This 12-episode second season of Seinfeld isn't any great shakes, to be sure. It contains a number of boring or outright bad half-hours. The show was almost cancelled half way through this run (resulting in a long break) and the final few episodes were confusingly aired out-of-order. But what S2 does accomplish, however, is the creation of a few legitimately solid installments that give just enough hope for the future.
After a few episodes--The Pony Remark, The Jacket--that are significantly better than anything S1 had to offer, S2 produces a run of clunkers: The Ex-Girlfriend, The Apartment, The Statue, The Phone Message. At this point, the show is still far too reliant on strictly observational humor and hasn't yet hit on the character personas that would ultimately push it to iconic status.
But then, the episodes The Heart Attack & The Deal suddenly--and somewhat inexplicably--are an enormous uptick in humor and just overall quality. It is almost as if the writers at this point started really nailing the characters and their eccentricities. The final few episodes of the season--The Baby Shower, The Chinese Restaurant, The Busboy--don't quite live up to that new standard, but they were also produced earlier (aired later) and thus a bit difficult to reconcile.
Overall, I keep plugging away at Seinfeld as a first-time-2022-viewer because the consensus seems to be it takes off in S3. I'm still not sure yet that I'll be around for the long-haul, but S2 at least gave me a few glimmers of hope that improvement is indeed possible within the show.