Friends
Number of Seasons: 10 (238 episodes)
Time Requirements: Real talk: There’s like 85 hours of television here. You could get through it in about two weeks if you quit your job and just watched eight hours of Friends a day, but no one wants that. Take your time and graze on these over a couple months. Take in a few episodes a night and a half-dozen or so on weekends and you can get through this in about three months. (Also, you don’t have to watch every episode if you don’t want to, but we’ll get to that in a second.)
Where to Get Your Fix: DVD, TBS (let’s be honest, it’s probably on right now), coming to Netflix on Jan. 1, 2015.
Best Character to Follow: Are you really tidy? Monica. A bit self-absorbed? Rachel. A paleontologist who fancies himself Indiana Jones? Ross. A spacey acoustic guitar player-slash-masseuse? Phoebe. A lunkheaded actor who doesn’t know how to use air quotes and thinks the phrase is “it’s a moo point,” but is really good at removing bras? Joey. A sarcastic pseudo-jerk? Chandler. Honestly, it doesn’t matter. There isn’t a single person here on some great journey—just watch them all fumble through life.
Seasons/Episodes You Can Skip:
OK, here’s the deal: This show really isn’t about anything. Unlike, say, How I Met Your Mother—which was also about a bunch of New York 20-somethings with uncommonly nice living quarters—there isn’t an implicit ending in the title. Aside from the series-long arc revolving around whether or not Ross and Rachel would end up together, there is no central conflict or goal. It’s literally just about six people who do pretty inconsequential stuff (remember: no one told you life was gonna be this way).
Knowing that leaves you pretty capable of going into any episode cold, so you can watch or not watch any of them. Think of Friends like that bowl of candy your mom puts out at the holidays: just eat what you want until you’ve had enough. This is incredibly easy since the naming convention of the show—e.g. The One with the Lesbian Wedding (the 90s, everyone)—pretty much tells you what will happen in any installment.
That said, if you want to know which episodes to watch just to keep up with all the references people make to this show, read on. (Oh, and for what it’s worth, the last two seasons are pretty meh. After Season 8 just skip to the series finale, which will make you cry anyway.) [Ed.---Gotta make an exception for Season 10's "The One With Ross's Tan," which is glorious.]
Seasons/Episodes You Can’t Skip:
Season 1: Episode 1, “The One Where Monica Gets a Roommate” Rachel leaves a guy at the altar and runs to her friend Monica, whom she hasn’t seen in years and didn’t deem worthy of inviting to her wedding. Monica’s brother Ross is reminded that he’s loved Rachel since high school, when she barely knew he was alive. Rachel moves in with Monica in the Village (because things like that can just happen on TV, OK?) and the entire will-they-won’t-they? between Ross and Rachel begins.
Season 1: Episode 7, “The One with the Blackout” This bottle episode throws most of the gang into Monica and Rachel’s apartment (except Chandler, who’s stuck in an ATM vestibule with Victoria’s Secret model Jill Goodacre) during a blackout in New York City. While they’re trapped, we learn all sorts of interesting things about the friends, like the strangest place Phoebe ever had sex is Milwaukee and that Joey is worried Ross is going to end up in the Friend Zone with Rachel (“Ross, you’re mayor of the Zone”).
Season 1: Episode 18, “The One with All the Poker” The guys teach the girls to play poker. Gender equality hilarity ensues!
Season 1: Episode 24, “The One Where Rachel Finds Out” Ross has to go to China for work but leaves behind his gift for Rachel’s birthday—an antique pin Rachel saw in a store window that reminded her of one her grandmother had. This accidentally leads to Chandler spilling the beans that Ross is in love with Rachel.
Season 2: Episode 7, “The One Where Ross Finds Out” While Ross was in China, he met Julie. Julie became his girlfriend and Rachel realizes she has feelings for him. She then gets drunk and tells his answering machine that she’s over him. (“You’re over me? When were you under me?” Classic Ross.)
Season 2: Episode 14, “The One with the Prom Video” Monica unearths the video of her and Rachel’s prom which reveals Ross put on his father’s tux to be Rachel’s date when said date—the appropriately-named Chip—looks like he’s going to bail. Chip shows up at the last minute and Ross is heartbroken. After watching the tape, Rachel kisses Ross and Phoebe says the immortal words, “See? He’s her lobster.” (She previously stated that lobsters couple for life.)
Season 2: Episode 15, “The One Where Ross and Rachel … You Know” Monica reunites with her parents’ friend Dr. Richard Burke (Tom Selleck) and starts one of her big romances of the show. Also, Ross and Rachel bone. Obviously.
Season 2: Episode 22, “The One with the Two Parties” In order to make things easier with Rachel’s separated parents, the gang throws Rachel two birthday parties—one in the guys’ apartment, one in the girls’. Situational comedy!
Season 3: Episode 2, “The One Where No One’s Ready” The friends have stupid arguments that cause them to be late for an event at the museum where Ross works. (This is the one where Joey puts on all of Chandler’s clothes.)
Season 3: Episode 9, “The One with the Football” One of the show’s many great Thanksgiving episodes. In this one the gang plays touch football, reigniting an old rivalry between siblings Ross and Monica.
Season 3: Episode 16, “The One the Morning After” Ross sleeps with someone after Rachel suggests they need a break. They have a huge fight while the other four friends are stuck in Monica’s room listening. (This is the start of that whole “we were on a break” thing. Your friends probably quote this.)
