Seinfeld Gets an Unofficial Reunion in the Style of Twin Peaks: The Return

By Garrett Martin  |  January 11, 2021 | 1:48pm
Comedy News seinfeld
Seinfeld Gets an Unofficial Reunion in the Style of Twin Peaks: The Return

While a true Seinfeld reunion will probably never happen, its stars have toyed around with the idea many times. There was that Super Bowl ad where George and Jerry returned to the diner, episodes of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee with each main cast member and Larry David, and that entire season of Curb Your Enthusiasm that mocked the idea of a revival. That’s probably the closest the world will ever get to more Seinfeld.

That’s not good enough for Dominick Nero. The Esquire video editor and culture writer has spend the last year assembling a new season of Seinfeld, but with a startling, daring new vision inspired by Twin Peaks: The Return.

Get ready for Seinfeld: The Return. (And yes: you really should start with part 1.)

As far as mashups go, this is a hilarious premise, and Nero obviously put a lot of time into making it work. The amount of footage he’s cobbled together is surprising, and the way he’s put it together to reference both the elliptical storytelling of Twin Peaks: The Return and the personalities and story beats of Seinfeld’s characters is ingenious. The editing, the music, the dialogue: it all perfectly fits the vision of David Lynch and Mark Frost’s 2017 miniseries, only with George Costanza and Kramer instead of Dale Cooper.

It’s not hard to see where Nero found some of his footage. Seinfeld, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, and Veep are all plundered, as well as Jason Alexander’s infamous Criminal Minds episode. When asked about where he found his footage and how his episodes come together, Nero gives an answer as cryptic as Twin Peaks:

“To maintain the grand mystery and spectacle of this bizarre creation, all ill say is this: I don’t really plan these episodes. When I sit down to edit them, something enters my mind and i go into a strange semi conscious state and then a few hours later there’s another episode on my hard drive. Part of the magic of doing this is, as you search and search and search for footage, sometimes perfect little things present themselves to you and you just have to let them take hold. In terms of the source of this footage…it all comes from a place both wonderful and strange….”

Nero plans on releasing two more episodes through Twitter, before releasing the whole video on his YouTube channel in late January or early February. Via Twitter DM, Nero reveals what we can expect with the final two installments. “For the next two parts, fans should look forward to catching up with a few more of the peripheral characters from Seinfeld and a lot more of the main four, and (hopefully) some conclusion with the George doppelganger storyline,” he writes.

Although Seinfeld fans will probably dig it, Seinfeld: The Return works best if you’re familiar with Twin Peaks: The Return, one of the most obtuse, most entrancing, and most entertaining TV shows in recent memory. It’s startling how well these two vastly different shows line up, though—and a testament to Nero’s inspiration and editing skills that he’s able to make it work so well.

Senior editor Garrett Martin writes about videogames, comedy, music, travel, theme parks, wrestling, and anything else that gets in his way. He’s on Twitter @grmartin.

 
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