it. We all have different opinions and perspectives here.
I loved the finally, they managed to bring back most of the iconic funny characters back in a way that didn’t force the 4 main characters to change. Lots of funny moments and an ending that gave the perfect after the end scene with the “that was brutal” line! LOL
I thought it was great. I love how these four narcissists got what they deserved. A lot of the accusations put against them were complete bullshit, but I feel it added to the absurdity and in a was a shot at how the judicial system is kind of broken with taking the person’s (who would stereotypically be the victim) side. And the best pet was how even after all of main character’s mistakes were throw in their face and they were imprisoned for it, they didn’t change one bit. They kept talking and even sitting in the same spots they would at the diner, and started having a conversation that they had before signifying that they will never change. What they did and what happened to them because of it didn’t mean anything because it truly had no effect on them. It didn’t matter. It meant nothing.
This was so epic that there was a whole storyline on dharma and Greg being about how empty the streets were because everyone was inside watching the finale.
I swear to God, it really seems like a LOT of people back in the 90s didn't realise until the very last episode of the series that Seinfeld was a dark comedy and not your typical sitcom.
I didn't watch Seinfeld, and I've only caught a few episodes, but I appreciated this... Though I've always liked the theory that they died and went to hell.
The problem was the characters were usually their worst enemies their bad decisions came back to bite them in the ass seeing them go to jail was too over the top
I think the finale was fantastic. It was very well thought of. Included all the great previous characters, comments about what the show is all about and equally hilarious at the same time. Best sitcom finale for me.
The problem is not thematic. The problem is the writing in the finale feels stilted and tired, the characters feel like exaggerated versions of themselves, and the situation they find themselves in is wholely implausible, even for an absurdist comedy, and it breaks the immersion. Every now and then the show would have these one-off jokes that almost seemed extra-canonical (like George going to meet Fidel Castro, and never bringing it up again)... but they were usually just one-off jokes during the end credits or something, so you didn't have to take them too seriously. There was always a degree of realism in the show, where absurd things happening would happen due to mundane situations. This almost feels like the reverse, where they had to conjure an absurd situation (going to trial and having all these unrelated character witnesses in a trial that has made it to national news) in order for a mundane thing to happen (them going to jail). That's why it feels off from the rest of the show. The finale is like those little bits of absurdism throughout the show that you're not supposed to take seriously, but here you are basically forced to take it all seriously. It's almost like what the show would've looked like if if had continued for a couple more seasons and had gotten stale.
Did people really want Jerry turning off his apartment lights over some sappy piano music? The finale was as bizarre, inconclusive and frustrating as the rest of the show lol true to the spirit of the writing
Agree
Fun fact: There was actually an episode that did something like that. 'The Highlights of 100', halfway through 6th season. It was like breaking the 4th wall style with Jerry taking with the camera, turning the lights off and leaving the apartment. Then clips from previous seasons came on for the rest of the episode.
Not at all, but there was a lot of ways to do that same thing, without being so out of tune compared to the rest of the show.
Still better than the fate of Alf!
@@Piticlir Out of tune? They were horrible people. That was the point. Example of each four: Jerry stole a rye from an old lady, Elaine selfishly bought the entire Sponge catalogue in a pharmacy, George pushed down kids AND an old lady when a fire went out so he can selfishly go first in a kid's birthday party, and Kramer pretended to be mentally challenged. That was the point and they got what they deserved. It's not wishy washy happy pappy sitcom like Cheers or Friends.
I'm in the tiny minority that liked the finale. It was VERY consistent with the rest of the show. The show never pretended to be about character growth. The REAL point of the finale is not them going to jail. The real point is what's in the final credits, where we see that Jerry hasn't changed. He's the SAME person in that stand up routine for the prisoners as he was in the very first routine he did it the pilot.
I remember watching it and liking it just fine... I'm shocked it's disliked!
@@gibiscus People have baked-in expectations, fan entitlement, and generally with TV, unfortunately very little respect for creator vision. I'm certain half the viewership expected an ending where Jerry and Elaine got married, George got his dream job, and Kramer wins the lottery. Standard happily ever after tropes. Or at the very least it ending ON them getting the NBC show rather than that just being a setup device for the episode. But none of that would have reinforced Larry David's consistent notion that these people don't change. Any change is temporary at best, or like George's stint with the Yankees actually a curse in disguise.
Just a point of order... I liked Quantum Leap's much hated finale too. Also, St. Elsewhere. Also The Sopranos (which some people love and some SUPER hate). Although I will admit, like the rest of the universe, I DID hate How I Met Your Mother's finale. And Lost's ending was wishy washy if not outright bad.
The ones I love are the ones that were deliberate bold creator statements, versus just patch jobs. HIMYM and Lost were cases where the Creators both eventually admitted they compromised, or the show wasn't following the original creator vision anyway. But the Seinfeld finale? That was all Larry David (even though he'd left the show otherwise).
I liked the episode. I was a fan from very early on, so it was a return to its roots. It wasn't so slapstick, at least from what I remember. In retrospect, I'm not a fan of the last two seasons, so this episode stands out. I think the show easily could have ended with Susan's death.
@@craigcavaliere6744 I'm not sure of the exact timing of Larry David leaving the show, but I think it may have been during those last two seasons most people are ambivalent about. But he DID write the finale.
The show was about 4 sociopaths taking advantage of people and getting away with it. And in the end, they finally got caught. What makes it so funny is that what they get arrested for is so absurd and not as bad as other things they’ve done
Exactly!! That’s how I interpreted the finale
It wasn't really. They're not evil people. They're dumb and unchanging. Self involved. The show IS about nothing in the sense that the finale had to push back against the idea of character growth. Them going to jail was irrelevant. The point was Jerry's stand up after that. He was the same person doing that as he was in the first episode. Unchanged, despite the deliberately over the top change to his environment. They could have had them travel into Space to an alien world and had him do a routine of the same style jokes and delivery in front of said aliens and made the same point. I'm not saying they SHOULD have done that. Just that the jail thing was just window dressing.
It's a show about everything, especially native New Yorkeristic me me me onlyism.
@@edgregory1 I guess I'm in the minority here in thinking Zane's is totally the wrong analysis. That's the SURFACE explanation of what's in the episode narrative, not what's behind it. The episode has a deliberately over the top illustration of them as that, but it's meant to be taken as silly. The real exercise here are the writers (well, Larry David, who single handedly wrote the finale) mocking us, the audience. In a typical Larry David move he's tossing us the middle finger (and I personally love it). He's saying the show, and your assumptions about it, are bullshit. He MEANT the bit about it being about nothing, so interpreting this as about them being sociopaths getting what's coming to them is you falling into his trap/mockery. His real point is how wrong we all are if we assign meaning to stupid sitcoms. Jerry DOESN'T CHANGE. it's no accident the episode ends with him doing the same thing in jail he did outside.
@@Wiley_Coyote To me the episode just underscored how unrepentant and irredeemable they were.
The finale seems to be saying "these characters are assholes and you were never supposed to see them as the good guys." I think the writers realized that too many people related to them and found them likable.
Yeah, from what I hear Jason Alexander gets Seinfeld fans approaching him often and happily telling him that they can relate super well to George, and he hates that because George is supposed to be an awful person.
I mean, the main thing that makes them “awful” is that they actually express the way they feel. The reason why the show is so relatable to so many is because we have the same gripes and urges as the main characters, but we mostly aren’t brash enough to actually act on them in the real world, at least not without a little more grace
@@SuperSandwich713 you can't have little grace. you either have grace or dont have it
@@thomasshelby6055😭😭😭😭😭
@@TheSameYellowToy Then I think he's missed the point. If people couldn't relate to him, he'd be an evil villain or an NPC. The characters were caricatures, designed to amplify personality traits we all share, but would prefer not to admit, even to ourselves. We've all had George moments, and when we see the character do something relatable, it doesn't mean the personality fault isn't bad, but it does mean we shouldn't kick ourselves so hard for having it. Maybe by helping us to recognise it, we can start to do something about it. Call him an entertaining black mirror.
"You don't have to help anybody. That's what this country's all about!" - Jackie Childs
I live by that statement
Jackie nailed it there.
The most true statement of America that has EVER been said...
The UN should make a law about this and implement it to all the countries.
Larry David should have played the judge.
OMG! True!
wow, but he was the man in the cape, I mean, who wears a cape?
Larry David left the show in the last season. He was not even writing and you want him to act in the show? ...this whole sound stupid to me!!
@@ssagar8808 He co-wrote the last episode so he was back.
good point, he portraits a lawyer anyway
The ending was sad though when you realize Elaine will have to face prison alone compared to the 3 guys
I thought about that too. Especially because- Kramer? Pff. He'll be fine. George and Jerry were embarking on life-changing journeys anyway, but Elaine... She probably just put in some vacation time at work and was probably due back in a week or two. Then her whole life got turned upside down.
For Elaine this is a happy ending. She had been wanting to eject herself from the four of them for a few years but had not done it.
Elaine hates girl.
No I think for tv purposes they would all do there time together
Highly unlikely the guys would see much of, in not any of each other in prison.
It was the perfect finale for the show. I liked it a lot. No hugs. No learning. They went to jail for doing nothing. Perfect way to end the show about “nothing.” People hating it doesn’t make any freaking sense to me.
