Seinfeld - Season 5 [DVD] [2005]

With "Jerry" already cancelled, it's back to business as usual on Seinfeld. In fact, the premiere episode, "The Mango," would get jaws immediately wagging with its frank discussion of the female orgasm and Elaine's admission that she's been known to fake it. Insecurities boil over for both George and Jerry. And remember that fruit stand Kramer talked about back in Season 2? It returns here when Kramer's pickiness over his fruit gets him banned from the store. New writers joined the staff for Season 5, and though the shift was to more episode-based comedy, they did take on a more "anything goes" bend. This is a sort of natural shift that often has to happen in a long-running sitcom when more grounded plots begin to become harder to come by. Thus, we can get the gang wrapped up in a non-fat yogurt scandal that effects the New York mayoral election or in an operatic drama with a pair of barbers in love with Jerry's lustrous mane. It doesn't always work. There was some stumbling on the way to figuring out what the right mix was. Some of the episodes go too far into the absurd. George and Kramer rock climbing in "The Stall" comes off as cheesy, and the swirling narrative of "The Marine Biologist" loses control. In that second act, when they try to move quickly and weave all the plot lines together, the comedy loses some of its potency. Having Kramer drop a shoe out of the window and landing on Newman comes out of nowhere and causes the episode to flatline. There was no need to tie either of those characters into the Jerry and Elaine story line of having portable electronic devices tossed from windows and hitting a bystander (Carol Kane). Newman isn't even in the rest of the episode! Only Jason Alexander's masterful final monologue about rescuing a whale pulls this particular episode out of freefall. When Season 5 is on point, though, it really hits in every manner. The final disc of the season is one of the most perfect of the set. Beginning with "The Wife," the show where Jerry and Courtney Cox pretend to be married to get a dry-cleaning discount, and ending with "The Opposite," when George turns his life around by doing the exact opposite of what his instincts tell him to do, DVD 4 has five episodes of sheer comedy heaven. Morty Seinfeld and Kramer try to go into business selling raincoats together, George lies to get out of the Big Brothers program and also must deal with the consequences of "shrinkage," and Jerry gets caught making out during Schindler's List. Every show is hilarious. Seinfeld was riding high at this point, both creatively and in the ratings. EPISODES: * The Mango (audio commentary by Michael Richards, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander) * The Glasses (writers Tom Gammill and Max Pross) * The Puffy Shirt * The Sniffing Accountant * The Bris * The Lip Reader (writers Peter Mehlman and Carol Leifer) * The Non-Fat Yogurt original Mayor Giuliani version/The Non-Fat Yogurt alternate Mayor Dinkins version * The Barber * The Masseuse * The Cigar Store Indian (writers Tom Gammill and Max Pross) * The Conversion * The Stall * The Dinner Party * The Marine Biologist (director/producer Tom Cherones and production designer Tom Azzari) * The Pie (writers Tom Gammill and Max Pross) * The Stand-In * The Wife * The Raincoats (parts 1 and 2) * The Fire * The Hamptons (writers Peter Mehlman and Carol Leifer) * The Opposite (Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David)