Season 4: Episode 8, “The One with Chandler in a Box” Another great Thanksgiving episode. Chandler kissed Joey’s girlfriend so Joey puts him in a box to do penance during Turkey Day. Monica invites Richard’s son Tim to dinner, which is creepy.
Season 4: Episode 12, “The One with the Embryos” Phoebe agrees to carry the artificially inseminated embryos of her brother Frank (Giovanni Ribisi) and his wife. She’ll end up with triplets. The gang also competes in a game of knowledge about each others’ lives, which remains one of the best scenes in the entire series. #transponster
Season 5: Episode 1, “The One After Ross Says Rachel” In the Season 4 finale, while at the altar marrying a woman named Emily, Ross said “I take thee, Rachel.” Also, Monica and Chandler had sex. This is the aftermath, where Rachel almost joins Ross on his honeymoon and Monica and Chandler realize that they kinda like having sex.
Season 5: Episode 3, “The One Hundredth/The One with the Triplets” Phoebe goes into labor with Frank’s triplets. (Her doctor is obsessed with Happy Days.) Joey has kidney stones. (His doctor will go on to be the principal on Glee.) Meanwhile, Monica and Chandler are “goofing around” and hiding it from everyone. There’s also a great moment when Phoebe confesses to Rachel that she wants to keep one of the babies. Rachel’s response—”Oh, I’m going to be on the news.”—is one of a million examples of just how good Aniston’s comedic timing was on this show.
Season 5: Episode 11, “The One with All the Resolutions” The gang makes New Year’s resolutions. The hardest to keep seems to be Chandler’s resolve to not make sarcastic comments about his friends. (Also, Ross wears leather pants and it goes very, very wrong.)
Season 5: Episode 14, “The One Where Everybody Finds Out” Phoebe and Rachel, now aware that everyone knows about Monica and Chandler’s relationship, decide to mess with the “new” couple by sending Phoebe in to flirt with Chandler.
Season 5: Episodes 23 and 24, “The One in Vegas: Parts 1 and 2″ Ross and Rachel get married in Vegas, leading to one of Ross’ umpteen divorces.
Season 6: Episode 9, “The One Where Ross Got High” This Thanksgiving Monica invited her and Ross’ folks, who still don’t know she’s in a relationship with Chandler. They don’t like him for an unknown reason, which Ross later deduces is because he got busted smoking pot in college and blamed Chandler. Rachel screws up dessert.
Season 6: Episodes 15 and 16, “The One That Could Have Been: Parts 1 and 2″ Phoebe is a Wall Street big-shot, Ross is still married to a lesbian, and Rachel considers cheating on her husband with Days of Our Lives star Joey. This two-parter answers the age-old question every group of friends has asked themselves: If we had taken different paths in life, would we still hang out?
Season 6: Episodes 24 and 25, “The One with the Proposal: Parts 1 and 2″ Chandler tries to propose to Monica, but Richard shows up at the restaurant where it was supposed to happen. Chandler then decides to try to throw Monica way off the marriage track and act like a guy who will never get married. Monica, in turn, freaks and gets rattled further when Richard returns and tells her he wants to marry her. A comedy of errors ensues before leading up to one of the show’s best moments (below). There’s also a great subplot where Joey gets a boat.
Season 7: Episode 1, “The One with Monica’s Thunder” Ross and Rachel steal Monica’s thunder by hooking up during her engagement party.
Season 7: Episode 20, “The One with Rachel’s Big Kiss” Winona Ryder shows up as a college friend Rachel once drunkenly made out with. To prove she’s still crazy at heart, Rachel kisses her again … and Ryder’s Melissa confesses her love.
Season 7: Episodes 23 and 24, “The One with Monica and Chandler’s Wedding: Parts 1 and 2″ After a predictable “cold feet” bit, Chandler and Monica finally tie the knot. Pass the tissues. Also, Rachel finds out she’s knocked up.
Season 8: Episode 9, “The One with the Rumor” This is that one where Brad Pitt does a guest appearance and fights with Rachel, which is funny ’cause Pitt and Aniston were married at the time. Let’s all have a moment of silence … for Pitt’s frosted hair. (Side Note: This one also caused controversy for joking about intersex youth.)
Season 10: Episodes 17 and 18, “The Last One: Parts 1 and 2″ The series finale two-parter is a tear-jerker. It also has the now-infamous “I got off the plane” line from Rachel. (See below.) Watch and weep.
Why You Should Binge:
Because, like Seinfeld, Friends is probably going to be part of the pop culture lexicon for at least another decade or so and you might as well know what the eff “Smelly Cat” is all about. Or “pivot!” Or “MY SANDWICH?!” Or “How you doin’?”
Best Scene—Rachel Gets Off the Plane:
Honestly, Monica’s proposal to Chandler is probably sweeter, but the moment where Rachel got off of a plane to her new job in Paris to be with Ross is the one most people watched this show for 10 seasons to see.
The Takeaway:
This is pretty much a standard-issue sitcom about a bunch of fairly one-or-two-note white people … and if you don’t fall in love with them at some point you probably have no soul. They’ll be there for you even when your real friends aren’t. (For real, this was the best show. There’s a reason it was on the air forever and the people on it were grossly overpaid.)
If You Liked Friends You’ll Love:
How I Met Your Mother or any other comedy about a group of young people just trying to make it in [insert big city here]. (Girls, Looking, etc.) Also, give Lisa Kudrow’s HBO show The Comeback a spin.
No comments:
Post a Comment