Seinfeld (Season 5)

Coming after the insanely ambitious fourth season, Seinfeld dialed things down a bit for its fifth outing, focusing on the humor instead. While this did lead to the funniest season yet, it definitely wasn't as cohesive as Season 4.

With the exception of the season finale, Season 5 of Seinfeld didn't really have much of a story arc like Season 4 did. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it is a bit of a shame given just how well done the pilot arc was, especially given how well it managed to tie the whole season together. It doesn't help that the first half of the season, while having some great episodes of its own (The Puppy Shirt, The Lip Reader), just wasn't as consistently strong as Season 4. At first, it was hard not to see this fifth season as a step down in a lot of aspects. However, starting from The Dinner Party, the second half of the season marked one of the greatest stretches of episodes Seinfeld had ever seen. From here to the finale, there wasn't a single weak episode, and it was packed with some of the best and most iconic moments in the whole show.

While this season was light on any sort of plot, Season 5 did make up for it in its humor. This is easily the funniest season yet, and most of the episodes at the very least mastered Seinfeld's usual formula of bringing together all of its disparate threads into one hilarious punchline. Season 5 has some of Seinfeld's best and most iconic punchlines, whether it's George burning his "perfect" hands, Kramer being a ball man, and of course, the legendary Marine Biologist speech. I also think this season struck the perfect balance between grounded and caricatured, which previous seasons had sometimes struggled to really nail. Most of the episodes in Season 5, even the weaker ones, did a good job of fixating around a simple, relatable concept and slowly escalating it throughout the episode.

There were a bunch of highlights this season, including:

The Puffy Shirt: I know opinion on this episode is generally split, but I've always loved it. The Puffy Shirt could have been a dumb concept, but it led to one of Seinfeld's best performances, and the whole fiasco at the Today Show that ended off the episode is still one of the funniest scenes in the show.

The Dinner Party: Also known as what I like to call the babka episode, The Dinner Party is entirely based on the conflict that stems from bringing wine and cake to a friend's dinner party. Most of the set pieces here are relatable, from double parkers to waiting on a long line. I also think this episode is noteworthy for having one of the few vomit jokes that actually made me laugh, so kudos for that.

The Marine Biologist: The first twenty minutes or so of this episode is pretty above average Seinfeld fare, but it all works into setting up easily the greatest Seinfeld payoff of all time, rivaling that of The Parking Garage. George's now iconic speech is easily one of the funniest moments in the series, Jason Alexander's best performance, and a phenomenal punchline that ties together the entire episode.

The Hamptons: This whole episode is just a nonstop streak of iconic moments. The coining of the term "shrinkage", the ugly baby situation, the lobster. None of it really has anything to do with the titular location, but it's just a relentlessly paced series of phenomenal jokes, nearly all of them landing.

The Opposite: After an entire season of standalone episodes, The Opposite stood out as a surprisingly massive shift to the status quo. It starts out as a goofy commentary on how Elaine always succeeds, George always fails, and Jerry's kind of even, but it ends with Elaine and George completely switching places. George becomes a success and gets a great job while Elaine loses pretty much everything, and it sticks! The events of this episode affect the next three seasons of the show! But even aside from the huge ramifications, this is easily one of the series's funniest episodes. A phenomenal way to end the season.

Overall, Season 5 had a bit of a slow start, but its comedy was some of the best in the whole show, and the second half was easily Seinfeld's best streak of episodes.

4/5 Stars