"Seinfeld is better artistically and infinitely more influential and generally more culturally important than Friends. It is not remotely, however, as binge-friendly. Not even close."

Wrote culture pundit Adam Sternbergh, quoted in "'Seinfeld’ for $500 million? ‘The Big Bang Theory’ for $1 billion? The streaming arms race has a big problem" (WaPo).

[Sternbergh] said the distinction was that the show was “innovative and hilarious and brilliantly constructed and spiky" but unlike “Friends” had “no hugging, no learning.”

The shows that are most repeatable — if Netflix’s pronouncements are accurate, “Friends” and “The Office” — do have likable characters you mainly just really want to hang out with, almost more than you’re interested in their ultimate fates. (That’s one reason “Big Bang” seems like it might, at least theoretically, fit into this group.) But likeability alone hardly seems enough to give you repeatability....

The top-rated comment over there does what so many highly rated WaPo comments do — makes it about Trump:

Bids for the 15 seasons of The Apprentice broke the $1.00 barrier and were zooming to a buck and a quarter the last time I tracked.

I bet a lot of people would love to stream old episodes of "The Apprentice." I would! I'd love to watch again knowing what I could not have known at the time, that this show will launch its weirdo star into the presidency, the most amazing event in United States history. But I don't think any of these new services — HBO Max, Apple TV+, Peacock... whatever — would want to hold out "The Apprentice" as their brand. It's completely offensive to half the potential audience. You might say, yeah, but you'd have a lock on the other half. But I don't think it works that way. These binge-watchable shows are about relaxing and getting away from the troubles of the world. "Seinfeld" might not work, because, as Sternbergh knows, the characters are unlovable, and you don't really want the experience of vicariously living with them.

But "Seinfeld" is about "nothing" — about lots of little things that don't really matter, like the position of the second button of a shirt. There's almost no serious social or political issue. Can you even remember one? Something about the need to regulate yogurt that claims to be sugar-free but isn't? That's the only one can remember.

It's easier to remember a "Friends" episode with some serious politics, "The One Where Ross Moves In," or, as I like to call it, "The One With Phoebe As Health Inspector Sidekick Vunda."

Phoebe is dating "Health Inspector Larry," who's on a real power trip, shutting down restaurants for minor violations, which Phoebe finds sexually exciting. You know, women and power! There's a lovely legalistic discussion of Health Code Section 5, the requirement that the chef wear the hat but only in the kitchen. Monica (the chef) is not wearing the hat, but she's also not in the kitchen.

Larry: "And where is your hat?"

Monica: "It's in the kitchen, I'll go get it"...

Phoebe: "You saw the hat in the kitchen and knew that she'd have to go in there hatless to get it. You can have your own health inspector detective show…. then I can be your sidekick Vunda."

Now, that's political material you can cuddle up with.

ADDED: The "Seinfeld" episode with the yogurt — "The Non-Fat Yogurt" — really does have some political content:

Elaine starts dating Lloyd, who works as an aide to the mayor of New York City, David Dinkins, who is running for re-election against Rudy Giuliani. When Elaine suggests an idea for everyone in New York to wear name tags in public, Lloyd takes the idea to Dinkins. The idea is ridiculed, Dinkins is made a laughing stock, and Lloyd is fired. Lloyd then breaks up with Elaine. She correctly believes it is due to her weight gain from the frozen yogurt. Kramer, fearful of losing his investment [in the yogurt business], tries to sway a lab technician to falsify the analysis of the yogurt. They make out, and accidentally knock a sample of blood into a test tube belonging to Rudy Giuliani. This causes Giuliani's results to show he has a high level of cholesterol. Having eaten lots of supposedly non-fat frozen yogurt lately, he accuses the frozen yogurt shops of false advertising. The issue ignites voters, and Giuliani wins the election. The lab results show that the yogurt does in fact contain high levels of fat. When Jerry's local frozen yogurt shop switches to real non-fat yogurt, it tastes awful and business plummets. Newman, deprived of his guilty pleaser is enraged and vows revenge on Seinfeld. Matthew calls Jerry a "fat fuck" for ruining his father's business. 

Ha ha. Funny that Giuliani is still front and center in the news, a quarter century after "The Non-Fat Yogurt" aired. I remember that right around the same time, Trump declared bankruptcy, and I thought — Great, now that guy is over and I won't have to hear about him anymore. I was sick of 80s Trump, and the 80s were over. Bill Clinton was President, and life would be grand.