GOT and HIMYM's finales failed is because their endings were inconsistent for their shows. HIMYM ignored all the character development and GOT's ignored the shows realism. Seinfeld might not have lived up to the hype but at least it was true to the show.
I would argue GOT ignored it's character development too, seeing as how all those seasons of growth were thrown out the window with characters behaving out of character, or reverting like Jaime Lannister.
@@Dermetsu They sure did. What I meant was that in the last episodes the characters started surviving things that would have killed them in earlier seasons which made the finale very boring.
@@hippolyte90 very true.
You're absolutely right. GOT and HIMYM's finales ruined those shows for me, but I still maintain that Seinfeld's was fine.
GOT's finale (and entire last season) was a giant disappointment, but ignoring realism? A show about dragons and magic, I don't think so
IMO *The Take* is such a fantastic channel. From the more socially relevant, to something we might just enjoy a deeper dive into (like the subject of this video), regardless of the subject they always make it worth my time.
Funny, I didn't know people had a problem with this finale. I thought it was perfect.
Tacoma98 it was extremely disliked at the time. But it doesn’t undo the rest of the series, like Game of thrones.
@@lh9591 I've always thought the best shows were about the journey, not the destination. So many bad finales can be overlooked if you just refuse to acknowledge them.
Lewis Fraser Yes, the story IS about the journey. The problem is, a bad ending can overshadow a great journey. Same applies when a shit journey has a great ending.
@@RyanAnthonyDigitalMedia name a bad show with a good ending?
Air Quotes The OC, Scandal, MASH, Grey’s Anatomy, 24, Catastophe, NYPD Blue, Dallas, Murphy Brown... I could go on. But I never said anything about a show. I said the JOURNEY. This applies to movies & books too. Plenty of shitty movies with great endings that cover up the fact that the movie is weak. Stop trying to be a smart ass and read comments next time.
The Massachusetts town looks just like Stars Hollow from Gilmore girls
Yeah, I thought it was Stars Hollow!
Could be the same set?
Didn’t the Gilmore mom date Jerry?
Heh. Went searching for this comment. Was not disappointed!
@@Aelffwynn Yeah, according to Google, it's the same set.
seems like a fitting and fine ending to me? 🤷🏻♀️ idk hmm...finales are always tough b/c there’s so much pressure to get it “right”
Anastasia D Yeah, I never thought it was a bad ending. I can see people being underwhelmed, but the echo chambers and tunnel vision of expectations tends to make it all seem worse than it is, and people get stubborn about their opinions once they decide they didn’t like something. Like the argument that the show always sided with the characters and it feels like a betrayal to turn on them in the end... I don’t agree at all. For one thing, I think the show was always saying “These characters are petty, obsessive people with little regard for others’ feelings.” and was making fun of all the little unspoken “rules” in society and relationships by having terrible people be the ones who care about them. They’re assholes. But assholes are entertaining. If people were watching it and seeing themselves in the characters, then that’s supposed to make you think “Huh... maybe I should lighten up about petty shit like this.”, but a lot of people don’t respond well to being made to self-analyze. They liked the characters genuinely, and didn’t like being told outright that they were assholes. I think Game of Thrones suffered this same problem, where people didn’t like being told that their love for Daenerys was all part of an ironic lesson in glorifying fascism because you like the person or agree with what they’re being fascist about. It’s a valuable lesson, especially for a lot of particular people these days... but people don’t want to hear it or feel like a show manipulated them to teach them something. They’d rather just call it an unwelcome inconsistency, so they can continue looking at the rest of the show the way they did before instead of changing their perspective. Cognitive dissonance.
Honestly, if they included that coffeehouse scene tag that Jerry mentioned, I think it would have been a lot more well-received.
It shows us they eventually get out of the situation again
*Please talk about close platonic relationships between women and men in film and television!*
Examples: Harry and Hermione from HP, Olivia and Elliot from Law and Order, Ellie and Paul from The half of it, etc.
How society views these relationships as just a building step for a romantic relationship and somewhat forces us to view them as such to the point we can even start to confuse our own feelings when we're faced with similar situations and believe we're ~in love~ with the other person. Like, yes we love them but not in that way.
Ohh yes, I like this suggestion!
Platonic relationships are my favorite
They already did, it's about Phoebe & Joey
Steve and Natasha in MCU too!
@@Ethan_6 I want a more in depth video with different variations.
I applaud this ending. It completely subverted AND lived up to all our expectations at the same time. This was the logical conclusion of a show that was built on making a big deal out of small things and a small deal out of big things.
imagine the characters in seinfeld having to deal with the corona virus, lol
The hypothetical coffee shop scene “that was brutal” would’ve been perfect.
Honestly it really would've been perfect
Irony of the ending: The group got into trouble for doing nothing (while recording the robbery), which is very much the same how society is these days.
seinfeld was always an irony/tragedy-driven story so the finale captured that perfectly.
