Ross would probably have shown Monica the invitation which would have his name on it

One thing I didn't like - not a mistake, more a personal opinion - was how unbearably cruel they made Susan and Carol to Ross. The Seinfeld writers could get away with making their cast unlikeable and even barely human at times but the friends writers couldn't. That was part of its appeal! But just occasionally, when the viewers were invited to laugh at Ross for his perceived naivety - 'What are Carol and Susan up to tonight?' 'I don't know, something girly!' 'They engaged in what can only be described as a twosome!!' Nice, they had sex in front of him - left a very bad taste.

i agree i thought carol was uncessarily horrid to ross everytime they were onscreen together she had another with his wife shes lucky she didnt get a punch in the face

In the episode with the adoption social worker, Monica, Chandler and Joey put in a lot of effort to hide the fact that they are all friends.

At the end of the visit, Joey manages to convince the SW that he did not leave her hanging on purpose and she goes away thinking Monica and Chandler are really great and later gives them a brilliant report.

But even without the Joey issue the visit was a total disaster, with Monica and Chandler acting really weird, and telling her about drugs in the building and a crazy guy who roams the halls.

I know the SW wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the box, but even so no way could she think that was a great visit.

Chandler and Monica were only weird because of the Joey issue. And maybe the SW just got their sense of humour?

The nature of Joey's stupidity:

Sometimes he is portrayed as being academically stupid but having street smarts/practical skills (in fact he often had better street smarts than the other 2 guys)

On other occasions he is portrayed as being stupid in more practical ways (for example when his furniture is stolen)

Some of these gripes make me laugh because it's the point of the show it's comedy.

I know exactly what you mean.

Also, not a gripe, but I wonder if the writers knew how the show would end up with the couples.

For example, Ross' crush on Rachel in high school comes up in the pilot episode, I wonder if the writers had them as "end game" all the time? They get together in S2 and split up in S3. For me, i think it wasn't until she's pregnant with Emma that the writers thought "OK, we may have 1, 2 or 3 seasons left but should we just have them as end game?", sometimes I don't know whether S4-S7 had any writers think "shall we drop this now as they are getting older?". 10 years is a big span, so it'd be odd if Ross and Rachel's interaction in the pilot was a statement making people aware that we should support the couple?

I don't know if that makes sense...

On that front, I don't know if hooking Joey and Rachel up together was something the writers had in mind forever, until the viewers made a decision whether they liked them or not, or if the writers knew it would be a 3 ep stint to make way for Ross and Rachel again.

As for the gripe about Carol, I understand. She treats Ross quite badly considering everything. If a man cheated on his wife and kept his new one on his side and take the piss out of his ex wife constantly with his new girlfriend, it wouldn't come across well. But with them, it was like we were being invited to laugh at Ross. Of course it was funny on the show, in real life though... I'm not sure if we were meant to feel sorry for him or laugh at him because it took him a while to clock on to the fact she was in interested in women (see flashback episodes).

Ross and Rachel yawnfest was always the main 'relationship' of the show, I think they probably just realised that there was no drama in them being together once the show got popular and was clearly going to run for years so the writers had to keep them apart but keep it brewing until such a time the show was ending

That for me is one of the things that annoys me about the show, They were together so little and destroyed so much of each others lives that the relationship was actually a very bizarre and damaging one rather than a great love story

I think several years down the line Ross probably took his and Rachels lives to complete the misery of their relationship

Is it on this thread, I do apologise if it is and I can't remember who posted it...but I once read someone muse that the Ross and Rachel story ends with a news report stating "and then he turned the gun on himself "

In TOW Barry and Mindy's Wedding, are you trying to tell me that Chandler and Janice were chatting for hours (days?) online to eachother and didn't even know it was them? Surely their names would have came up in conversation at one point?

Good shout! Of course their names would have came up

Well I suppose in the context of 90s chat rooms maybe they were happy to just go with whatever their handles were. However once they agreed to meet up they wouldve definitely exchanged more info I think. Or even Janice would've questioned meeting in Central Perk.
But anyway it gave us some laughs...

And one final gripe from me tonight (having a Friends marathon on Netflix ), I just watched TOW The Chicken Pox and why the hell are Pheobe and her boyfriend having a romantic dinner at Monica and Rachel's apartment? There's a few scenes where they are both completely alone in the apartment and then there's a scene where Rachel and Ross both cook the dinner for them and leave them to their own company.

Doesn't Pheobe have her own place? Who lets their friend and her random boyfriend stay in your apartment alone while you're not home?

Just so weird.

Phoebe lived with her Grandma at the time so maybe her and Charlie Sheen couldn't stay there?

Or the chicken pox was dangerous to the grandmother,
But yea it's a bit weird that Phoebe and Charlie were pretty much stationed in Monicas sitting room for their planned shaggathon

Also in the Adoption Social Worker episode, is it really likely that the SW would impart details of her s*x life to a pair of people she had just met, particularly in a professional setting.

Maybe she thought Chandler and Monica would be interested as they were weird like that

But yeah good point

haha only just came across this thread, I am the biggest Friends fan and often I notice all these things but I love the show so much I never really care. Fun thread though

The subject of Chandler and Monicas path to parenthood is all ridiculous though. From the social worker and Joeys letter that they never verified the authenticity of to lying about their identities to not knowing Erica was having twins.
But it's Friends and a gruelling realistic infertility (or "reproductively challenged " as they say in SATC) storyline has no place in the show really.
It's light hearted and silly but I found the whole storyline a bit strange - apart from a few quips (joey not knowing what surrogacy is!!!) the rest of the gang are excluded from it. It's purely between Chandler and Monica. I'm not sure they could've done it any other way though.

Welcome to the thread It's a light hearted discussion of the show and a chance for a moan for any one who feels like it.
As long as Friends is on four times a day every day we'll be here

(unless digital spy decides otherwise of course)

But Joey knew what surrogacy was when Phoebe carried the triplets for her brother Frank and his wife Alice

He did. So for him to claim to not know what it was when Chandler said it wasn't an option for them is a gripe but it also reinforced the kinda flippant way the story was written.
He also offered to impregnate Monica himself and suggested Ross just give them Ben.
All hilarious......

The dumbest part of the adoption storyline for me was the episode when they went to visit a couple who had adopted a boy, who I think were friends of Phoebe. The boy didn't know he was adopted and Chandler let it slip, not knowing the boy had not been told.

I know it was done to make it funny, but surely if this family wanted to maintain this secret, they would have made sure Chandler and Monica knew this way before they even came to their home, instead of just suddenly telling Monica when Chandler had already wandered off to the bathroom.

On a side note, surely the boy might have suspected something as he was very ginger and as I recall, the parents were not. Not that this always means anything.