Rating:  - When the show was really hitting its stride ...
The Fire. George pushing away the clowns, the old women, the little kids. So funny! And it's true: what kind of clown doesn't know who Bozo the Clown was?! The Hamptons. So great! Gotta love that lobster omelette! And of course, The Puffy Shirt! "But I don't want to be a pirate!" And George being a hand model: another instant classic!
Rating: - More Than Just a Comedy Series
If you're a T.V. Seinfeld fan you will absolutely love the DVD's. The scenes that are cut to insert commercials by syndicators are restored on the high quality DVD versions. I grew up in the United States and had always liked the series from television. I was married while living/working/studying in China in 2002 and bought the DVD's for my wife on our coming to the United States in 2005. She had never seen Seinfeld before and had never been exposed to this style of humor or the slice of American life that the series presents. We have watched the DVD's over and over again and they never fail to make us laugh and lift our spirits when we've had a bad day. We utilize the closed captioning option and it has been a great help for my wife in acquiring an understanding of casual English usage including slang, and idiom. On a more serious note, owning so many seasons and watching the episodes regularly makes you realize the sad truth that much of American life really is focused on the themes of myopic self-interest presented and ridiculed in this series. I sometimes worry that individuals may actually see the series as a validation of their lack of ethics, morals, and connection with the Creator instead of as a revelation and jabbing at today's inappropriate social dynamics; just as the Archie Bunker/All In the Family series did in the 1970's.
The DVD sets include great special features from "How It Began" to "Making a Seinfeld Episode", deleted scenes, behind the scenes commentary from cast and creators, never-before-seen standup footage of Jerry, original NBC promotional ads and trailers, outtakes and bloopers, and much, much more. It's obvious that a lot of thought and work went into producing the DVD sets and I can't wait until the remaining seasons come out for sale at Amazon. After all; "Who wouldn't love Jerry?"
Episodes included in this set are:
Season 5 - The Mango, The Glasses, The Puffy Shirt, The Sniffing Accountant, The Bris, The Lip Reader, The Non-Fat Yogurt, The Barber, The Masseuse, The Cigar Store Indian, The Conversation, The Stall, The Marine Biologist, The Dinner Party, The Pie, The Stand-In, The Wife, The Fire, The Raincoats, The Hamptons, The Opposite.
Rating:  - 5 starts for material, 1 star for the FBI warnings
The material is among the best in the series. So there, I am among many others who love the series and recommend this.
My point in writing this is to warn people who want access to their purchased material to seriously consider whether to make an investment in this DVD series.
I just popped in the DVD and was stopped several times by un-fast-forwardable warnings.
1. First there's an FBI anti-piracy warning.
2. Then there's an Interpol warning in English.
3. Then there's an Interpol warning in FRENCH.
4. Then there's a black screen with white lettering telling us something useless about the commentaries and opinions not necessarily being those of Sony Pictures in ENGLISH.
5. Then there's a black screen with white lettering telling us something useless about the commentaries and opinions not necessarily being those of Sony Pictures in FRENCH.
Finally, after enduring their threats to you, the consumer, who have just paid a great deal of money to purchase YOUR DVDs, it begins.
So if you are looking to pop a DVD in and check out that funny scene that you love in The Cigar Store Indian, you'll have to endure threats and warnings that threaten you with imprisonment. You can't do anything but wait. You can't jump ahead, you can't fast foward.
Other DVDs are MUCH better at showing the warnings.
In HEAT, with Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino, the movie lets you jump right to any scene you want without all the threats. Heat is one of the best DVDs out there in the way they handle forced copyright warnings.
Seinfeld Volume 4, Season 5 is among the worst.
The best material, the worst in presentation.
Rating:  - Seinfeld: it wasn't funny then, and it is not funny now!
Seinfeld was one of the most overhyped sitcoms of all time. I can't believe people are still watching this garbage because the programme was never any good to begin with. I used to know so many people who were such huge fans of this show, but I had no idea why anybody would want to watch this show because the programming was so dull. Seinfeld wasn't even remotely funny. In fact, watching grass grow is more fun than watching Seinfeld. If you want to bore yourself into a mindless stupor, than this is the DVD for you! But if you want to be entertained, stay far away from this dated and formulaic cr@p. Its so boring! BORING BORING BORING!
Rating: - The Extras Have Improved Since the Former Released Season Sets
Seinfeld was one of the funniest shows ever made and even if there were no extras lots of us would still buy the season sets. However it is good to see they are putting a bit more effort into the extras than they previously did.
In season five extras include footage of the puffy shirt going into the Smithsonian. Larry and George where Larry David is compared to the character George. Bloopers is also excellent and very entertaining. The other usual extras are here as well with Inside Look and Deleted Scenes going for longer lengths of time, with the deleted scenes including a lot more of the episode on either side or the scene than was done on former seasons.
Season 5 includes the shrinkage episode where George suffers the indignity of being seen after swimming, and the opposites episode where things start coming together for George when he goes against his natural instincts. The puffy shirt, Pappy not washing his hands before preparing Jerry and his girlfriend's food, the manikin that looks like Elaine and many other classics are all here in Season 5. Like with the other season sets you just have to own them.
Also check out the season sets for Scrubs to see the benchmark for how extras should be done.
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