"Seinfeld" The Strongbox (TV Episode 1998) Poster

(TV Series)

(1998)

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9/10
I Actually Feel Sympathy for George and Jerry
laalaa-0215819 January 2024
It's rare in an episode of Seinfeld that you feel sympathy for George. There are a few occasions, it tends to happen a little more after we meet his parents. I like the George plot because the woman not allowing him to break up with her was a bit freaky.

The Jerry plot was good, too. I wouldn't let someone I didn't know into my building or home either. It was rare in seasons 8 and 9 to see plots where you might actually feel sympathy for the characters. That's what I liked about this episode.

Elaine's plot was quite humorous because it showed the monetary disconnect she still has, as well as many people who don't experience poverty. Kramer is just Kramer. You can put him in pretty much any situation and it'll be hilarious.
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9/10
Mostly a Lot of Fun
Hitchcoc16 June 2023
Kramer decides that his valuable are in danger, so he puts things in a strongbox and then needs to hide the key. No matter where it is Jerry finds it without even trying. George is in another relationship with a strong, attractive woman who refuses to break up with him. He decides to make her jealous by dating a woman who is so tan she is more orange than Donald Trump. But now neither of them will break up with George. Elaine is going out with a weird guy who is on welfare but she doesn't know this. And then she misreads him even more. There is a great scene in his apartment. Lots of very funny stuff but not so organized.
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10/10
Tob
bevo-1367823 June 2020
Warning: Spoilers
I like the bit where the bird eats the key and then dies.
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10/10
1 of my favourite eps
ThunderKing627 March 2023
Warning: Spoilers
I like this episode. It has a few funny spots. When I first watched it I almost died laughing but I couldn't because I am immortal.

Haha...Anyways...

March 26th 2023rd

What was this episode about?: Jerry feuds with his neighbour and no its not postal worker Newman.

Kramer is dumb and can't find a hiding spot for his key

Elaine dates a poor guy

George struggles to break up with a man hands variant plus a tanned up lady

The story and the production overview: few good spots where you can laugh out loud. Bit dark of an episode because they attempt to dig up a bird, so Jerry can have a conversation.

Georges story was interesting.

Overall a mighty fine episode.

Highlight: Tan lady. Neighbour scenes. Jerry finding the key.

Girlfriend attractiveness level: George's main is a 4. Tan lady is a 3. Neighbour's wife is a 7.

Laugh meter: 10

What can be learned?: should only take 1 key to make things happen.

Verdict: Strong episode in a hash season 9.
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5/10
A Bit Mediocre
Samuel-Shovel2 July 2019
Warning: Spoilers
In "The Strongbox", Kramer gets a strongbox to place all his values in but gets mad when Jerry keeps accidentally finding where the key is hidden. George breaks up with a woman who refuses to end their relationship. Elaine dates a guy who she thinks is acting suspicious because he's married but turns out only to be poor. Jerry gets in bad with a new neighbor after he won't left him back in the building without a key.

This is a bit of a hundrum episode where none of the plot lines are terrible but none of them are great either. Some plots have reduced Kramer down to just an idiot as the seasons have gone on instead of the quirkiness we know and love. Here he's just hiding his keys in dumb places. It's not the best bit.

I'd say George's subplot is my favorite. I love the resignation on his face everytime he unsuccessfully breaks it off with Maura. Everyone else's though is pretty subpar.
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5/10
None of the plots are more than O.K.
FlushingCaps4 February 2015
Warning: Spoilers
The title concerns Kramer's plot where he buys a strongbox to keep his "valuables" in after learning there have been several burglaries in the building. He wants to hide his key for the box in Jerry's apartment, but Jerry keeps stumbling upon it.

Early on, Jerry and George are entering Jerry's building and Jerry politely tells a man he doesn't know that he can't let him come in because he doesn't know him. The man forgot his key but says he lives in the building. It turns out he lives right next door to Kramer. It wasn't stated that he just moved in, and Jerry feels quite embarrassed about not knowing him at all.

Meanwhile, George has a girlfriend Maura, who he wants to break up with. When he flatly tells her so, she refuses. She just tells him "We're not breaking up," and continues to act like they are a couple. George doesn't know how to react. Then he gets the idea of getting her to leave him by having an "affair" with another woman, one who appears to live in a tanning salon. When he arranges for them to meet, the two women quietly tell George they "can work this out." Elaine has met a man who refuses to give her his phone number and says very little about what he does for a living. When he seems to be avoiding a woman coming down the street, Elaine figures it was his wife. It turns out to be his social worker, as the man has a dumpy apartment and gets his food, well, some of it, from garbage cans. Elaine goes out of her way to improve his life until learning a key fact that I won't reveal here because it comes near the end of the show.

None of the four plots were more than somewhat funny. I don't see how you decline someone's statement that they don't want to date you anymore. Given the burglaries, Jerry had no reason to feel embarrassed about not letting in a potential burglar—if he didn't know him, he didn't know him. Kramer's strongbox appeared to be an easily-portable box that any burglar could easily take and open when he got home—"Hey, thanks for putting all your valuables in one easy-to-carry container for me, pal." The Elaine plot seemed the weakest here. Her character in this episode didn't seem bothered when she saw him finding doughnuts in a restaurant garbage bin and eating them. Pretty much in any other episode, she would dump a boyfriend if she just learned that he HAD done this at some point in his life. She would be totally uninterested in dating a man that poor because he couldn't afford to take her to eat at Monk's, let alone to a movie or a play or, well, anywhere.

Frankly, the depiction of this man's lifestyle seemed unrealistic as well. Since he had a social worker who happily blabbed many details of his life to a woman she just met, you have to figure he was getting food stamps/a bridge card. I don't think too many folks getting assistance in that manner go "dumpster diving" like some homeless people do.

I left off any description of the last few scenes involving Jerry and Kramer's attempt to retrieve the key. They were bizarre but really not funny, and definitely dumb. I think even when reviewing an old movie or TV show, you should not reveal details about the last portion of the show. These are the things many viewers might have forgotten that are better if not detailed in a written review. I give this episode a "5" meaning watchable, but not all that funny. That's attempting to compare it to all comedy shows, making it decent in that regard, but the score I give puts it near the bottom on the list of Seinfeld episodes.
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5/10
Reflecting on the ninth season
safenoe15 April 2024
Warning: Spoilers
I first watched Seinfeld when it debuted in the 1990s, and I became a big fan, and each week I waited big time to either watch it on the dot or record it on video (VHS not beta). The ninth season was awaited by Seinfeld fans with bated breath, because how was one of the biggest sitcoms of the 1990s going to wrap up. Anyway, on reflection, The Strongbox is not as funny as I thought it was back in the 1990s, as the sub-plots kind of went all over the pace, kind of everything everywhere all at once. Also, Phil (played by Louis Mustillo) looks so much like Paul Giamatti

Illeana Douglas guests stars as Loretta, and Alex Kapp pretty much steals the episode as Maura.
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