SEASON 4 (1992-93)

In case you were wondering, this is the season they start to get meta. In that the entire season is undercut with a plotline of Jerry making his own sitcom. Starring himself. Now where have I heard that one before? Yeah so apparently season 3 was such a runaway success that they decided "alright lets start focusing on ourself now" and just had Jerry essentially recount the events of making his own show, on his own show. Anyway, we start of the season with two double episodes so get ready to sit down for 40 minutes at a time!

EPISODE 1-2: "The Trip"

Kramer gets framed and they torture him for it.

Misogynists in the audience, fret not! Because of some retroactive continuity shenanigans, Elaine ceases to exist in the universe for these episodes only! Now you can sleep soundly at night knowing that your favourite sitcom contains Zero Women in it. Ok to be fair Julia Louis-Dreyfus was on maternity leave at the time but they could've at least MENTIONED Elaine in the episode instead of pretending she didn't exist...

Anyway Kramer's on some mildly entertaining Twin Peaks bullshit for the whole forty minutes which is alright. I'll be honest, his character is better in small doses I think. Or, at least, bouncing off another character. So that leaves George and Jerry, who are almost entirely stuck together for this double-parter. The first half is just some "airport and hotel shenanigans" that are very relatable to us modern audiences but then the second half is the funniest part of the episode. Basically they hop in a police car to try and convince the LAPD captain that Kramer is innocent but they end up making so many wacky stops. Reminds me of Superbad (2007) in a way, especially with that weirdly melancholy ending which is then immediately undone when Kramer just teleports back to his apartment.

Overall, it's whatever. Honestly they probably could've just shaved it down to be one episode long. Basically this episode's length is just holding it back.

2.5/5 STARS ★★⯨☆☆

EPISODE 3-4: "The Pitch/The Ticket"

Jerry Seinfeld makes a show about Jerry Seinfeld making a show about Jerry Seinfeld.

Heh, and people tell ME I have a big ego! . Yeah this is where the sitcom pilot plotline begins. Also Susan is there too, and she's fine. Oh yeah also the showrunners remembered Elaine exists so they have exactly two scenes of her just to dangle her in front of audiences. At least the characters seem to remember she exists, though. Also Newman is here. Let's just get him out of the way first, since he's pretty much the best part of the episode, anyway (shocker!). Oh also Kramer is there too because he's basically attached to him for 80% of the episode. Ok so the bit with them is Kramer gets a concussion from Crazy Joe Davola (not even gonna get into HIM yet...) and it's completely fucking up Newman's schemes for trying to get out of like a $70 traffic violation. They have a funny bit going on here where Kramer is basically the straight man but he's just so clueless he keeps messing up Newman's lies.

Oh yeah Jerry gets a potential show deal and he somehow gets convinced to let George co-write it. George. Costanza. Write it. I don't think this man has ever READ a full book in his life. Anyway, the two pitch meetings are some good shit. The best parts are when George is just yapping away about some bullshit and Jerry's just next to him doing his stupid goofy grin pretending to completely understand him. And they somehow get the show deal. And then for some reason at the end they think they're being stalked by the aforementioned CJD so they have to wait for this police officer in the coffee shop to finish his lunch so he can escort them, and this goes on for like way too long? This mayyyybe could've been one episode. Just put the Kramer/Newman stuff in a different one or something.

Once again this episode just doesn't make up for its length, but it's better than the last one.

3/5 STARS ★★★☆☆