In latest season, Seinfeld’s gabfest runs out of gas

What is it about Jerry Seinfeld’s “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” that has turned watching the series into just one more streamingentertainment chore?

Let Seinfeld himself answer, in one of the 12 new episodes of his casual-interview series, which recently returned for a mostly uninspired new season at its new home on Netflix:

“How is it that we can’t get enough of any two idiots talking?” Seinfeld asks comedian Brian Regan, one of his guests, as the two tootle around Los Angeles in a sporty 2006 Cadillac XLR and eventually stop for the requisite cup of coffee. “We’re all talking all the time and then we watch other people talking. Why? It makes no sense.”

In an earlier episode spent driving around with actor/comedian Zach Galifianakis in a well-worn 1972 Volkswagen Thing, Seinfeld kvetches about shows with famous people in cars.

“Will this be the end of our friendship?” Galifianakis asks as the ride draws to a close.

“Of course,” Seinfeld says, preparing to drop Galifianakis off. “I just needed the episode.”

Watching “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee,” of which Seinfeld has now made 72 episodes since 2012, is as easy as polishing off a bowl of chips: It’s finished before you have time to realize the chips have gone stale.

Actual talk shows seem to be too difficult to watch in linear format now; the best those shows can hope for is to get a short clip from yesterday’s episode to go briefly viral.

“Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” once seemed to be part of a new genre that could take our need for a quick-fix celebrity encounter and capitalize on it, turning the interplay between Seinfeld and a friendly, famous, funny person into something relaxed and impromptu. At roughly 15 to 20 minutes per episode, the conversation is usually plug-free.

Now the show plays as if Seinfeld has belatedly realized he’s part of a terrible surplus of chitchat, a narcissistic loop of elite gab. In expensive, collectible cars that mainly emphasize the wealth gap between Seinfeld and the audience, celebrities are hopping in with Jerry and finding they have nothing much to say anymore. They’re talked-out.

The current season features one dud ride after another: Ellen DeGeneres looks exhausted. John Mulaney, usually quick on the draw, seems more interested in shopping for a hallway rug than engaging with Seinfeld. In lieu of actual conversation, Kate McKinnon reduces herself mainly to noises, crinklenosed smirks and appreciative laughter.

For his part, Seinfeld seems to be forgetting how to listen. At 64, the born curmudgeon is projecting a rightful and more acerbic crustiness at what might be the wrong moment — a time when language and comedy are undergoing extra scrutiny from the perpetually unamused.

Viewers should skip the duller and sometimes-awkward episodes to enjoy a few genuine rewards at the season’s end.

In one, Seinfeld goes to Las Vegas to take Jerry Lewis out in a red 1966 Jaguar E-Type similar to the one the late film star drove in his heyday. The segment was probably one of the last things Lewis did before his death 11 months ago at 91.

“I don’t drink coffee,” Lewis says.

Seinfeld responds: “Why don’t we take a nap together, then?”