i think season 5 was a official end
after that teh show changed, 6 and 7 were good seasons but not as strong. I see The Opposite as a unoffical end
shareIt did change but not in terms of quality. I think the show never lost that until the final episode.
shareThe quality fluctuated a lot. Some episodes were brilliant, others were rather mediocre, and then there were really boring and useless episodes.
There was also too much 'parents' drama with George's and Jerry's parents, that brought the flow down a lot and made things just slow, boring and uninteresting.
However, this is the only comedy show that I know of that doesn't have 'forced sappy sections' and 'injected romance'. Compare to almost any other show, they try to ALSO make you cry, not just laugh (even Frasier is guilty of this, as funny as that show can also be).
Seinfeld is a unique show, and very memorable for numerous reasons, one of which is excellent writing, hilarious characters and even some great acting.. at least by some people.
It's interesting to talk about seasons, because each season has their own personality, their own good and bad points and their own points of interest and feel.
First three seasons are rather weak and uninteresting, with some gems in there. They didn't have good pacing yet, some scenes drone on for too long, and so on. Fourth season is when the show really starts finding its strata, personality and comedic expression, pacing and timing. It's where everything starts to 'click', so to say. Season five is good, but I wouldn't say it's necessarily better than the later seasons.
The last season feels weirdly 'superfluous' or trivial compared to the earlier seasons for some reason. It feels almost experimental, and the least 'Seinfeldish' to me. It has its own super good episodes, though, like 'The Merv Griffin Show', but then it has rather boring stuff, too, like 'The Puerto Rican Day'.
What is with this show and these experimental 'clearly Larry David's idea'-type episodes that I don't think anyone in the world likes. I mean, I am like Jerry's mom in that respect - how could anyone like 'The Chinese Restaurant', 'The Parking Carage' or 'The Puerto Rican Day'? They're all the same, annoying idea..
.. of the group being stuck in one place, unable to escape it before spending the whole episode there. It doesn't matter if it's a restaurant, parking hall or traffic jam, it's still boring to the viewer. Who thought it was a good or funny idea to make everything just boringly stuck in one place instead of traveling around and being to places? Jerry's apartment is 80 quadrillion times more interesting than any of those three locations. At least things can happen and flow there.
These locations are just stuffy and boring, and there's nothing funny about being stuck like that.
Some of the last season episodes make no sense; why would George need to save the Frogger score by the insane method of 'preserving the machine forever' (it would probably break at some point anyway), when all he had to do is whip out a camera and take some photos of the score (which is impossible anyway, since Frogger doesn't have that kind of score list, so it was faked for the episode, which is a big disappointment, too)?
Adding all these weird new characters, like 'slippery Pete' is also a bad idea - they should've stuck to basics, but I guess that's just another symptom of the show having run out of ideas by that time.
The last season is still good, and comparable to almost any other season, so it's kind of true that the quality doesn't go down drastically. But it does seem more cartoony and the characters have changed too much - Elaine used to be against fur earlier, but nowadays she's just some crazy bimbo that can't even drive a car anymore, and just says 'who has the energy' to rationalize her moral change.
The problem with these characters, as good as their dynamic was, was that although Kramer and George are "quite the characters", Jerry is kind of bland with his inability to act or express any personality, and Elaine is sort of just .. there. They try to utilize the fact that she's a woman, but frankly, she doesn't bring enough to the table compared to Kramer and George..
..to justify her existence completely. Why would it be interesting what she does with some boyfriend, unless they interact with the main other characters? (Thankfully, they often do)
Elaine is basically the weakest, the least interesting character, that doesn't quite liven up the screen the way Kramer or George does. You might be half falling asleep, but when Kramer is on screen, you're immediately fully awake.
Anyway, it's interesting to talk about the seasons, as each season has its completely separate personality. Apart from the first few seasons, the last season is the weakest, being so cartoony and feeling so 'different' and 'separate' from the rest of the seasons. I don't know what my favorite season is, as it has changed many times over the years, and will probably change again, so now I just try to appreciate individual episodes instead.