"The Stock Tip" is arguably my least favourite episode of the first season after the pilot, and whether or not that is an unpopular opinion or a blasphemous one among fans, I don't know and I don't particularly care. It's the bookends to this rather clunky (understandably so) first season that I find the most difficult to navigate through in that they both feel more like drafts of Seinfeld the show than episodes in themselves, even if they are first season episodes.
There really isn't a whole lot I find particularly funny, or even mildly amusing during the course of this episode. Nothing is insulting in any way but it feels more forced and more inorganic an episode than even the episodes that surround the bookends of the season. Something that rather hurts this episode is the lack of a tighter plot and the emphasis that is instead placed on the "nothing" and the arbitrary. Seinfeld is of course, infamously known as the "show about nothing" but it is not the most accurately statement to describe the show. Seinfeld was always about something but that was something was usually insignificant minutia that our neurotic lead characters would obsess over. There is almost always a sense of plotting to the episodes, even in the episodes that take place in strictly confined spaces. Here in "The Stock Tip" however, it's just a string of actions that are woven together without any real coherence.
The two elements of the plot I would point to are weekend trip with his girlfriend Vanessa (from "The Stakeout") and the trip to the dry cleaners. While the former ties up some plotting from earlier in the season and is a bit more of an emphasis during the episode, it never feels entirely relevant here. The latter really has no place in the episode besides making up an excuse for tying up another piece of Seinfeld's stand-up, the piece in contention here being fairly weak.
There's also a side story of Elaine that goes absolutely nowhere that I really did not enjoy. In it, she discusses with Jerry and George the fact that she's dating a guy who owns two cats, which she is allergic towards. Her allergies heighten during the episode and in one scene that fell particularly stiff and awkward, she discusses with Jerry how much it would cost to hire a hitman to take out the cats. The chemistry and dialogue really feel especially awkward here and unfortunately, Julia Louis Dreyfus does not get a particularly memorable or interesting first season.
There's a bit of Kramer too but it's largely forgettable. He warns Jerry against investing in stock and when it begins to plummet, exhibits a real smug attitude towards Jerry that felt a little out of character. There is one great moment however where Jerry informs Kramer that the guy who was supposed to advise George on stock investment is in hospital and the incredibly out-of-context and inappropriate facial gesture Kramer makes really made me laugh, courtesy of Michael Richards and his supreme talent.
George, arguably my favourite character in all television, is really problematic here much the same as he is throughout this first season. There's elements of George as a pathetic and entirely selfish shell of a person, such as when he decides to pay a visit to his stock adviser in hospital to learn when he should sell and optimize his stock but there's plenty of George as a successful person. By the end of the episode, George makes a fortune out of a timely stock investment and Jerry fails, against the spirit of Seinfeld where George is almost always the loser. It is especially jarring early in the series when George has not yet been developed. George's success at the end of this episode reminded me of a quote of his from the fourth season finale, "God would never let me be successful. He'd kill me first" or something to that effect.
Anyways, "The Stock Tip" was not a particularly enjoyable experience for me personally. This episode coupled with the pilot really emphasize the awkwardness of this first season which while frustrating and disappointing temporarily, really make Seinfeld's overall achievements as a series all the more incredible. How NBC found potential in these five episodes to renew it and renew it once more at the end of the second season, I will never understand given the infamous haste of network executives but boy am I grateful. To the first season's credit, it does show signs of brilliance to come as does this episode but the awkwardness and lack of confidence of writers Seinfeld and David at this point make the final product problematic.
There really isn't a whole lot I find particularly funny, or even mildly amusing during the course of this episode. Nothing is insulting in any way but it feels more forced and more inorganic an episode than even the episodes that surround the bookends of the season. Something that rather hurts this episode is the lack of a tighter plot and the emphasis that is instead placed on the "nothing" and the arbitrary. Seinfeld is of course, infamously known as the "show about nothing" but it is not the most accurately statement to describe the show. Seinfeld was always about something but that was something was usually insignificant minutia that our neurotic lead characters would obsess over. There is almost always a sense of plotting to the episodes, even in the episodes that take place in strictly confined spaces. Here in "The Stock Tip" however, it's just a string of actions that are woven together without any real coherence.
The two elements of the plot I would point to are weekend trip with his girlfriend Vanessa (from "The Stakeout") and the trip to the dry cleaners. While the former ties up some plotting from earlier in the season and is a bit more of an emphasis during the episode, it never feels entirely relevant here. The latter really has no place in the episode besides making up an excuse for tying up another piece of Seinfeld's stand-up, the piece in contention here being fairly weak.
There's also a side story of Elaine that goes absolutely nowhere that I really did not enjoy. In it, she discusses with Jerry and George the fact that she's dating a guy who owns two cats, which she is allergic towards. Her allergies heighten during the episode and in one scene that fell particularly stiff and awkward, she discusses with Jerry how much it would cost to hire a hitman to take out the cats. The chemistry and dialogue really feel especially awkward here and unfortunately, Julia Louis Dreyfus does not get a particularly memorable or interesting first season.
There's a bit of Kramer too but it's largely forgettable. He warns Jerry against investing in stock and when it begins to plummet, exhibits a real smug attitude towards Jerry that felt a little out of character. There is one great moment however where Jerry informs Kramer that the guy who was supposed to advise George on stock investment is in hospital and the incredibly out-of-context and inappropriate facial gesture Kramer makes really made me laugh, courtesy of Michael Richards and his supreme talent.
George, arguably my favourite character in all television, is really problematic here much the same as he is throughout this first season. There's elements of George as a pathetic and entirely selfish shell of a person, such as when he decides to pay a visit to his stock adviser in hospital to learn when he should sell and optimize his stock but there's plenty of George as a successful person. By the end of the episode, George makes a fortune out of a timely stock investment and Jerry fails, against the spirit of Seinfeld where George is almost always the loser. It is especially jarring early in the series when George has not yet been developed. George's success at the end of this episode reminded me of a quote of his from the fourth season finale, "God would never let me be successful. He'd kill me first" or something to that effect.
Anyways, "The Stock Tip" was not a particularly enjoyable experience for me personally. This episode coupled with the pilot really emphasize the awkwardness of this first season which while frustrating and disappointing temporarily, really make Seinfeld's overall achievements as a series all the more incredible. How NBC found potential in these five episodes to renew it and renew it once more at the end of the second season, I will never understand given the infamous haste of network executives but boy am I grateful. To the first season's credit, it does show signs of brilliance to come as does this episode but the awkwardness and lack of confidence of writers Seinfeld and David at this point make the final product problematic.