This would've been a good way to let Seinfeld continue. Legal Eagle has said none of the witness' testimonies would've held water and in a real court-case, all dismissed as improper character-witnesses; but it would've given Jerry and George a ton of material for their proposed sitcom; but because of their personalities, their success wouldn't have fixed anything and petty grievances would still rule their lives (The exact premise of "Curb Your Enthusiasm")
It was simply Adria ex machina That broke character with the entire series. And Larry David said a big fuck you to the audience, Breaking the fourth wall and treating them like idiots for liking it.
Seinfeld had the best finale ever and did the most series lacked: they stopped on the height of succes.
So true
Maybe not the best but they stopped at the right time.
Lmao, not even close
Lost, Friends, Breaking Bad and GOT weren’t a the height of success?
enkiitu Lost was meandering around for a few seasons, Friends was on too long. Breaking Bad ended at the right time and the final season of GOT was a disaster
Right before the finale aired the network broadcasted a best of Seinfled clip show. Imagine watching that and then having it followed by yet another clip show that was the finale. It really took the wind out of the finale's sails.
I think the ending was perfect
Same.
Same.
Last 2 seasons had a definite drop in quality, but the ending was good imo
Ending was brilliant. I knew what it was in advance through cultural osmosis, but I had the inkling people were exaggerating and they were. The show is highkey all about how awful these people are, therefore it’s a blessing. If something like that didn’t happen people would complain they never got their just desserts. Everyone’s a critic.
@@281m.wasiqwasim3 Larry David was gone from the show, I believe, and came back to write the finale.
Elaine was the best part of this show. I loved her. Dance like nobody’s watching.
Get out!
lol no that was George
ORORORORO!!! I spend half of my day sleeping! ORORORO!!! Then I sometimes get up and tell you that I am a famous content creatorORORORORO!!! Please don't sleep while driving, dear sa
You stink!
Elaine was my absolute favorite. Any GET OUT shove by her was always great to see
I actually hope It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia ends like Seinfeld
My hope is a Final Destination type ending, but stretched over the whole season. Every time character gets killed off they have to keep hanging around as a ghost watching the others untill they are all dead.
i trust the gang fully
@@tyrant-den884 Did you mean Dennis kills everyone and then finally himself?
@@hayleym1483 Final Destination, so weird and absurd coincidences.
If I was going to do the murder route I would have Dennis be the red herring only to reveal it really was him, only reveal it was really Dee.
It’d be so much fun honestly 😂😂
They spent entire episodes dedicated to reminding us how shitty they were. Of course they stayed in jail.
I think the problem is that the audience had gotten too used to seeing them get away with it. It's like seeing Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid actually get gunned down. It's not the fun times we're used to so it's a shock.
I agree. The cast of Seinfeld are antiheroes, and a lot of times I see fans of various media with antiheroes get upset when the protagonist gets what's coming to them. We're so programmed to sympathize with and excuse the main character of a show, that it shocks people when main characters who are objectively bad people and who we would love to hate if they were antagonists get their just desserts.
@@TheSameYellowToy for me much like anti-villains, but we can see thing very different.
I think you explained it the best
I enjoyed the finale. I thought their selfish decisions coming back to haunt them was very appropriate. Especially with George. How George wasn't charged with murdering Susan (or at least being charged with negligent homicide because he was warned about the envelopes but bought them anyway) still makes me scratch my head, especially since he had NO guilt over losing the woman he was going to spend the rest of his life with. (though he was going to do it out of pure spite.)
His character was one of the biggest weasels in tv comedy history. He could never just dump a girl in a normal and respectful way. I wonder how many cons were born because they identified with him...
The actor actually didn’t get along well with Susan’s actor, and was pretty disappointed when they decided to continue their relationship. So it makes sense if he never actually comes across as sad or anything about her death
@@jtbamb6145 that makes him a terrible actor, then
Okay, I haven't seen the entire show, in fact I've only seen parts of the envelope episode, but how would he have been charged? Unless I'm missing something, nothing he did constitutes a murder or negligent homicide/manslaughter charge.
@@sadezem991 LOL calling Jason Alexander a "terrible actor" is fucking ridiculous. George Constanza is considered one of the best characters ever onscreen and it's because of Jason Alexander portraying an exaggerated version of Larry David.
And the actress who played Susan was the bad actress who had little to no range - go watch her "crying" scene, it's terrible. And it's no surprise that she did very little acting since.
Eh, there was definitely emotions in the Seinfield finale. It was just that rather than there being heartwarming emotions (like in a typical sitcom), it was just uncomfortable watching them go through a trial about their morals and then going to prison. I agree with Jerry's comment that they could've kept it small because the series didn't go big even though that's what they did for the finale. I think I would've preferred something closer to a regular episode.
