In the final episode of SEINFELD, “The Finale”, the group of four friends were thrown into unfamiliar territory and punished for their usual childish antics. Loyal followers of the show had to suffer through the realization that the past several years of watching the group of four had been a waste of their time on four unlikeable people in the bigger context of society. Inside Jerry’s apartment and Monk’s coffee shop they were safe to do as they pleased without anyone judging them too harshly. The childlike world that they had constructed was brought crashing down as many characters from their past were paraded in front of them in a courtroom. They showed no remorse for their actions and even smiled when it adversely affected others lives. The writers could have stopped showing witnesses for the prosecution after four or five people, but instead we were made to see that our modern heroes ruined many lives to gain passing satisfaction for their own narcissistic natures. By only showing a few lives ruined every few episodes, we were able to negate the fearsome foursome's actions, but the bombardment of over thirty witnesses from past episodes overwhelms us.
While some might argue that this self-referential nature made this episode great, I submit that it awoke the audience to painful realizations about the true nature of the show. George’s mom even thought that the show sounded “stupid”. A final blow to regular SEINFELD viewers was the triumph of Newman over Jerry.
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