Seinfeld: The Soup Nazi (1995)
Season 7, Episode 6
8/10
"Just pick it up!"
9 August 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Now, I really would've loved to see The Soup Nazi when it first aired. When nobody knew anything about the place or the character and be able to experience it for the first time. Sadly I've not only heard a million times about this episode, but I've been stupid enough to watch certain scenes from Youtube when I was younger. So when I watched The Soup Nazi for the first I was more than familiar with everything and that made a huge difference.

Revisiting it this time, I tried to maintain a clear head and not think about what I remembered from the episode and this is what I make of it.

The Soup Nazi has a killer idea. It's not just the character of the chef or the things that happen inside the store, but rather the way people react to the soup fever. It starts as a kind of myth and when the gang goes there everyone is losing their s*** about the soup and are willing to accept the Nazi's requests in terms of client behavior. Also, it's great that the writers decided to bring familiar characters to the store, like Bannia or Newman. This gives it another sense of realism. So, yeah, everything about the Soup Nazi is perfect.

Unfortunately the other two stories aren't quite as good. They are good stories nevertheless. Jerry has a girlfriend with which he is constantly using baby dialogue and I'm sure everyone has encounter this at least once in his/her life. As a consequence, George decides to do the same with Susan in front of Jerry just to prove to him that it is quite the annoying habit. Susan's reaction gives another level of depth to their relationship and, therefore, to the season's arc.

The other story revolves around Elaine buying an armoire from the street and Kramer taking care of it until the moving crew appears on Monday. Eventually a gay/robbers couple decides to take the armoire with them and scare the s*** out of Kramer along the way. I don't know exactly what it is about these two guys but I couldn't find them more entertaining. Because, I mean, I listen to their dialogues and it is not specifically funny but it's just so original that right from the get go they are different from any supporting character that had appeared before them (and there were quite a few). Anyway, Kramer gets another armoire from the Soup Nazi and Elaine finds that inside its shelves are the recipes of all the Soup Nazi's famous soups. So, in spite of all the mistreatment she received from the Nazi, she decides to take him out of the business. Nevertheless I kind of feel sad for the guy.

As I said, not a perfect episode, but definitely a strong addition to Season's 7 streak of great episodes.
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