Cant-Stand-Ya!

Seinfeld Volume 2

(What I said about Volume 1)

This box set contains all of season 3. By now the show had begun to grow into itself. While it is still a different beast from the crazy mayhem it eventually became, it is much less of a typical sitcom than the first few seasons (and it's gotten a lot funnier in the process).

The episodes in the first volume show the writers experimenting with different ideas, but by the third season they'd settled on what became their trademark style. Start with some little everyday incident, (two people go for the same parking space at the same time, someone gives you their pen), and in half an hour it's blown up into some improbable, insane scenario. OK, that's not the only kind of plot they use, there's also the one about the undefined areas of social behaviour (what do you do if you're indirectly responsible for causing a reformed alcoholic to fall of the wagon? How would someone react if they were told the truth about why they were being dumped?) and again, improbable insanity ensues.

All of the episodes are at least mildly funny, and always worth watching. A few of them are classics, such as 'The Parking Garage', when Jerry forgets where he parks his car and they spend the whole episode looking for it, 'The Limo', when George and Jerry con a ride in a limo intended for someone else from the airport, and my personal favorite, 'The Library' where George meets his old gym teacher, now insane and homeless.

The extras here aren't as good as those on the first volume. There's plenty of behind the scenes trivia, but it's a little scant and uninteresting compared to what was on the last box set. The commentaries aren't very good either. Mostly they're just a second laugh track. The best extra is a feature all about Kramer, and the real life guy that he's based on. You pretty much can't go wrong with that, since Kramer's the character that elevated the show from good to great.

Apologies if I've rambled a bit. I can't believe how much these three beers have affected me!