With its third season, Seinfeld manages to continue its slow and steady increase in quality, pretty much perfecting the formula that makes the show so iconic.
As a whole, Seinfeld's third season is the first full-length season of the show, and the first season that really seems to have establish the show's formula. With The Chinese Restaurant having already been released, Seinfeld's reputation as "the show about nothing" has been pretty much set in stone, so Season 3 really starts to amp up the relatability factor. The Chinese Restaurant wasn't the exception anymore, pretty much half of the season had episodes like this. We got an episode about trying to find your car in a parking lot, riding home on the subway, and the problems that stem from giving your friend keys to your house. But despite this, Seinfeld would also begin to develop some of its signature bizarreness that becomes more and more prevalent as the show goes on. However, given the incredibly low-key and grounded nature of most of the season, events like the cast being trapped in a limo with Neo Nazis and Kramer going to California and becoming an actor just felt out of place. While the relatable humor is probably at its best yet, the writers of Seinfeld still haven't seemed to figure out how to pull off the show's more goofy side.
Even more, Seinfeld's general quality episode-by-episode still isn't the most consistent yet. While Season 3 does have far more high points than Seasons 1 & 2 combined, it wasn't even close to reaching the heights of The Chinese Restaurant, with the best episode of the season falling short of anything amazing. And at its worst, Season 3 has some of the worst storylines in the entire series, with The Dog being my absolute least favorite episode to not be a clip show or the series finale (I'll get to that in a later review). Despite my gripes, however, Season 3 still pretty much nails the characters, with the main cast continuing to give out amazing comedic performances. And the moment-by-moment dialogue is still pretty funny even if some of the storylines fall a bit short. Unlike the second season, I can definitively say that there were a whole bunch of episodes I really enjoyed, even if Seinfeld still has a ton of room to grow.
Here are some of the high points of this third season:
The Parking Garage: Easily my favorite episode of the season, this episode pretty much entirely revolves around the cast losing their car in a massive parking garage. I think it suffers a bit from trying to emulate what made The Chinese Restaurant so great, but it's still a hilarious and well-written episode with one of the greatest punchlines in television history (which was actually a complete accident!)
The Subway: This entire episode was about the four main characters taking their own separate subway rides home, and while not all of the subplots were great (or very realistic), it perfectly captures the vibe of taking one of the NYC subways. As a New Yorker myself, Elaine's subplot about dealing with a series of train delays is easily one of the most relatable storylines in the whole show.
The Boyfriend: This is one of the few double-length episodes in Seinfeld, and I'd be lying if I said it didn't deserve the extra length. The Boyfriend isn't really noteworthy for any one specific subplot, it's just a general funny episode with a ton of memorable moments and plot threads. Keith Hernandez playing himself, the "spitting incident" monologue that expertly parodies JFK (the movie), Vandelay Industries, it all just forms a genuinely enjoyable episode of the show.
The Parking Space: Not to be confused with the other parking-related episode, The Parking Space focuses around George and Elaine fighting over a parking space with Jerry's friend, which is always a fun storyline to base your sitcom episode around. It's hilarious how the conflict slowly escalates over time, but it's the two police officers getting involved that really got me.
Overall, Season 3 is definitely an improvement on the first two with a great increase in the relatability factor, even if its high points aren't super high and its low points are still pretty low.
3/5 Stars
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