Jerry discovers his new girlfriend has put him on her speed-dial, setting in motion a conflict with her stepmother. Elaine feuds with a local shop after the saleswoman was rude to her. Kramer and Newman fight over who gets to host a Millennium New Years party. George schemes to get fired so he can have a better job.

Written by: Jennifer Crittenden
Directed by: Andy Ackerman

Those of you complaining that post-David seasons of Seinfeld get too wacky: I’ll give you this one, or at least Jerry’s particular plotline. It’s useful having Newman running around here, because Valerie and her stepmother feel like they’re acting like Newman characters. It’s not even that this plot is bad, it’s just it feels like the wrong kind of silly for Seinfeld; you can even see it in the elaborate scene of Jerry switching between Valerie and her stepmother on the phone, which strikes me as more overtly clever than funny. It feels like there’s both slightly too much detail and not quite enough; Valerie shifts from seeming like a normal person to being dedicated to this weird power game too quickly for the story. One could imagine a version of this story from an earlier season, with the section of Jerry realising he’s moving around the speed-dial going on a bit longer and more plausibly, with no explanation of why Valerie was doing it.

Luckily, George is here with a classic plot; really, George being given licence to fail (and failing at it) is in line with his experiences in “The Opposite”, where he’s given his chance to let his full personality loose. In fact, I’d say it’s as funny as any of his attempts to look smug and defensive, for the exact opposite reason – where instead of putting tremendous effort to look a certain way, he puts in tremendous effort to show off the real him (the closest thing I can think of is the attitude driving “Roswell That Ends Well”. I particularly enjoy the spectacular creativity he puts into it.

TOPICS O’ THE WEEK

• “I’m starting to get a little nervous about this lunch.” / “What did you have?”
• “Those aren’t for New Years. Those are my every day balloons.”
• “What is a barometer exactly?” / “It’s pronounced thermometer.”
• “I can’t help but think there’s someone who deserves that spot more. Someone, you’ve known, you know… more than a week.”
• “Cancelled?! Think again, longshanks!”
• “For me, the next millennium must be… Jerry free!”
• “Wait a minute! A short, stocky, bald man is streaking across the field!”
• Kramer wandering around the store in disguise feels like something else Always Sunny ran away with.
• “Some of those are women’s clothes!” / “Oh, not a problem!”
• “These clothes won’t last five years without them!”
• “I changed my mind. I think I’m going to build a roller coaster instead.”
• “She never sees the big picture.”
• “I guess I can accept a little ᒍEᖇᖇY if it gets me a lot of… 𝓔𝓵𝓪𝓲𝓷𝓮.”
• Jerry’s ownage of Newman at the end is kind of lame. Worth it, though, for the noise Newman makes.

Biggest Laugh:

Next week: “The Muffin Tops”