There is an element of consistency though as Joey does get mad when Chandler Bing tries to take a second bite.

I think all episodes went downhill after Monica and Chandler got together, I really didn't like that pairing. After they got together everyone just turned into caricatures of themselves. Joey just went think beyond belief (the french episode was just ridiculous) Pheobe changed from the first few series and Monica was completley different too. She just acted completley over the top all of the time. I only watch the older series now anything after London I don't really enjoy.

Totally agree with you. Chandler and Monica didn't suit each other imo. Monica became so shrill and controlling she turned Chandler into a weakling! I suppose in order to keep their relationship fresh and interesting the writers constantly needed to up the characters personalities. It just became silly.

Phoebe should never have ended up with Mike. I felt that was kind of forced, just to give Phoebe a happy ending. I'd have just preferred it if they'd paired her up with David instead. Unfortunately, they ruined Phoebe's character anyway, she had gone from being naive, sweet and endearing to bitchy and manipulative. A shame because I think Lisa Kudrow is great!

I didn't mind much of the stuff that happened with Ross and Rachel, they were perhaps two characters who seemed fairly consistent throughout the show. I say 'fairly' of course because they still changed. I just don't like the way the writers seemed to forget they had a child called Emma. In some episodes after she was born she barely got a mention.

Joey, as a lot of other people have already stated, seemed to only increase in stupidity as the show went on.

The first three seasons imo were the best. By the end the six friends had turned 2-dimensional. And understandably, as there's only so much material you can write about.

OH! And I've never liked the way Ross's occupation is treated by the rest of the group. He's a paleontologist. A pretty good job I think we'd all agree! Why did the others have to mock him being called "Doctor Geller". I find it hard to believe they all thought dinosaurs were boring. Never understood the need to write those kind of jokes in.

Season 1: Carol gives birth, everyone is at the hospital.

Season 5: Phoebe gives birth, everyone is at the hospital.

Season 8: Rachel gives birth, everyone is at the hospital.

Season 10: Erica gives birth, no one is there.

Although I understand in this case it was the last episode and it wouldnt be fair to centre the episode around Monica and Chandler.

Well I don't think it's convention for adoptees to be present at the birth is it? Legitimate question.

Probably mentioned, not so much a gripe, but always found it amusing the weight change in Chandler, (very noticeable in his face) from the series finale on S6 (TOW the Proposal) to the first Ep of S7 (TOW Monic's Thunder) these two eps are supposed to be the same night aren't they?

Yes they are, But real life happened in-between. It had to be ignored because there was no way of explaining it

Monica and Chandler were at Ericas side when she was giving birth as thats the first time they knew of they would be getting twins and quite a few times Chandler made jokes about how uncomfortable he was in that situation

I wouldn't of expected any of the others to be present though, it wasn;t like the other 3 births were they all knew the person giving birth well (Maybe at a stretch you could say Joey had no real reason to be at Carols birth as he didn't know her as well as the others as we learn as the series goes on)

Having rewatched season 1, I think Paulo was a badly written character but admittedly this was when the show was finding it's feet

The Paolo plot line doesn't make a heap of sense in the context of the whole show.
Rachel is presented as this somewhat prim and proper girl who was to be married youngish and had no passion - most exciting place being the foot of the bed - so when she met Paolo it was all about the animal sex (not beastiality of course ) yet as Rachels back story gets filled in as the show progresses it appears she had a few boyfriends and flings before she was to marry Barry.


Chandler only ate Joeys sambo coz he thought he was giving it to him. Joey would eat someone else's food but if Chandler had known he'd probably have declined. He'd ate a cheesecake off a floor though.
Ross is hungry coz Monica ate all his food growing up and would probably eat out of a bin if he was passing one.

Regarding the twins' birth I think "the Gang" wanted to come but Monica instructed them to stay and pack as they were moving house.

I HATE the Chandler going to Yemen episode simply because its so ludicrous. A grown man flying to the middle east just to get away from his annoying ex girlfriend and spending a huge amount of money on a ticket. Now I know that you have to suspend a certain amount of reality with Friends, but I always prefer the episodes where it could actually be real life. This was just dumb.

I don't know if it's just me, but the episode where they all agree fun bobby is an alcoholic has always bothered me. When Rachel says "somehow we went through 5 bottles?" There's 7 of them! 5 bottles is not that much between 7 really, that's like 3 glasses each at the most. What they should have said is fun bobby is the only one holding up his end.

The episode "The One with the flashback" bugs me. It's a good episode but has major continuity errors and contradicts whatever was said about each other's past.

For example, that episode aired in season 3 and is set three years earlier. In the episode, Rachel remarks she is engaged to Barry and will be marrying one year from now. The episode also deals with Ross revealing his wife is a lesbian. However that makes zero sense. Ross's wife being a lesbian and Rachel running out of her wedding are both key plots in the very first episode. So i doubt Ross would still be in shock over his wife leaving him for a woman and having got her pregnant a year after finding out she is a lesbian.

In the pilot she has just moved her stuff out, So they obviously tried to make things work. Also he mentions in later episodes they had some good times after she 'came out' so that may explain why, Perhaps in his head they had gotten over her 'phase' then bam....A year later she drops him and moves out

I do agree but I think that they covered that in the beginning before the credits. Rachel says (something like) "imagine if I actually married Barry" and Ross says (something like) "imagine if Carol didn't realise she was a lesbian" so although the timing is all out of sync, I think it's covered.

You are thinking of 'The one that could have been', the flashback episode was a flashback to what actually happened so continuity is important.

Another minor Ross gripe.