Yeah same
When seinfeld ended I was 16 and out of the country at the time. A friend of mine had mailed me a letter all it said was seinfeld ended, they all ended up in jail. I was so confused at the time. I needed more context and then thought yeah sounds about right.
It should've been a normal episode like any other. If it would've been, we'd all be talking about how brilliant it was that a show about nothing ended with nothing. No send off. No sentimentality. Just do another show and end it.
That is genius on so many levels I cannot comprehend
@@othmankamel7206 an episode that leaves people thinking "was that really the finale? No maybe it was a rerun" is a dumb idea. The finale was great the way they made it
damn this would have made a lot of sense!
As long as the final line is secretly amazing, or just fitting as a final line.
@chrisrj9871 Absolutely. I think if they could've found a way to work Jerry's and George's final discussion on the button making or breaking the shirt into a normal episode, that would've been a great way to end it. It's just the right amount of sentimentality/self-reflection and would've been a subtle nod to the writers' mantra, "No hugging. No learning." b/c it shows they're the same people they've always been.
I'm not a fan of the last episode. Whenever I binge watch the show I end it at the last episode before the finale. But Jerry was on point when he said they should have ended the show with the four of them back in the diner after prison. George's line," That was brutal" made me bust out laughing.
One of the first things you learn about writing is that audiences don't know what they really want. That sounded like a great finale to me.
i think of it as karma all of the bad things they did caught up with them in the end.
Karma Kramer?
I've never understood everyone's negative opinions of the final episode. I just figured the writers got into a room and openly asked, "If this were real life, where would these characters end up?" And then one of them responded, "They'd probably all be in jail." It was also the perfect vehicle to bring back so many cameos and reference past episodes without doing a clip show. I think it's one of the best finales ever written and shot.
I liked the finale, everyone had stupid expectations.
Facts
You mean like maybe something funny might happen? That kind of expectation?
it was the perfect ending for the perfect show. people who thought other people were the worst find out how bad they are
The lack of self consciousness was a bit annoying
@@anesu846 i think that's it. people who have lessons to learn will never learn them. it would have been ruined if they each had an epiphany and changed their lives
At least the ending had no impact on the watchability of the series as a whole. I can't even watch GoT now because the ending made clear they never actually knew what the hell they were doing.
I love the first 5 seasons so much I wilfully put myself in denial over the last three seasons ever existing. Like, the ending of that world will only happen once the books come out.
Read the books.
@@WhaleManMan do they have a satisfying ending?
@@sbaltys
Better no ending than a bad one
You aren't lying. They ruined one of the best shows of all time with that ending
"JERRY THIS IS FRANK COSTANZA. THE TAKE UPLOADED A SEINFELD VIDEO. GEORGE IS DEAD. CALL ME BACK." *Beeeeeep*
Epic
Love that part
All this exposition and you left out one important fact: The ending was foreshadowed several times throughout the run of the show.
Larry David love foreshadowing jokes that would play out in later episodes.
And many times during the run of the series, people told these four they belonged in jail.
It lived up to Larry David's brilliant use of foreshadowing and was the logical conclusion for the series.
Anybody saying otherwise wasn't paying attention.
I think the ending should have just been a simple Seinfeld episode, all the basic plot points, not at all big and an ending in the Diner, where they talk about the button again..
Showing that these people will ALWAYS be jerks and they may never be held accountable. They will still go onto more adventures, we just don't get to see it next week.
Well now I have a deeper reason why I actually like the finale
i like the ending cuz they never learn anything is FANTASTIC
No one has ruined more shows than writers who listen to fans. It was a good finale.
The ending is actually perfectly in sync with the whole series. We loved the characters so much that we wanted them to a actually succeed and have a better happy life. But those idiots never learned.
I've only seen the finale once but i remember it just had a darker vibe than the rest of the show. They could have come up with a lighter way to wrap it up.
I have never clicked on nothing so fast.
It was the best ending for a sitcom. Not a goddamn cheesy one where everyone is happy but one that absolutely subverts your expectations, and of which you can do nothing about it.
when I first saw it I was disappointed because I expected something spectacular. but as the years went by and I thought about it and saw other shows' endings, I started to see the genius of it, and I feel like it's among the best series endings ever.
One of the things i loved about the show was the fact that the characters were actually horrible. This so didn't beg you to like them for you to enjoy the show Elaine Jerry George and Kramer were self-absorbed mean phony and George and Kramer were incredibly irritating and annoying while Elaine and Jerry were pretty pretentious and conceited. I remember watching the show as a kid and feeling like they got exactly what they deserve and watching all of the stories recounted back-to-back was hilarious
I loved the finale, LOVED IT! Never has a finale so fitted a story arc from beginning to end. Here we had 4 people who were petty at best, and absolute sociopaths are worst...breezing through life destroying people with not even so much as an after thought (l always thought "Darrin" should've been included for the oil ball); finally get their comeupperance from the most minutia of transgressions, finally allowing Karma to have it's day. It was brilliant in my opinion.
