Seinfeld

Criticism

Though the series always had many devoted fans throughout the show's later seasons, many fans have criticized the show for changing its tone and humor too much throughout the show. This may be due to the fact that the show's writers and producers have changed throughout the seasons. As with any long-running series, the question of if and when the show jumped the shark is fiercely debated, with many differing opinions held.

Related Topics:
Series - Jumped the shark

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Many fans have different views on when the show was at its high point. Some fans prefer the first two seasons, when the show featured a more slow-paced comedy, with an emphasis on real-life situations. Then on the other hand, other Seinfeld fans think of Seasons 3-5 as Seinfeld's "Golden Era," arguing that the show was intelligent and consistently funny and was faster paced than the early episodes.

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Starting with Season 6, however, some Seinfeld fans felt that the show had deteriorated in quality, with less interesting storylines, and often attributed this change to the departure of director Tom Cherones and one of the show's writers, Larry Charles.

Related Topics:
Tom Cherones - Larry Charles

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One common opinion among some fans of the show seems to be that the show reached its lowest ebb during the final two seasons (seasons eight and nine). These fans contend that, by this stage, the plots had become ever more detached from reality, the characters (particularly Elaine and George) had changed beyond recognition, and that the humor had descended into slapstick and farce. This is usually attributed to the fact that Larry David had left the show at the end of the seventh season (although he did return to write the series finale) and instead, by this point, all of the show's writers (with the exception of Peter Mehlman) had not been on the show before Season 6. The final two seasons (apart from the series finale) also did not feature any stand-up comedy segments performed by Jerry Seinfeld, which had been a minor but constant feature of the show since its beginning.

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Finally, the majority of fans argue that the show never deteriorated significantly in quality at any point in its run. http://www.jumptheshark.com/s/seinfeld.htm While accepting that the tone of the show may have changed somewhat throughout the run of the series, these fans contend that the quality of humour was never compromised.

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