Amazin' Grace Note

If you watched Curb Your Enthusiasm Sunday night, you were no doubt tickled by Jason Alexander's take on the faux Seinfeld reunion proposed by Larry David. Yes, George declared, a reunion show is a great idea, because now, at last, we can leave the show on a good note. Larry is mystified by this implicit criticism of Seinfeld's farewell, but the viewer gets it. The Seinfeld finale did not feel of a piece with the rest of the series run and suffered as a result. The same could be said for most sitcom finales whose inflated goodbyes tend to come off as foreign or out of place vis-à-vis the narrative arc we thought we knew. The bigger the program, it seems, the more disappointing the finale. But how often does the final episode dramatically exceed all that came before it? The 2009 Mets left on the best note possible Sunday afternoon. Granted, the best note available to them, literally speaking, was a 70th victory. That it came bundled with a three-game sweep and two pl...