I think the episode is during the Chandler in Tulsa era and Monica upsets him because she keeps raving on about this guy at her work who is so funny.

Chandler is upset because being funny is his 'thing'. Joey then wonders what Ross' 'thing' is and Ross responds with Science, Academia and being a good father.

Now maybe I am just being picky because I hate Ross, but this seems lame. Surely being a good father is not a 'thing', it is just the normal expectation of anyone with kids. Plus it could be argued he is not a great father, two kids born to mothers he is not involved with once the child is born and during this period he is out banging loads of women, including a student of his that is 10-12 years younger, hardly a great role model.

The Science/Academia comments just make him sound conceited and superior to the rest of the group, who I always feel he looks down on from a career/education point of view.

Yea that is a bit lame actually, Maybe he should have said 'Intelligence' as he is the one of the group who probably knows the most about what would be considered 'high brow' subjects.

He is an appalling father

Ahhh of course. My mistake!

Monica desperate for a haircut from phoebe, why would she need an at home haircut so badly?! (Though I think she was getting her hair cut short after she filmed Scream, so they must of felt they needed a storyline to explain the drastic haircut, as phoebe accidentally cuts it short badly, so monica gets it fixed by the next episode-which she should have done in the first place!-ahhh friends inception)

The timeline is probably the gripiest of gripes, funny to think it Could of been altered by monica saying "i think you know chandler" to rachel when she first came into the coffee shop

As with most sitcoms the characters are funny but ultimately super moral, the friends gang is too, but ross admits to having an illegal monkey, monica illegally rents her apartment joey sleeps with someone to get his DOOL role. I personally love characters being bad, a la Seinfeld ("no hugs no learning") but they need to be consistent throughout

They overplayed rachels and monicas prior friendship, if they were bffs and ross was so madly in love with her,why after high school/college (still unsure of monica and college?) did both lose contact with her completely? Not knowing about her wedding to barry or anything about her life?

Also when rachel and monica have a date with the doctors (clooney and someone else) rachel states how she (pretending to be monica) has lived in the apartment for years, and rachel had been in New York for a few months. So it's clear that the gang has been together for a few years, and yet rachel is welcomed totally as a core group member within months?

The random supernatural things that pop up here and there are strange, when rachel visions and even talks to ross on the balcony when she finds out ross likes her (end of S1) or when ross sees his mum during the princess Leia fantasy, or when joey "walks into the sunset" with the department store girl when he beats the spray off with the other cowboy cologne sprayer ("ombré for men?") and the lights actually change and the sun lights up for dramatic effect. I know these are super nit picky, but ah well!

Duncan, phoebes green card husband, was never heard of again along with a few other characters. Ben, carol, susan, joeys sisters, gavin, phoebes mum and dad ...

Minor funny thing, the girls -especially rachels- nipples are constantly in view, even when visibly wearing a bra?! Must have been icy coldin that studio! Though rachels early season miniskirts tell a different story

Ben didnt attend any christmas or thanksgivings? (Of course apart from the holiday armadillo situation) seriously ross, like you have a son!

Is it just me who thinks the writers might sometimes genuinley forget that ross and monica are related? Like the detailed discussions of their sex lives in front of each other and inappropriate touching borders on creepsville

Also this is to all sitcoms too, the fact that they never laugh at each other, even though they are making jokes constantly. And the classic "im pretending to eat" seen in all sitcoms. Often includes pushing food around a plate, ripping food apart or the camera just happening to miss the food going into their mouth- fake chewing ensues

They fell into the classic "token dumb character" trap when it came to joeys writing and character development, as the series went on, his dumbness got less believable and more exaggerated. This often happens on sitcoms as writers feel they have to ease audiences into believe a character can be that stupid. E.g alex from happy endings (though she became hilarious as she went on) and Adam from Rules of Engagement

Also was it just me that would have loved to see a Russ and Julie wedding?

The fact that apparently because susan and carol were lesbians, they were only allowed to know/talk to/socialise with lesbians apparent through the all lesbian wedding guest roster

Not sure even ross would be allowed to roam freely with rachel around the museum full of valuable ancient artefacts, go in every part, play music and a star show, have sex in a display and sleep there, waking up in front of a class if children. That is one freewheelin museum security staff!

While it has been pointed out that Ross wasn't a great father, I do think Carol and Susan bullied him meaning that he hardly saw Ben

In TOW Dozen Lasagnes Rachel says "I can't believe you don't want to know the sex of the baby", but when pregnant with Emma Rachel doesn't want to know the sex of the baby!

The whole 'we were on a break' theme - Rachel always took the moral high ground which really bugged me.

Yep Ross slept with someone but Rachel basically discarded him as a bf as soon as she got the job at Bloomingdales. Rachel then suggested going on a break and was quick to invite Mark over for dinner the same night. She never believed that Mark wanted anything more than friendship but he proved Ross' point after their first date.

Ross took way too much of the blame for that whole storyline.

In TOW Nana dies Twice Joey and Jack bond over watching football. This makes Jack's "Which one are you?" line even more ridiculous because he has known Joey for so long

Joey says to Monica, "I have a question, I don't see any tots"! This is a silly line because Monica didn't know until Thanksgiving that Joey would be there

It's also a silly line, because it is not even a question (I believe this is in fact pointed out by Monica)

Phoebe has 2 birthdays in season 1, one is mentioned by Rachel and she also has one in TOW Two Parts

Why did George Clooney's character answer the phone in that episode? You wouldn't answer the phone in a stranger's home! In TOW the Boobies, why does no one look their door?!