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Seinfeld - Season 8 [1996] - £26.98
After seven seasons of groundbreaking comedy, what could possibly be left to accomplish in Season 8 for Seinfeld and company, especially in this, the first season without co-creator Larry David at the helm? Plenty, as it turns out. This is the season that gave us some of the most memorable episodes in the entire series, including "The Muffin Tops," "The Bizarro Jerry," and "The Yada Yada," the episode that proved you can "yada yada" anything in life. Fortunately by this point in the series, the comic formula that sustained the show throughout its run had not yet begun to get tired, and the writers proved that they could continue to pull a whole lot of something out of the show about nothing. Case in point: "The English Patient," where they created an entire story line out of Elaine's hatred for the award-winning film. In "The Chicken Roaster," one of Seinfeld's most under-appreciated episodes, Kramer switches apartments with Jerry and wages a one-man crusade against a Kenny Rogers' Roasters, only to become like Jerry and become undone by Newman. George continues to, well, be George. He habitually shoots himself in the foot as he continues life without Susan, only to find out marrying her would have made him rich ("The Foundation"). And Elaine gets her kicks, literally, horrifying her co-workers with her terrible dancing, spinning moves so bad they've actually become one of the show's most popular punch lines. Season 8 also continues the Seinfeld tradition of loading up the DVD sets with plenty of special features, including an illuminating documentary detailing how Jerry juggled his act as star and show-runner after Larry David's departure, and all new interviews with the cast. All in all, it's good stuff for fans, and there's plenty here for the casual viewer to enjoy as well. --Daniel Vancini
Synopsis
Jerry Seinfeld is back in the title role, and joining him are his neurotic ex-girlfriend, Elaine; his chronically lazy pal, George; and Cosmo Kramer, a person who takes the weird neighbour character to impressive new heights.
Customer reviews (av rating: 4.5):
Rating: 5:
Great show, great DVD : The question that needs to be asked is, if you've seen all the episodes on rerun many times why would you buy this DVD? The first answer in the case of the Seinfeld DVDs is the way that they have been put together. Most episodes will have interviews with the cast and writers who give the background to the story and the making of the episode. This adds to the richness of the series and should be followed by all TV show DVDs. Secondly, there are the episodes themselves. Is the series the best Seinfeld? Debateable. Are there some memorable episodes? Absolutely. Is it better than nearly every other TV show at the moment? Yes
Rating: 5:
The cast of characters remains unbeaten by anything else before or since : So Larry David left, and with him went just a little of the quality control. As director Andy Ackerman says in one of the DVD extras, it got "sillier". In some cases this veered worryingly close to "wacky": Elaine having to write up Kramer's anecdotes was one storyline that sounded a little like the 'playing butler' sitcom plot that was ridiculed in 'The Pilot'.
But as other reviewers have pointed out, a weakened Seinfeld is still better than the best most other sitcoms can offer, while at its best this series still manages to produce some stone-cold classics. The Bizarro Jerry in particular is inspired; The Yada Yada entered the lexicon; and The Abstinence is a classic piece of Seinfeldian observation played out brilliantly by Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jason Alexander. The cast of characters remains unbeaten by anything else before or since, and plots are cleverly intertwined - the reviewer who felt Jerry was servicing his ego should note how few storylines revolve around him.
The DVD extras pull this up to a 5 star - commentaries, notes about nothing, animation, bloopers and a documentary. Quality guaranteed.
Rating: 5:
Let's keep on ironing out that 1 star review! : Too right, what the last reviewer said. In fact even though it isn't my favourite season, I still think it's worth 5 stars. My favourite episode was "The Fatigues", although I think this was a duff title, and "The Mentor" would have been a thousand times better. I wonder how much people would have made of the supposed differences in Season 8 if Larry David's departure had been kept secret. The oldest review on here gives the impression that common-sense reality is being left behind for the first time. What about Kramer and the "pig-man" many, many moons ago? Well established characters like Steinbrenner and Peterman? Or episodes like "The Big Race", "The Limousine" and "The Invitations"? In Season 8 there is perhaps less of the "how to deal with awkward social situations" that is so closely linked to David's sense of humour (as constantly underlined in "Curb Your Enthusiasm"), but the contrast is slight.
All in all: great episodes, great extras and, if your Seinfelding is a little conservative, don't be put off by exaggerated rumours of some sort of paradigm switch. Honestly, you'd think some of these Seinfeld fans were junior academics in search of an article (maybe they are and they were practicing!) Enjoy.
Rating: 4:
Its Seinfeld season 8, what are you waiting for? : Ok, are 1 star reviews really that helpful? True enough, Larry David had gone by season 8 and it wasn't as good as it had been. Does it really warrant a solitary star? Simply, no. A bad episode of Seinfeld still far outranks a very good episode of just about any other US sitcom out there. Season 8 is no exception, this is very funny and typically clever stuff. The absence of Larry David does not knock a show that has been consistently 4 and 5 star funny down to 1 star. Larry David is a mortal man and fallible, some of his episodes in earlier seasons were damp squibs - that is what makes Seinfeld so good, it tries new things, it changes direction midway through a run, it isn't afraid to get it wrong. Most importantly, it trusts the strength of its cast and crew. Larry David had gone, but Andy Ackerman and Jerry Seinfeld still managed to produce a fantastic season.
At the end of the day this is season 8. I would not recommend anybody buys the eighth season of a show without any prior experience. As it is, those looking at this probably own most, if not all, of the other seasons. To those people I say season 8 is a definite must buy - to everyone else I say catch up!
Can't wait for Season 9 later in the year, the extra features and sheer quality of these DVD sets puts other US sitcom DVDs to shame (I'm looking at you Frasier and Third Rock). Not only do you get the shows but hours of extras and commentaries. This is definitely not 1 star material.
Episodes = 4 stars / DVD Material = 5 stars.
Rating: 1:
without Larry David : everyone knew that it will not be even close, without Larry David, Jerry became a big head and focusing and promoting more of him self and his backgroud
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