The one thing I didn't like about the finale was that there were moments where certain scenes weren't funny. For Jerry George, Elaine, and Kramer to go to jail for all of their actions, it does show that your actions will have consequences, and they will come back to get you. I can see why people hated how the series ended, because people wanted these characters to have a happy ending, but in the show about the quarks of every day life, not everything has a happy ending, especially to those who have done so many misdeeds to the point where they end up coming back.
With how the gangs trail was stupid, we still can't deny that these 4 protagonists had it coming in some way. I'd personally rate this show a solid 7/10. Isn't terrible, but could have been a little better.
larry david created it, so it makes sense how controversial itd be, he was always doing the unexpected
I remember my parents watching the finale and being sooo mad lol.
Out of interest, what were they hoping for, what would they have enjoyed more or what were they expecting?
@@maxeyre2024 I'm not sure really. I think they thought them all going to jail was dumb but it kind of makes sense tbh 😂
“Hated” is such a strong word. How about “confounding“?
The last episode was perfectly written to mock the general audience’s expectations. In a way, it turned the callousness and indifference of the characters onto the audience. And people didn’t like that, but that is what made the episode so brilliant.
Just like The Sopranos, Seinfeld didn’t do predictable fan service in their finale like Breaking Bad. At the same time, it didn’t completely f*ck up the ending like Game of Thrones.
Well said
My issue is the fact that the Seinfeld world was made up of a lot of pretty bad and self-involved people, but the finale is supposed to make out the core group as being the worst.
It was just a bad ending. Seinfeld didn’t need a grand send off.
I was a teenager at the time and didn’t like the finale. I think I felt sad that beloved characters were going to jail. But watching reruns over and over again, I understand the show so much better. The take really made clear how horribly sucky those sappy sitcom endings are. This was a great finale. And while I don’t return to it often during rewatches, I’m still happy it’s there as an ending. I’m sure their fame would’ve been picked up and they would’ve reconnected to their lives and in that same amused distance. And as others pointed out, maybe Elaine would’ve finally cut those toxic men from her life that kept her from growing and finding some joy in life.
The fact that the ending was hated makes it even better.
If anything, this analysis showed that maybe they tried so hard to buck convention when it comes to series finales that they forgot one thing that wasn't really covered in this video - to make it funny.
Pretty much my thoughts on the finale. Thematically it's all good and sound, it's just at the end of the day it's not all that entertaining outside of a few jokes and character cameos.
The last episode was genius. The problem was the last scene was boring, when the camera slowly pulled back, leaving them in a jail cell. It would have been FUNNY if they won the case on a technicality, then the all their victim witnesses attacked them, and the camera froze so we never know what happened to them.
I remember watching the finale in my college cafeteria in '98. Everyone was pissed at it, but honestly, I didn't think it was that bad.
There really wasn't a clean, satisfactory way to end the show with a cute little bow wrapped up, without succumbing to cheesy fan service. It was a funny show about, frankly, hilariously awful people who in the end kinda deserved what they got.
I highly recommend watching Legal Eagle's video on the Seinfeld finale. And paying very close attention to what he has to say about Good Samaritan laws. Not the fictional Good Samaritan law from the episode - but Good Samaritan laws as they exist in the real world. (Spoiler: Everybody's favourite internet lawyer agrees with the Seinfeld group's lawyer.)
You know, showing the 1 year later where they all meet at the coffee shop and carry on, as usual, would have been the perfect ending
The problem in the end should’ve been solved by overruling the whole case. I mean, everyone did have testimony but in court 90% of those could be overruled simply as hearsay. There was no way to prove it.
Same finale with the difference they don’t go to jail, as a one last time to show that IT WAS JUST A SHOW THAT IN THE END THEY WON’T BE PUNISHED FOR THEIR “bad” ACTS.
At the time I was disappointed like everyone else but over the years I’ve grown to see the brilliance of this ending.
Wow. An excellent analysis. We didn't want them to get their comeuppance. They were darker shades of ourselves, our ids. We could see ourselves being so petty and craven at times while we struggle to be better. They were us. We didn't want to see us be punished.
Every fan who discovered the show after it aired loves the ending... it is the best ending it could have had.
