Seinfeld: Season Eight
by Andy Ackerman
List Price:
Our Price: $9.99
You Save: $10.00 (50%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $9.44 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Director: Andy AckermanBrand: Sony
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dubbed, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 506 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-06-05
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Product features:
- Condition: New
- Format: DVD
- Box set; Closed-captioned; Color; Dubbed; DVD; Full Screen; Subtitled; NTSC
Movie Reviews of Seinfeld: Season Eight
Movie Review: It's Go Time!
Summary: 5 Stars
Finally, we hold it in our hands, the 8th season of maybe the best sitcom ever created.
In season 8, cast and crew, and especially the writers, found themselves in an awkward position. On one hand, they had just finished what some consider Seinfeld's best season (number 7), and a successful season 8 was almost guaranteed, but on the other hand, half of the series' genius spirit, Larry David, had just left the show.
As it is mentioned in the fantastic featurette "Jerry Seinfeld: Submarine Captain", this meant a total restructuring of the writing process. Unlike in the previous seven seasons, where Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld would revise other writers' scripts and have the final saying, season 8 is much more of a team effort.
That also meant much more storylines of the individual writers would get to the editing room as they were conceived by them.
The result is a show that takes all the characters' qualities, and human misbehaviours that were established in earlier seasons, and turns them almost into a life action cartoon.
In The Comeback for instance, when the writers take George's envy and (previously subtle) anger, and make it larger than life, so that in the end, he flies from New York to Akron, Ohio, just to come back at a guy with a witty one-liner that he didn't think of earlier.
I always enjoy the audio commentaries, of which there are far more in this season than in season 7, and I like it how the writers aren't shy of criticising themselves. That's really an attitude that I don't think anyone but Seinfeld writers can have.
In The Bizarro Jerry, for instance, writer David Mandel charmingly explains, without rest or full stop, why season 8 and 9 have a different feeling, and how the show commented on itself.
Tom Gamill and Max Pross, whose first episode was "The Glasses", have their last show in this season, and quite frankly, I think that was for the better. The "Notes About Nothing" subtitles list all their episodes, and to my surprise I discovered that they had written all the episodes that I found least enjoyable and too far out there.
Now, I find seasons 8 and 9 as hilarious and great as all seasons gone before, but for different reasons. And director Andy Ackerman describes it perfectly when he says that they felt like the teacher had gone out of the classroom, and the students could now have some fun.
And by god, they did!
They took all the pure comedy potential the characters always had, and milked it completely dry.
I also find that the final three seasons featured the series' best permanent characters: "Jacopo" Peterman ("Where is my pineapple?") and George Steinbrenner ("Big Stein can't be floppin' and twitchin'!")
A human caricature like Peterman could never work in seasons 1 through 6.
That being said, I know very well that some people think the show lost its zing, and I fully understand why they think that. This Seinfeld is not a different Seinfeld, but Seinfeld brought to the brink of the absurd. The thing is, the characters and their unbreakable bond of unfounded hostility (formerly the almost inperceptible cruelty of daily life) are so strong that they can take it without collapsing. Even more, I think the separation of the storylines into four distinct ones for every character brought each actor to his or her full blossoming.
But that, make no mistake, goes all to the expense of the ensemble performance.
Every character has much to do in each episode, which contradicts the series' label as the "show about nothing". They all have their hands full, and that's a huge part of why season 8 feels different.
Some people may tell you that all storylines are intertwined. That's not quite the truth. Yes, they come together in the end, but before that, each character goes his own way.
In rewatching early seasons, you'll find that Seinfeld's best moments were always the ensemble moments, when two people more or less had the same or (in Kramer's case) no storyline. Remember George and Kramer visiting the busboy? Or Jerry and Elaine in The Pen? Or Jerry, George and Kramer at Ackman the healer? Or the Jerry/George scenes with the NBC executives?
And lengthier face to face conversations are very rare now, too. It all more or less boils down to a daily debrief at the coffee shop. Why? Because there's too much stuff squeezed into the 20 minutes.
And yet, the characters never lost their "twinkle" amongst the mayhem, and that's why we love it.
The extras are excellent, as usual. The "Exclusive Stand-Up" material is missing, of course, since the show didn't have stand-up anymore.
I know I'll shed a tear or two when I hold season 9 in my hands. Originally, Jerry thought season 8 was going to be the last one, but we're all glad that he decided to add a bonus year, aren't we?
Summary of Seinfeld: Season Eight
Jerry Seinfeld: Submarine Captain You know him as "Master of his Domain;" now in a behind-the-scenes documentary, dive beneath the surface to see how Jerry Seinfeld juggled his act as star and show runner following Larry David?s departure. Inside Looks Behind-the-scenes stories from the cast and creators. Not That There?s Anything Wrong With That Never-before-seen outtakes and bloopers. In the Vault Season Eight never-before-seen deleted scenes ... saved from the cutting room floor. Yada, Yada, Yada Cast and crew audio commentaries. Sein-Imation See classic SEINFELD scenes re-imagined in Sein-Imation. Notes About Nothing Behind-the-scenes trivia and production notes.Similar DVD Movies
Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Seventh SeasonHBO Home Video; Release date: 2010-06-08; DVD
Best price: $15.49
Price in other shops:
Seinfeld: Season 1 - The Very BeginningSony; Release date: 2008-09-16; DVD
Best price: $2.97
Price in other shops:
Seinfeld - Seasons 5 & 6 Giftset (Includes Handwritten Script and Collectible Miniature Puffy Shirt)SEINFELD,JERRY; Release date: 2005-11-22; DVD
Best price: $33.00
Price in other shops:
Seinfeld - Seasons 1 & 2Sony; Release date: 2004-11-23; DVD
Best price: $11.09
Price in other shops:
Seinfeld: Season SixSony; Release date: 2005-11-22; DVD
Best price: $10.55
Price in other shops:
Seinfeld: Season NineSony; Release date: 2007-11-06; DVD
Best price: $10.70
Price in other shops:
Seinfeld: Season ThreeSony; Release date: 2004-11-23; Published: 2004; DVD
Best price: $11.14
Price in other shops:
Seinfeld: Season FourSony; Release date: 2005-05-17; DVD
Best price: $11.15
Price in other shops:
Seinfeld: Season FiveSEINFELD,JERRY; Release date: 2005-11-22; DVD
Best price: $12.50
Price in other shops:
Seinfeld: Season SevenSony; Release date: 2006-11-21; DVD
Best price: $10.99
Price in other shops: