'Seinfeld' series finale is sub-par

Perhaps nothing could have been satisfying after all the hype and secrecy built up around the last episode of "Seinfeld." In fact, nothing would have been satisfying. Nothing, as in the tiny details of everyday life, was what made the show great. But the season finale was about something, breaking an unfortunate precedent unrivaled for at least six of the show's nine years of existence.

This overused way to describe "Seinfeld" never accurately described the show. The catchphrase "a show about nothing" comes from the fourth season of "Seinfeld" as an idea for a TV sitcom pilot that George and Jerry present to NBC. "Seinfeld" may always be about minutiae, but the show was never about nothing.

Courtesy of NBC 40 million households tuned in to a 'Seinfeld' finale that didn't quite measure up to the media hype and network secrecy.

"Seinfeld" has actually tackled every issue out there - from masturbation to euthanasia to the U.S. mail service - but the show never had "a very special episode." "Seinfeld" was original because nothing dramatic ever happened to the main characters, such as a near plane crash or a court room trial with actual jail time possible.

So why make the season finale about something? Well, a court room trial allows witnesses to be called, or in other words, creates a way for all the favorite characters from past episodes to appear again. Half the finale rested on this unoriginal and shallow plot idea. Ironically, this one episode about something has less substance than most of the previous "nothing" episodes.

The final episode could have been called "The Clip Show II" since it essentially performed the same function as "The Clip Show" which aired right before it.

The court room idea could have worked if Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld had stayed with the basic formula of the show when they wrote the script. An average Seinfeld episode has at least three concurrent plot lines. Watching how these stories unexpectedly interweave makes the show hilarious.

The finale had one plot line. The re-airing of Jerry and George's TV pilot leads to the famous foursome taking a trip to Paris aboard NBC's private jet. Kramer, trying to get some water out of his ear after visiting the beach, falls into the cockpit, and the plane nearly crashes. The pilots land the plane in Latham, Mass. for a check-up, and while waiting in town, the four friends witness a "fat man" get car-jacked. Because they do nothing about the crime but cruelly mock the victim, they get arrested under the "Good Samaritan" law.

REVIEW
	"Seinfeld" series finale NBC May 14, 8 p.m. 3 stars

Never mind that the policeman who picks them up must have been watching the crime as well and doesn't aid the victim either. Of course, one might not have noticed the plot flaw - this display of scorn was so out of character that little else was evident. Only Newman and dentists have ever really been openly insulted on the show.

Character witnesses are called to testify against the four for the so-called crime. The prosecution sets out to show that they have always callously mocked others, and some of the series' most famous characters return, such as the Soup Nazi, Babu, Mr. Pitt and Mr. Bookman, the library cop.

Sure, it's great to see the old characters again. They and the flashbacks to old episodes were the best part, but TV's famous foursome spends a good deal of time just sitting in the courtroom.

Whether the plots of "Seinfeld" are about nothing or not, Jerry, Elaine, Kramer and George rarely do or say nothing at all. But that wasn't the case in the finale - they just sat there in the court room for half of it.

Whether they were stealing a marble rye, throwing a big rubber ball of oil out of an office building window, or protesting the Kenny Rogers' Roasters that opened across the street, the viewer always had something to watch.

But the finale was sub-par not just for a singular plot. There was hardly one new single joke or gag. One notable exception comes during the jury's deliberation, when all the minor characters are waiting and often interacting with one another. The Soup Nazi takes his soup back from Poppi, the chef who doesn't wash his hands. Elaine's face-painting, laconic, on-and-off boyfriend Frank Puddy gets some sun. And Jerry's archenemy Newman sleeps in the back of his car on a pillow of empty junk food wrappers. This little diversion from the plot lasts about a minute.

The final episode may have been nostalgic and funny to some, but few will likely count it amongst the show's greatest episodes. But perhaps too much was expected of the sign off of "Seinfeld," and nine seasons of laughs more than make up for one minor disappointment.

05-18-98