There aren’t to many characters that have no endeaing qualities, that go through a series refusing to improve themselves, and yet we love to watch anyway. This is..
George Costanza
Say what you want about Seinfeld but it gave us four interesting characters to watch every week. And teh fact that they were selfish and often unkind just seemed to make us love them. Watching them struggle with mundane events of life made us realize we can be a lot like them at times. When some thing that doesn’t matter gets us all upset and we make a bigger deal out of it than the situation truly deserves.
George, played brilliantly by Jason Alexander, is the epitome all of these things. While Jerry, Elaine, and Kramer can often show some redeeming character traits, George hardly ever does. He is liar who only cares about himself. He is a neurotic worrier who is always over thinking. And he tends to enjoy the misfortune of others especially if their misfortune is results in his gain. But I think one of the reasons we always come back to him is that, unlike Sheldon, he is fullu aware of all these character flws. Heck he’ll announce then proudly. Which I think is why we love to watch since it’s all his own fault. But also unlike Sheldon, ge never makes the slightest effort to improve these things.
To be fair he has tried once or teice. Like when he realized doing the opposits of his normal instincts was the way to go. A ploy that didn’t last. He did try to volumteer his time to spend with senior citizens, but his neurotic ramblings ruins the experience. When he wore a toupee he changed, becoming so pompous even he was happy to have the old George back. The closest he came was when he proposed to Susan, which happened during a rare moment of self reflection when he realized he wanted to be better. A monent that didn’t last and resulted in him stuck in an even worse situation that he saw no escape from.
In the final two seasons the character kind of got lost, and went all the way becoming a screaming loon with anger issues. You cou;d argue it made sense that he would evolve that way, but it doesn’t make those episodes easier to watch. George is a perpetual loser because he refuses to do more than he has to whether it be in a career or relationships. Add to that his constant worrying and you get a character who is complex, but unlike mpsty chaarcter only got worse with time and not better.
He’s the kind of characters that makes us say, “thank goodness I’m not him!”.
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