Anyone else feel different about Friends now...

[VCRTracking]

It bugged me then and it bugs me now that Rachel never invited Monica to her wedding with Barry. Like I get people fall out of touch after high school but she was her best friend for years!

[HazelEyes4325]

30 minutes ago, VCRTracking said:

It bugged me then and it bugs me now that Rachel never invited Monica to her wedding with Barry. Like I get people fall out of touch after high school but she was her best friend for years!

I don't have a problem with the fact that they were high school friends who had drifted apart in the last, what 5 years?  But leaving your wedding and running off to your "best" friend who you didn't bother to invite to your wedding, who you expected to take you in, seemed pretty nonsensical to me.

[christie]

On 12/3/2018 at 1:22 AM, HazelEyes4325 said:

I don't have a problem with the fact that they were high school friends who had drifted apart in the last, what 5 years?  But leaving your wedding and running off to your "best" friend who you didn't bother to invite to your wedding, who you expected to take you in, seemed pretty nonsensical to me.

Also, even though they drifted apart, it seems unlikely to me that they wouldn't have bumped into each other all those years. The parents were friends, or at least on friendly terms, so it seems unlikely to me that they weren't both invited to various events. At the very least, they would have heard news about the other from their parents.

[Danny Franks]

I'm doing a bit of a partial rewatch at the moment, and just watched the episodes with Janine. I have to say... how lacking in awareness is she to be so open with her brand new boyfriend about the fact she doesn't like his closest friends? The instant their first double date is over, and they're invited for dinner the next evening, she's saying "how will we get out of that?" as though she expects Joey to agree with her. It's just weird, and feels too much like 'we only got Elle Macpherson for three episodes, so we need to figure out how to get rid of her'.

[wendyg]

HazelEyes4325: I think the words you're looking for are, "I was hoping it wouldn't come up."

[Dandesun]

On 12/8/2018 at 11:42 AM, Danny Franks said:

I'm doing a bit of a partial rewatch at the moment, and just watched the episodes with Janine. I have to say... how lacking in awareness is she to be so open with her brand new boyfriend about the fact she doesn't like his closest friends? The instant their first double date is over, and they're invited for dinner the next evening, she's saying "how will we get out of that?" as though she expects Joey to agree with her. It's just weird, and feels too much like 'we only got Elle Macpherson for three episodes, so we need to figure out how to get rid of her'.

What I did like about that was Joey's response. He was mystified at her not liking them and stated that if she wasn't able to get along with Chandler and Monica that was going to be a problem. Sure, the went the sitcom way of having her cuddle up and kiss him and he caved and offered to sell his friends to buy her things but that was actually the anomaly because when Janine's dislike of them continued it was really upsetting to him. And when they had the whole confrontation Joey was the most mature out of all of them, really trying to diffuse the situation and admitting that both sides went too far when they got into it. Ultimately, you just knew that Joey wasn't going to remain with someone who detested his friends so much.

I also kind of like that it carried on with Monica's scrappy side. Monica the fiesty scrapper just tickles me. From the one with the discount wedding dress ("You don't want to mess with me." "Maybe I do! I'm pretty fiesty!") to her being freakishly strong to 'I better not see you in the hall! ... ... ... 'You better run!!' I love all of that.

But the episode did suggest that Janine was a fucking moron. She'd been living with Joey for awhile. She knew how close that crew was. The second she starts kissing on Joey she thinks he's going to ditch his long term friends for... what exactly? A relationship that had thus far lasted all of three days? Maybe a week? Actually, how the hell long was Janine there for? There was a Thanksgiving episode... there was her moving in and adding photographs and potpourri to the house... there was Joey being attracted to her and wanting to get with her and everyone saying it was a bad idea while Janine was immune to Joey's charms... there was the New Year's Rockin' Eve... then she and Joey kissed. She decided she didn't like Chandler and Monica and she was gone.

What is time? I don't even know anymore.

Actually, it's kind of funny to think about how various SOs felt about the rest of the crew. There was Pheobe's psychiatrist boyfriend Roger who everyone hated because he was all psychiatrist at them and when Phoebe told him he had a delightful rant and that was the end of that. Janine with Chandler and Monica. Emily dared to try to get between Ross and Rachel (after a disastrous wedding that you could kind of understand where she was coming from... to a point) and she was ousted. Meanwhile, Mike didn't seem to like ANY of the friends but there he was marrying Phoebe and no problem at all!

Although with Chandler and Monica moving out of the city, Joey going off to California for acting (or are we pretending 'Joey' never existed) and then whatever the hell might have happened with Ross and Rachel (I rather like the idea of them splitting up for good after all and Rachel going to Paris) maybe Mike not liking the rest of the friends didn't matter much in the long run.

[Nordly Beaumont]

And there was that one guy early on... Alan? Dated Monica and the gang adored him. Chandler quit smoking for him! Monica wasn't into him and when she broke up with him he said he was kind of relieved because he hated her friends!

[chitowngirl]

There was Alec Baldwin’s Parker who thought everything was WONDERFUL! 

[Danny Franks]

Okay, The One After the Superbowl... Man, this episode really feels off, to me. Ross flying across country just to see Marcel, and Dan Castellaneta telling him about the break in that was covered up. And that awful, cringeworthy rendition of The Lion Sleeps Tonight (of course, anything Marcel-related sits poorly, for me. Both because it was a dumb idea from a writing perspective, but also because wild animals trained to perform is something I'm not a fan of). 

Chris Isaak guest starring for no reason and Brooke Shields being really overtly crazy. Then Julia Roberts and Jean-Claude Van Damme (which is weird, because one is playing himself, the other is playing a character). I know that they wanted to go big, because it was an opportunity to shine in prime-time, but it just doesn't feel like a Friends episode to me. The humour is off, and I feel like some people watching must have been saying 'man, this show has lost it, the writers are already out of ideas'. Thankfully, it was an anomaly.

There's still the great scene where Ross improvs Hans Remoray, and they all throw water in Joey's face, but that's about the only redeeming aspect of the two episodes.

Edited December 21, 2018 by Danny Franks

[mojoween]

Wasn’t Julia Roberts dating Matthew Perry at the time?

The ep where Ross broke the Brown Bird girl’s leg was on last night and that whole story was so stupid.  Seeing Ross, a relative stranger, sitting alone in a little girl’s room skeeved me out.

[Jax7917]

2 minutes ago, mojoween said:

Wasn’t Julia Roberts dating Matthew Perry at the time?

The ep where Ross broke the Brown Bird girl’s leg was on last night and that whole story was so stupid.  Seeing Ross, a relative stranger, sitting alone in a little girl’s room skeeved me out.

Just was watching that one as well. I was very curious why a parent would let an adult stranger sit in the girls bedroom with her alone as well as spend as much time together alone as they did.

[Bort]

Considering that the girl's father was apparently a huge gambling addict, his neglect wasn't surprising.

[Talky Tina]

That wasn't as bad as Rachel letting a total stranger she had just met change Emma's diaper.  She had just met Sandy the nanny and let's him take her baby into the next room to change her.  She also left her with Gavin who she had also just met. 

[Mr. Meatball Man]

I think an article was posted here months ago about someone that really liked the first season of Friends, then started thinking it was going downhill in season two and "The One After the Super Bowl" was what made them quit watching for good. It seems like I'm in the minority of people that actually like the episode. It was definitely written with the intention to get ratings, but it has a very relaxed feeling to it. It's like the show went on vacation for that episode.