Only think that makes me feel sad is that jerry didn’t get his show. But the ending makes so much sense
Just finished watching the show for the first time in my life (yeah, I’m not from states so I couldn’t get my hands on it till I got amazon prime). Didn’t like the ending. It was bleak. I totally got the whole “they didn’t change and yada yada yada” but it just was so unfunny. But again I’m not a fan. Oh and also it felt like the authors were preaching the audience. I mean that speech from the judge is just ugh.
I’m a fan who discovered the show after it aired and I hate the ending.
I liked the ending, I watched the series years after it ended
Seinfeld was my quarantine show, and yes, the finale is genius.
the finale was not wrong, our expectations were wrong-
Truly correct
EXACTLY! (And I'll admit I'm one of the many with the wrong expectations back then).
And that's the problem
Referenced in this video, it would've been much better to just end on a normal 30 minute story (or maybe an hour-long episode) where the same types of things happen as they had in all the previous episodes.
And when the credits roll, there is no sign of anything--characters, relationships, jobs, etc.--changing in any way.
Would've been a nice 🖕🖕🖕 to end the series on.
Like Futurama said...we want more of the same.
I feel like the finale was just missing that final scene, where they all got out of prison and went to the coffee shop, and went on as normal. I actually like the trial and how they went to prison, but I just wish the show didn’t have to end there, and could instead end in a more familiar location.
Exactly. It didn't end on a big laugh like the rest of the series did. It just went out on them sitting there... no final joke. They did that scene during the credits, with Jerry doing stand-up in prison, and getting booed... but it was too little to late. We were already scratching our heads about the jail cell scene.
its been like 22 years and the actors have not aged its like theyre going to look middle aged their entire lives
Money helps
Not to mention that their conviction would definitely get overturned on appeal. As their trial was incredibly legally inaccurate. See legal eagles “gets lawyerd” on Seinfeld
I still think about the ending every now and then. I've just started the show from the start for the first time. I loved the ending it was perfect. The only dislike was that it actually ended but I'm glad they stopped when it was still on a high note. My all time favourite show. ❤☕
Same me too
Thank you. A surprisingly good video essay about nothing. I really didn’t expect much. But you did a great job covering it from all angles with some great clips and editing. And the copy was good. And however the narration was done or read, it was good.
At the end of the day, that finale was all about calling out how awful Jerry, George, Elena and Kramer are as people. It's pessimistic, but it still fits a certain logic about the show's comedy.
It's a TV show...just go with it
A lot of people that like it cite That reason
I'm one of those Seinfeld fans who HATED the finale when it originally aired............................but now I realize it was GENIUS! Glad I finally came around and realized Larry and gang had the right idea when doing this.
Most people were wanting a "Seinfeld movie". This was their chance, and they blew it. The characters didn't get a chance to shine or grow, or resolve. It was just a "greatest hits" rerun. :/
I see the finale as the only major misstep of an otherwise near-perfect show. For the public, the let-down was huge. Their disappointment was palpable. We wanted much more from these characters.
I was happy we got a final conclusion on who really won the contest
Biggest problem was it wasn't funny, spent too much time trying to be big while simultaneously subverting expectations, and forgot to write any actual funny bits.
Yeah I think u hit the nail on the head. They could have thrown skme jokes kn
You're right for comedy it wasn't not funny and I think that's why I don't like the season finale
Exactly!!! No laugh track, the main four don't get to talk- it wasn't funny.
And preaching. As in “look at them they’re so bad”.
Yeah. I feel like it should have ended funny and not emotional or something. They should have ended with the judge declaring them guilty and order them to be the victim’s butlers for 1 year, just like George’s idea for the sitcom Jerry.
The main problem is that for a finale, more time is spent on guest characters than the regulars. Which is very much an issue when it's the last time you're going to see them. Plus it's not that funny.
Finale was everything they deserve. It was great to see all other favorite characters and moments played against them.
"Don't wait for me"
"...Alright"
Fuckin died 🤣
I always thought the Series Finale was incredibly ahead of its time, and too high in concept for most people to really understand and complain it wasn't enough like a warm and fuzzy traditional show ending... it was the... opposite... ironically like an ep once tried to do for a character, but in this case... in themes and tropes. But at the sametime, I get why people also don't like it because it was still an overglorified clip show and not that funny... but the concept was really interesting to me. IMO this finale foretold the type of things that would be very present and even popular hallmark of Larry David's future project... Curb Your Enthusiasm.
First of all as a lawyer myself, Jackie did a terrible job as a defense counsel.
His start was good talking about bystanders being innocent.
Since then no proper argument.
If they hired me I would've got them out 😁
Thematically, the finale felt like a natural conclusion to Seinfeld with the gang's narcissism and past exploits coming back to bite them. I have no problem with the gang getting punished in some form because despite them being funny and endearing, at the end of the day they were not good people.
The final scene in which Jerry and George start talking about buttons was not only a great call back to the pilot ep but a perfect showcase that all these years later, the characters have not learned a thing. I love that!
