1---
2location: Buenos Aires
3description: Some reflections on the TV-series
4date: 2020-01-03
5---
6
7# Seinfeld
8
9After five years break, I finally watched a TV-series. A friend of mine convinced me to watch *Seinfeld*. I did it. In less than two months, I watched all nine seasons. Ok, maybe “convinced me” is a wrong phrase here. We went on a trip together and once we checked into our AirBnB he just put it on TV to play in the background and I was hooked.
10
11I *loved* the first few seasons. I was mesmerized by how life in New York in the late eighties through most of the nineties looked so similar to the life I live today in 2020 in the United States. The life of characters was the same life I’m living now. Even the topics of the conversations were similar: recycling, climate change, dating, yoga, mindfulness, work, purpose, etc.
12
13This is still so unimaginable. I was born in the late eighties and grew up in the soon to become post-Soviet independent Ukraine. My life was *so* much different from the one lived by the show characters: almost no TV, helping my relatives to grow our food for the winter. I described my childhood briefly [here](https://podviaznikov.com/on_reading/), but I think it’s not that rich in the details to fully grasp the differences between two worlds: USA and Ukraine in let’s say 1993.
14
15So I loved the first seasons of the show because I was constantly reflecting on my life, USA, Ukraine, and how some topics were quite mainstream in the States seemingly forever. I also liked the characters. They seemed to be a bit awkward, a bit flawed. But they were young, going through their late 20s, early 30s.
16
17I watched season after season, and my frustration grew with each new episode. The problem is that characters didn’t evolve. They messed up a lot of times, they have been mean to people, got punished but didn’t change. That upset me a lot. I can’t cheer for such people. I will support everyone who has flaws (all of us). But I cannot support you if you refuse to learn and change.
18
19So that was my main concern with the series. It upset me. It shuttered my faith in people a bit. And I don’t like that. I prefer to believe in people, in change.
20
21I don’t want to make bigger conclusions based on the TV-series, but I have a hunch that Seinfeld influenced a lot of people. It showed that being a jerk is fine, that caring only for yourself is fine. Most people who are fans of the show are thankfully not that. But I feel that some people did internalize the wrong lessons.
22
23Seinfeld is a parody of what life and relationships shouldn’t be.
24
25[#Seinfeld](/tags/Seinfeld) [#culture](/tags/culture) [#change](/tags/change)