Finally, I'm watching Seinfeld - all nine seasons

With the exception of three or four episodes, I had never watched the enormously popular 1990s era sitcom Seinfeld. Chalk that up to not having a TV or cable. Now, with Netflix making available all nine seasons – and with a dearth of appealing movies both online and in cinemas – I’ve found refuge this summer in the comedy series “about nothing.” I’ve now binge watched, over more than a week, over a hundred episodes and am in the middle of season five. The few episodes I did catch during Seinfeld’s primetime I found enormously funny because they made fun of things no one had ever made fun of before. The show advertises itself as “about nothing.” But it is indeed about something. It’s just that the something’s are the nuances, crevices, margins and subtleties of everyday life. They are the things we think don’t matter but matter enormously. Yes, we’re looking forward to attending that ball game but freaked by the idiot in the parking lot or how long we have to wait in line for a hot dog. And we’re happy to celebrate a cousin’s wedding but concentrate on the tacky dress of the woman across from us or the tablemate with a piece of vegetable in his teeth. That’s what this show is about – the minor craziness of everyday life you think doesn’t matter but does. It’s hard to believe the series is 30 years old. And it’s surprising how much it shows. Take the fashions. Men with tucked-in overly large shirts look dorky. There is too much hair, including on men, on everybody! Interior décor from offices to restaurants to apartments have an overwrought formality or chintziness. And in the post-Covid era it’s hard to believe so many people once dressed so formally – dresses and hose on women and men in suits – on the job. But the humor remains intact. Because it’s universal. People from time immemorial have made judgments about others, often on the most superficial grounds like hairstyle, weight, clothes or matters of taste. Even how someone irritatingly speaks, walks or smells, bad or good. This is the 1990s and obviously some topics couldn’t be done today, like Jerry dating a Native American and catching himself before emitting phrases like “reservation” (for a restaurant) or “Indian giver” (for returning a gift). It’s hilarious but our overly sensitive environment wouldn’t permit it -  and to paraphrase Jerry, not that that’s a good thing. Even joking about gay people – “not that there’s anything wrong with that” – could draw a red flag. The characters are an oddball nexus of jerks – George (Jason Alexander) the fat perennial neurotic loser, Kramer (Michael Richards), the spaz hipster who thinks he knows everything and always has the inside track. The saner two are Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Jerry himself. But both elicit neuroses and from time to time odd fixations. With the show being so incredibly funny one is apt to forgive certain aspects, like the fact the men seem to have an endless stream of girlfriends, and who other than the equally neurotic or crazed would date George and Kramer? The show’s format opens and closes with Jerry, a stand-up comedian, doing his shows in a club. They’re the most boring elements and should have been axed. Otherwise, it’s on with the insanity of each “plot.”