The ultimate problem I have with the finale is that Larry David pulls out a lot plot contrivances (Ex. The Good Samaritan Law, The judge allowing for character witnesses) that end up compromising the down-to-earth tone of the show and there are not that many good jokes to be had. While some of the cameos during the trial sequence are fun (Ex. Mr. Bookman, Babu), it ultimately felt like a glorified clip show. It's a finale that I can respect but it doesn't manage to be nearly as entertaining as other eps of the series.
I've certainly seen better finales than Seinfeld, but it's far from the worst. Although a part of me feels the penultimate ep (The Puerto Rican Day Parade) was a more fitting series finale.
I loved the finale. It brought together all the characters that made it a great show, and ended with the button line from the first episode. The pulling back of the camera from the cell gave the feeling of withdrawing from their lives at the same time as knowing nothing will ever change with them, imprisoned in a vacuous little world of their own making.
I don’t hate the ending. I’m sure that they got what was coming to them but at the same time, It makes me a little bummed. Despite the negative interactions the 4 made with people around them, I still couldn’t help but feel bad for them. I don’t condone for some of the things they did, but still. Plus, most of the people the group interacted with, they weren’t saints either. I like to think the previous episode with the ending of the song “Time of your life” with the cast members as the last episode.
If you like the finale, like it. We all have different opinions and perspectives here.
I loved the finally, they managed to bring back most of the iconic funny characters back in a way that didn’t force the 4 main characters to change. Lots of funny moments and an ending that gave the perfect after the end scene with the “that was brutal” line! LOL
Here's my take: The plane didn't recover, it crashed, they died. What happens after is there final 'judgement'.
Interesting… I kinda like that. It seems more like a heaven trial considering everyone from their lives showed up
Good take, thanks,
Simply well put,
How come "they died and went to hell/purgatory" is the go-to theory for literally _everything_
I thought it was great. I love how these four narcissists got what they deserved. A lot of the accusations put against them were complete bullshit, but I feel it added to the absurdity and in a was a shot at how the judicial system is kind of broken with taking the person’s (who would stereotypically be the victim) side. And the best pet was how even after all of main character’s mistakes were throw in their face and they were imprisoned for it, they didn’t change one bit. They kept talking and even sitting in the same spots they would at the diner, and started having a conversation that they had before signifying that they will never change. What they did and what happened to them because of it didn’t mean anything because it truly had no effect on them. It didn’t matter. It meant nothing.
I'm legitimately surprised that Roseanne Barr knows who Samuel Beckett is.
Can you imagine a parody episode of scared straight but its just Jerry, George and Kramer as the "hardened criminals" speaking to the kids? Lmao
I loved the finally. I wanted to see them punished and I got it.
My take is that the ending was like "Finnegan's Wake" where the ending looped back to the beginning. It was genius!
This was so epic that there was a whole storyline on dharma and Greg being about how empty the streets were because everyone was inside watching the finale.
I swear to God, it really seems like a LOT of people back in the 90s didn't realise until the very last episode of the series that Seinfeld was a dark comedy and not your typical sitcom.
I didn't watch Seinfeld, and I've only caught a few episodes, but I appreciated this... Though I've always liked the theory that they died and went to hell.
To this day I've never heard anybody offer up another finale idea that would have been better. It really brought everything full circle. I'm a fan.
The problem was the characters were usually their worst enemies their bad decisions came back to bite them in the ass seeing them go to jail was too over the top
I think the finale was fantastic. It was very well thought of. Included all the great previous characters, comments about what the show is all about and equally hilarious at the same time. Best sitcom finale for me.
I think the last scene of the series should've taken place in the diner after they've been released.
The problem is not thematic. The problem is the writing in the finale feels stilted and tired, the characters feel like exaggerated versions of themselves, and the situation they find themselves in is wholely implausible, even for an absurdist comedy, and it breaks the immersion. Every now and then the show would have these one-off jokes that almost seemed extra-canonical (like George going to meet Fidel Castro, and never bringing it up again)... but they were usually just one-off jokes during the end credits or something, so you didn't have to take them too seriously. There was always a degree of realism in the show, where absurd things happening would happen due to mundane situations. This almost feels like the reverse, where they had to conjure an absurd situation (going to trial and having all these unrelated character witnesses in a trial that has made it to national news) in order for a mundane thing to happen (them going to jail). That's why it feels off from the rest of the show. The finale is like those little bits of absurdism throughout the show that you're not supposed to take seriously, but here you are basically forced to take it all seriously. It's almost like what the show would've looked like if if had continued for a couple more seasons and had gotten stale.
And now we're ALL spending a YEAR or MORE *REMOVED* from Society 😬😬😬😬😬😬