Lawrence Tierney is captivating and memorable enough in the central setpiece of this otherwise, in my opinion, disappointing episode. "The Jacket" appears to be a fairly well regarded episode of early Seinfeld and for me this is another case where I simply do not laugh frequently enough during the early stages of the show. Some characters are better sketched out than others by this point (Jerry and George) and others (notably Kramer and Elaine) have yet to find their groove within the structure of the show.
The entire episode revolves around a jacket if the title did not clue you in. The premise of Jerry buying an ultra-expensive jacket and boasting about it is decent enough but it simply does not ever reach territory that I find all that rewarding as far as comedy is concerned. My favourite moment that revolved around the jacket was George attempting to guess its price range having just promised Jerry that he would not nag him about the ridiculous price he paid for it. It really highlights some of the obsessive and pathetic qualities that down the road made George Costanza one of the all time great TV characters.
Lawrence Tierney is very good even if I find most of the dialogue lukewarm at best. That is, with the exception of the line in which he reminisces about a soldier during the Korean War that reminds him of Jerry. It's such a great delivery by Tierney and truly the most captivating moment of the episode for me.
A lot of the very early stages of Seinfeld have not particularly aged as well for me and that is simply a large reason as to why I find this episode fairly underwhelming despite its fine reputation. Neither the portrayal of Kramer the freelancer in this episode nor Elaine recounting to Jerry and George why she was late to meet the two for dinner with her father come close to really making me laugh and they highlight some of the shortcomings of the two respective characters during the early stages of the show. Tierney is very good and memorable and it's rather unfortunate that his difficult mentality behind-the-scenes prevented future appearances of the character. On an amusing side note, Larry David would throughout the remainder of his time on the show, threaten misbehaving cast and crew members by bringing up the possibility of a future Lawrence Tierney episode after the star reportedly had a knife mishap on set!
The entire episode revolves around a jacket if the title did not clue you in. The premise of Jerry buying an ultra-expensive jacket and boasting about it is decent enough but it simply does not ever reach territory that I find all that rewarding as far as comedy is concerned. My favourite moment that revolved around the jacket was George attempting to guess its price range having just promised Jerry that he would not nag him about the ridiculous price he paid for it. It really highlights some of the obsessive and pathetic qualities that down the road made George Costanza one of the all time great TV characters.
Lawrence Tierney is very good even if I find most of the dialogue lukewarm at best. That is, with the exception of the line in which he reminisces about a soldier during the Korean War that reminds him of Jerry. It's such a great delivery by Tierney and truly the most captivating moment of the episode for me.
A lot of the very early stages of Seinfeld have not particularly aged as well for me and that is simply a large reason as to why I find this episode fairly underwhelming despite its fine reputation. Neither the portrayal of Kramer the freelancer in this episode nor Elaine recounting to Jerry and George why she was late to meet the two for dinner with her father come close to really making me laugh and they highlight some of the shortcomings of the two respective characters during the early stages of the show. Tierney is very good and memorable and it's rather unfortunate that his difficult mentality behind-the-scenes prevented future appearances of the character. On an amusing side note, Larry David would throughout the remainder of his time on the show, threaten misbehaving cast and crew members by bringing up the possibility of a future Lawrence Tierney episode after the star reportedly had a knife mishap on set!