The Best and Worst Episodes of Seinfeld
In honor of the 25th anniversary of the premiere of Seinfeld, I shared my five favorite episodes of each season. I have one last post, a list of 25 episodes. There are two parts. One is an actual ranking of my top 15 episodes (as of right now – I’m sure if I did this again in a few months or years, it would change). The other is a selection of what I consider the 10 WORST episodes of the series.
This latter idea was inspired by my good friend Joe, who is as big a Seinfeld fan as they come. In some ways, it is even more difficult to determine because so many of the episodes are so good, and just about all of them have at least a few good jokes or moments. I guided myself through this process by finding the worst episode of each season.
Here are my ten least favorite episodes of the show, in chronological order:
1-5 The Stock Tip – As great as Vanessa was in The Stakeout, everything falls flat this time. There isn’t enough urgency to the stocks, and it’s weird seeing George come out on top.
2-10 The Apartment – Season 2 was the hardest season to find a worst episode because the lack of highs means minimal contrast, which makes the lows feel more average than bad. I’d say this is my favorite of the ten on this list. George’s plot is strong, but the Jerry-Elaine conflict feels a little too “sitcom 101.”
3-9 The Nose Job – Some interesting concepts here with both George and Jerry being fixated on their respective girlfriends’ appearances, but the execution is so clunky. There’s an actual chess match of the brain versus the penis!
3-19 The Good Samaritan – Hilarious threats George receives after having an affair aside, this one is a rare occurrence of the show feeling like it’s trying to hard via the attempts to coin a new catch phrase instead of “God Bless You” and giving Kramer seizures as a way to be wacky. Jerry’s plot never really clicked for me, either.
4-22 The Smelly Car – I do love how Jerry and Elaine react to the smelly car, but this is a concept that becomes stupider the more you think about it. And after such a strong arc with George over the season, Susan turning to lesbianism but losing her girlfriend to Kramer feels like a weak, more contrived ending.
5-9 The Masseuse – Like the desire to play with the woman’s toys, Jerry trying to get a massage from his girlfriend comes off a little creepier than intended. But the air really gets taken out of this one with the whole Joel Rifkin plot, a topical reference that doesn’t hold up.
6-17 The Kiss Hello – An episode with one or two exceptional storylines can buoy one or two relatively weak ones. But when all four are uninspired and mediocre, it really kills an episode. Thankfully it’s not something that happened often, but it did here.
7-18 The Friars Club – The Flying Sandos Brothers don’t do it for me, this has one of the lesser versions of the “Elaine having issues with a coworker” trope, and though most Kramer plots are enjoyable despite their of logical sense, getting dumped into the East River because he’s asleep but not waking up until he’s underwater is particularly egregious.
8-7 The Checks – Season 8 feels like Season 2: not many highs, so harder to find lows. I do like the series of unfortunate coincidences that befall Jerry each time he sees Brett, but taken together, “Desperado,” the big drawers and the Japanese tourists, and the carpet cleaning cult are too goofy.
9-14 The Strongbox – The episode that launched this whole list as the go to example for one my friend Joe’s least favorite ever. I have to agree with him. Like Fredo, it’s “weak and stupid.” George’s plot is probably the strongest, but it is hard to believe not one but two women would choose to stay with him.
Now for my top 15 episodes. You can read more about why I love each one in the prior posts. I have to say again, this is a reflection of how I feel now, in August 2014. I fully suspect this list could look a lot different if I attempted again sometime in the future. Though I feel good about my two most favorite remaining that way. Here we go:
15. The Pool Guy (7-8)
14. The Bizarro Jerry (8-3)
13. The Contest (4-11)
12. The Fusilli Jerry (6-21)
11. The Heart Attack (2-11)
10. The Serenity Now (9-3)
9. The Library (3-4)
8. The Airport (4-12)
7. The Trip (4-1 & 2)
6. The Pitch / The Ticket (4-3 & 4)
5. The Fix Up (3-17)
4. The Opposite (5-22)
3. The Strike (9-10)
2. The Betrayal (9-8)
1. The Boyfriend (3-15 & 16)
That concludes my journey through Seinfeld. Thanks for reading.















