George breaks up with a woman who is helping Jerry through an audit, and when she checks into a mental institution he becomes guilty and tries talking to her. Meanwhile, Kramer is dating Elaine’s roommate and their behaviour is driving her insane.
Written by: Elaine Pope
Directed by: David Steinberg
The mark of a good TV show is when an individual episode is so dense that you have trouble picking what to talk about first. This is called “The Truth”, presumably because the inciting incident is George telling his girlfriend he thinks she’s pretentious, but it feels like no more time is given over to it than anything else. There is a very unSeinfeld attempt to weave themes together rather than plot in how Elaine’s story ends with her very specifically not telling the truth, but it feels like a weak moment in a strong episode. I lean heavily towards the Kramer side of things in these social situations (though I like to think of myself as a Puddy) – if it’s important, you talk about, and if it isn’t you don’t – but I get the bind the characters feel they’re in. You want to get through life with zero nuisances and never feeling bad, and George certainly thinks he’s taking the path of least resistance here.
The thing about Jason Alexander’s performance is that it isn’t just the spectacular monologues – it’s the little things too. George tears into his outrage at Patrice like a dog on a piece of meat, but he almost immediately tries to walk it back and spends the rest of the episode sweating in his own shame. He’s aware that Patrice’s pretentiousness doesn’t actually matter in the grand scheme of things or even really hurt anyone; I think there’s a part of human nature that’s purely aesthetic and gets antsy when the world doesn’t look the way one thinks it’s supposed to look. Patrice looks pretentious and it feels good to say so, even if you don’t actually want to hurt someone’s feelings. That makes this one of the purest examples of how a Seinfeld character can be morally neutral.
The other main idea that I’m intrigued by is the structure of this episode. As I said, this episode tries to tie two plot threads thematically, which doesn’t really work – this is Seinfeld, not Mad Men, even if the shows have very similar themes of alienation in cities. We do have some hints of colliding plotlines, and in fact I see clear demonstrations of how they get to that idea. There are very clear and obvious links of cause-and-effect in this episode, with the big one being that Kramer builds a glass coffee table in one scene and trips over it in another (sometimes the universe is random and sometimes it’s painfully predictable). It’s very simple and very funny, and I can see how it’s not that big a leap to ‘action in one scene spills over into another’.
TOPICS O’ THE WEEK
- Jerry’s opening monologue sucks this week. A bland nothing of an observation.
- Jerry’s monologue explaining how Kramer got him into getting audited is a fun performance showing off Seinfeld’s particular skillset and drawing from his standup experience. It feels like a dramatic reading.
- This is the first episode written by a woman, and in fact I was surprised that there were women in the writer’s room this early. I know Jennifer Crittenden – responsible for some of the greatest and most heartwarming Simpsons episodes like “And Maggie Makes Three” – joins the writers in the last bunch of seasons.
- Speaking of small moments with Jason Alexander, I love the look he throws at Jerry after being insulted in front of Patrice before focusing on the matter at hand.
- The whole sequence of Jerry trying to support George and slide his need for his papers into things is so good.
- A poignant moment with George Costanza: “Pity’s very underrated.”
Biggest Laugh:
Next Week: “The Pen”