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October 20, 2005
Huff
I'm still bitter, seven years later, about the final episode of Seinfeld. Through odd circumstances, the gang finds themselves in a small Massachusetts town, where they witness a carjacking. Instead of aiding the portly victim, they laugh at him. The joke is on them, though, because they violated a brand new law which made it a crime to not aid a person in distress if it reasonable to do so.
They're arrested, and the prosecutor decides to turn the trial into a media circus by calling witnesses to testify as to their anti-social behavior throughout the years. We get such characters as Babu Batt, Mr. Bookman, Cidra, Mr. Pitt and the infamous Soup Nazi. But the whole thing left me completely unfulfilled.
I don't see how showing all these bad things the foursome did relate to the crime at hand. Nor did star defense lawyer Jackie Chiles do a very good job of defending his clients. The worst part to me is when they call Sidra to the stand, and she claims Jerry sent Elaine into the sauna to find out if her breasts were real. Of course, when Elaine falls into Sidra, she grabs the boobs. Yes, that was clearly an intentional act. It boggles my mind - theoretically Jackie Chiles could've poked millions of holes in Sidra's version of events. But he was too busy wondering if they were, in fact, real.
But let's get to the crime supposedly committed by the group. According to the sheriff, they're required to help people if it is reasonable to do so. Now, the fat guy getting carjacked was being accosted by a man who either had a gun or was pretending to have a gun. I find it hard to believe the law would say it is reasonable for bystanders to go after a guy with a gun. If I was Jackie Chiles, maybe, just maybe, this piece of evidence would exonerate the foursome.
Am I overreacting? Do I know it's just TV? Yes, I do. But one of the hallmarks of Seinfeld was the humor in everyday situations. As the show progressed in its final years, plots got crazier and more surrealistic. It moved from being lost in a parking garage to the set-up of a mechanic who may have stolen a Twix bar. They simply got too absurd for their own good. The final episode epitomized this.
In that regard, I was disappointed. They had years to plan a final send-off for the Seinfeld gang, and I thought it was a big, fat dud. The least they could've done is make their demise plausible. I'm thinking if they wanted to try them for their past anti-social behavior, they could've had them all die in a plane crash and then be subject to some sort of trial to decide if they could gain admission to Heaven, with the ultimate result that they'd probably end up damned for all eternity.
Posted by oz115 at October 20, 2005 10:08 PM
Comments
Yes, the final episode sucked. It will go down as one of the most underachieved final episodes in television history.
However, the episode with the Twix bar was hysterical. George's performance was classic, from his desperate "Jump!" plea to the Twix bar that was dangling in the machine to his famous line: "You're all screwin' me!" which he yelled when the employees ate the candy lineup.
Posted by: Stat Boy at October 21, 2005 10:47 AM