No soup for you!!!!!. Review on Seinfeld

The first episode of Seinfeldthat I watched was the India episode, when Jerry, George and Elaine attend Sue Ellen Mishke's wedding in India. That episode was hilarious and it was very interesting coz it went backwards. After that episode, I was hooked.

Seinfeld is probably the best sitcom I have watched. Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond and Friends dont hold a candle to this original show about nothing. The show owes its mega success to co-creator and exec producer Larry David's creativity and brilliant writing.

GREAT WRITING:

Up until the point Larry was the head writer, Seinfeld was THE best sitcom ever!!! And it continued to do well in spite of Larry's absence from 1995. But IMO, the episodes that Larry wrote were nothing short of genius. From Kramer's quirkiness to George's neuroses to Newman's shenanigans, Larry's writing brought the best out of every character. It was not quite the same after he left.

The one episode where the four of them get stuck in a mall parking lot was sheer genius! If you look at the story, there's just a single line, but it takes a lot of creativity to turn an everyday event into an extraordinary humorous slice of life. Or the one at the movie theatre where they miss out on each other and each describes the other in his/her words. Pure gold!

And also the one where Elaine dates a psychiatrist, who has complete control over her mind....outrageously funny! I can go on and on, the Master of the domain episode, the marble rye episode, the sexy voice on Jerry's taperecorder episode, but the essence of it is this: this is the best sitcom ever and if you are not watching it already, go watch it. Ah, how can I forget the soup Nazi episode: No soup for you!!!!!!

SUPERB ACTING:

Jason Alexander's George is the epitome of all the insecurities, complexes and neuroses all of us suffer with. And Jason's one helluva actor who manages to extract the essence of George to a fault! I love the character of George. And Kramer!!! Man, who can not love Kramer? He's such a bumbling but adorable doofus!! And Jerry's nemesis, Newman!!! Wayne Knight was superbly cast as the neighbor Jerry couldnt get along with.

Even the supporting starcast is good. Morty and Helen Seinfeld, Uncle Leo, George's parents -- Estelle and Frank Costanza, they were all nothing short of brilliant too. Of course, a lot of credit goes to the script and the writing. Although the one sore point was Jerry's non-acting abilities, it was more than made-up for by the others' brilliance.

GREAT CHEMISTRY:

All the lead actors shared a great rapport with each other, which really helped the comedy. Talking about everyday mundane things, making a mountain out of molehills, generally wasting time, these characters remind me of my salad days, when we had nothing better to do than hang out with friends and gab.

Scenes with George and Jerry are the best, coz they have the best chemisty and the best lines between themselves. There are two episodes that look at their relationship under a microscope and George gets very insecure. The first one is when a reporter misunderstands George's relationship with Jerry to be that of a homosexual nature (''Not that there is anything wrong with that'') and the second is where George dates a girl who looks like Jerry. When Kramer points that out, George runs out of the building unable to process that thought!!

Elaine was the only female character that all the males related to and she was quite the babe, cute and funny, intelligent and charming, all at once. And her relationship with George is awkward in the beginning since she knows him only through Jerry, but it gets better as they go along, which was a nice transition. One episode when George learns that the sexy voice on Jerry's recorder is Elaine's, he develops a secret crush on her. That was riproaring!

And needless to add, Kramer brought a certain edge to the show. His tall, lanky personality, his somewhat demented persona, his on-again off-again relationship with his lawyer Jackie Chiles (another good character, intriguing, interesting, and intelligent!!!), his unusual friendship with Newman had me in splits and not to forget his entry!!! The way he would slide in through Jerry's door, that was tooo funny!!

THE END:

Although most viewers were not quite satisfied with the ending, I liked it very much. To put these four on trial and have their acquaintances testify against them and conclude that each is a menace to society, that was great!! All three are sentenced to confinement in a single cell with no contact with others, so they come out having greater respect for people outside of their clique!!!!

It was indeed a lot better ending than a sentimental ending like Friends or Frasier, having all of them married off and having kids, blah blah. This was so much more interesting. This way we are left wondering what will ever happen to those lovable idiots rather than taking comfort in the knowledge that they have all walked into the sunset perfectly.