Seinfeld

The more things change, the more they stay the same: Finding comfort in the familiar and mundane is no doubt a pillar of Netflix’s viewing and retention strategy, and just as it held on to The Office and Friends for as long as it could, it knows it has a tried and true hit on deck in Seinfeld.

If you didn’t already know what the teaser trailer was about, one might think it were some sort of throwback to an epic adventure film, with a narrator voice by Domingo Castillo in keeping with trailers from the 1990s, such as those done by Hal Douglas, or the late, great Don LaFontaine (perhaps best known for the phrase, “in a world...”). Not only is it humorous, such as in the narrator’s self-correction at :08, but it’s also stylistically appropriate, as the edit hearkens to a style last widely seen in the 1990s. And it also resonates with the voice and content of the Honest Trailers spoof brand, especially at :34-:35.

At the same time, the music mixes in several epic trailer music tropes that have been more prevalent over the past ten years, obviously used for comedic effect in its audiovisual counterpoint. Much like the show, the trailer is effusively facetious, tongue firmly in cheek, such as in the rapidly-spoken assertion that the show is/was created by “rising stars” Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld (the former of whom has since created ten seasons of a subsequent series, Curb Your Enthusiasm, for example). We know we’re on familiar turf when we hear Jonathan Wolff’s slap bass and see the show’s visual logo at :40.

Also noteworthy is how the trailer regularly repurposes dialogue in snippets from the show to make self-referential remarks regarding the trailer itself, drawing further attention to its own form. At :37, George Costanza (Jason Alexander) pointedly asks towards the trailer’s end, “that it?”, to which Jerry playfully answers, “pretty much”. It is, after all, famously known as a “show about nothing”).

It makes sense that a that a show that so eagerly plays up its self-awareness, drawing its energy from occasional meta commentary, would so earnestly do the same in trailer format. In this it makes a case for its own staying power—entrenching its status as a classic, not unlike how the narrative style of LaFontaine and others has endured—as an occasional nostalgic indulgence, at least.

— Curtis Perry