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Post by cousinlou on Nov 11, 2021 9:33:13 GMT
Recently, Neflix put up all the old series. I started watching but as I go along it come over incredibly old, and, above all, not funny either. There 's the funny observation or twist of words here and there but overall, it's slim pickings.
The Time reported Netflix paid over $ 500 million for the whole series.
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Seinfeld
Nov 11, 2021 9:43:43 GMT
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Post by oh oooh on Nov 11, 2021 9:43:43 GMT
I've watched a couple. I think it's a bit like The Simpsons in that it creates its own world very successfully and without really compromising too much (you have to go to it - it doesn't come to you) and 8% of people love it, quote it, have the fridge magnets and the Lego sets - and the rest just don't care. I'm not sure it's worth investing the time needed to get the bug.
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Post by Reactionary Rage on Nov 11, 2021 9:52:48 GMT
It takes a little while to get going. I think it's around season 3 it picks up and really comes together and from then on in it's golden.
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Post by DarknessFish on Nov 11, 2021 9:54:07 GMT
To me it's just a slightly pompous version of Friends, and not as funny. How a sitcom ever allowed a character as crap as Kramer, I'll never know.
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rayge
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Post by rayge on Nov 11, 2021 10:08:44 GMT
I'm with GB on this. The whole thing takes off when Jerry and George start pitching The Show About Nothing. It was shuttled around the schedules when it first aired here on BBC, but I do have every episode on DVD. Although there is plenty of physical comedy, the great skill is in the dialogue. Can't agree about Kramer: he's no weirder than Elaine and George - and for that matter George's parents and Wayne. They're comic stereotypes, really, allowing Jerry to appear - despite his neuroses and absurdities - as the 'normal' one.
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Post by Reactionary Rage on Nov 11, 2021 10:11:41 GMT
It's basically the anti-Friends. The characters are selfish dicks, there is no soap opera nonsense, ongoing stories or character arcs. Nobody develops, they end the series the same people as they were at the beginning. The show was only ever concerned with jokes and in that way there was something pure about it. The thing is though, we can all recognise at least an element of ourselves in the show....the endless focus on minutiae, the shallowness, the selfishness, the cruelty etc. It was very New York, very modern in that way. I'm not saying it was designed as some kind of social commentary or something but it deffo captured something recognisable in people.
For a show that was pretty singular the fact that it managed to become so popular is really something but it has a universal quality too. There is something there for everyone but like I said, it takes a little while to adjust to its rhythms and humour and for the show to settle into its groove. I remember I ended up watching the box set mostly with an ex - a black lass in her early 20s from London - and she fucking loved it which goes to show that New York Jewish humour translates. I didn't expect her to dig it at all.
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Post by Reactionary Rage on Nov 11, 2021 10:22:58 GMT
I'm with GB on this. The whole thing takes off when Jerry and George start pitching The Show About Nothing. It was shuttled around the schedules when it first aired here on BBC, but I do have every episode on DVD. Although there is plenty of physical comedy, the great skill is in the dialogue. Can't agree about Kramer: he's no weirder than Elaine and George - and for that matter George's parents and Wayne. They're comic stereotypes, really, allowing Jerry to appear - despite his neuroses and absurdities - as the 'normal' one. BBC2 I recall and they used to show it around 11pm weirdly. It did deal with stereotypes. Elaine was the sassy woman, George the neurotic fucked up "loser", Jerry was the "normal" one, Kramer the weirdo who did the physical stuff (brilliantly) but it also had a great supporting cast of characters....Newman, their parents and, obviously, the great Jerry Stiller as Frank Constanza.
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Seinfeld
Nov 11, 2021 10:52:50 GMT
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Post by oh oooh on Nov 11, 2021 10:52:50 GMT
BBC2 late on Tuesday side-by-side with The Larry Sanders Show (which was fabulous)
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Post by Deleted on Nov 11, 2021 11:02:51 GMT
Never seen a second of it and Larry Sanders always looked like he just shat himself.
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Post by clive gash on Nov 11, 2021 11:23:04 GMT
Kramer is the best dressed man in sitcom history (excluding the boys in It Ain’t Half Hot Mum of course).
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fange
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Seinfeld
Nov 11, 2021 12:02:31 GMT
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Post by fange on Nov 11, 2021 12:02:31 GMT
There are episodes where the writing and perfermances are pure gold. JS is a very lucky man - i don't like his stand up very much, and even as an actor playing himslef he is just capable, but writing and creating this sitcom was lightning in a bottle.
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Post by cousinlou on Nov 11, 2021 13:17:27 GMT
I'm with GB on this. The whole thing takes off when Jerry and George start pitching The Show About Nothing. It was shuttled around the schedules when it first aired here on BBC, but I do have every episode on DVD. Although there is plenty of physical comedy, the great skill is in the dialogue. Can't agree about Kramer: he's no weirder than Elaine and George - and for that matter George's parents and Wayne. They're comic stereotypes, really, allowing Jerry to appear - despite his neuroses and absurdities - as the 'normal' one. Yes that's a brilliant episode. I thought it would have been in one of the first seasons. It will improve over the seasons I'm sure but those 1.5 seasons I have re watched in the past week don't do much for me. Also, I thought Jerry moving into the apartment and meeting Kramer would have take place early on but I guess that's presented later as a retrospect?
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Post by clive gash on Nov 11, 2021 13:39:22 GMT
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Post by Reactionary Rage on Nov 11, 2021 13:41:43 GMT
There are episodes where the writing and perfermances are pure gold. JS is a very lucky man - i don't like his stand up very much, and even as an actor playing himslef he is just capable, but writing and creating this sitcom was lightning in a bottle. Yeah, he was never an actor but it didn't matter because everyone around him was so good. In a way his (almost) corpsing and amateurism added to the shows charm giving it a knowing, "live" quality as if he was laughing himself at the absurdity of his co-creation and the performances of those around him.
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Post by sloopjohnc on Nov 11, 2021 15:18:27 GMT
It's basically the anti-Friends. The characters are selfish dicks The basis of their whole demise in the final episode. I've seriously started going out with a woman and I've admitted to her that I reference Seinfeld a lot in my life. This week, she's in SoCal seeing her son and texted that she wants to give me a shoulder massage when we get back together. I sent her this.
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