Chandler is my favourite of the six but after he married Monica there's a notable difference in his character. He's a lot better in the earlier seasons when he lives with Joey in my opinion.

And you're right. When they're bad, they're bad.

Other examples are the episode where Chandler is in Oklahoma on Christmas Eve with Wendy and Monica immediately assumes there's something going on. Talk about trusting your husband.

The one where Monica tells Chandler that one of her waiters is the funniest guy she's ever met meaning Chandler spends the majority of the episode trying to come up with funny jokes.

And Shark Porn needs no words.

You get the feeling that once they got Monica and Chandler together they were stuck what to do with them at certain moments.


Ross: "It's Paul the Wine Guy!"

Phoebe: "What does that mean? Does he sell it, drink it, or he just complains a lot?"

Pheobe was so much nicer back then.


And on another note, in the one where Rachel has a gift certificate for a free massage and Phoebe rips it up in protest of corporate massage chains, (or so that Rachel won't find out she works at one) Rachel brings the stuck together again certificate to the massage parlour and even though the receptionist points out its torn, she still accepts it.

Surely no business would accept a torn certificate?

Could she have not asked for a replacement one instead?

(I realize its a show and for the purposes of the episode they accepted it but still its a bit weird how the receptionist just accepts a torn voucher)

(And this is a gripe thread and that's a gripe, lol)

All of the families in the area were in touch so it is possible Rachel's parents had been told by Monica's mother where she lives/hangs around, A few episodes later Jack Gellar is having dinner with Monica and is talking about how much the wedding cost. The families are all implied to be close in some ways so where she lives could have been passed on

Of course she could have been in the listings and Rachel looked it up, Things were different in the early 90's

There's a scene in episode 2 where Ross kisses Monica's forehead. A bit weird considering that they're brother and sister

Ah Ross and Monica and their hands on relationship.

Rachel knowing where Monica would be in the first episode, yes it's a suspension of disbelief. "you're the only person I know in the village" or something she says.
Did she just run down the street and then run in asking for Monica or just stop looking for a coffee.

I got the impression she was specifically looking for Monica.

As stated already, this 'suspension of disbelief' can be squared off with the later knowledge that Rachel had bumped into Monica a year earlier, which we see in the Flashback episode.

However it's pretty obvious that this backstory hadn't been created yet (the Flashback episode in Season 3), so it does seem a bit weird explaining how she tracked her down.

Although I wouldn't kiss my sisters forehead I don't think it's weird, it's showing affection to a loved one. Just depends how close you are with your family guess.

I’m on a complete watch at the moment for the first time in a while and in last night’s episode from when Ross is not getting his wedding annulled he kissed Monica twice in a minute, so it’s nothing odd for them.

Anyhow, some minor gripes that bugged me this time round, and which I’m sure are somewhere in the thousands of earlier posts:

Season 1 has a real sense of time and place with extended shots of New York etc, which the later seasons don’t have.

The times when we’re supposed to support the main characters except they’re being awful such as Chandler having an affair with the married Janice, but when Janice goes back to the father of her child we’re supposed to view it as Janice cheating on Chandler. Or Emily asking Ross to stay away from his ex, who helped to ruin their wedding day, and she being in the wrong.

Emily using words like pants and wiener.

Monica admitting to sleeping with Joey to cover up what she and Chandler were doing, and then it never being mentioned again.

The Las Vegas episode irritates me with Joey’s identical hand twin where I felt sorry for the other actor, Phoebe’s unfunny skit trying to defeat the lurker, the retching sounds when Rachel and Ross come out of the chapel despite them not looking as if they’re retching, Phoebe saying how drunk she is in the morning in a completely sober way,

Every time Gunther says something such as ‘thank you for not marrying Rachel,’ or offers to buy everything Rachel has touched everybody ignores him and nobody ever picks up that he might have secret feelings for her.

The strange bit of Monica and then Rachel stealing money from Ross’s apartment.

Phoebe’s poor enunciation sometimes. I finally gave up and googled the song ‘I’m lathering sweet peas’ as I couldn’t believe she was singing that and it turned out she was singing, ‘Lather, Rinse, Repeat’. On the other hand there’s one line that goes something like ‘At least you haven’t got three babies dancing to f*** on your uterus’ that I couldn’t translate.

Oh and I read recently the theory that Phoebe and Joey were secretly lovers, which the actors wanted to do and the writers sort of admitted was happening without ever making it explicit. I hadn’t considered that before and so I watched out for it, and it is strange the huge number of times they say things to each other that could be interpreted as them having a secret relationship.

I always thought she was lathering sweet peas too lol

and she doesnt say f*** even though is really does sound like it:
"I tell ya, it’s a lot easier having three babies play Bringing in the Noise, Bringing in da Funk on your bladder"

Their relationship was the closest without them ever becoming lovers. They snogged 3 times, once when Phoebe posed as Ursula to break up with Joey, when Joey needed to practice kissing someone for a role and when Phoebe had turned 31 (but thought she was 30) but hadn't fulfilled all her ambitions including a perfect kiss and meeting someone from Portugal

They are always over praising each other to the detriment of others, also if anyone criticised Joey (even in a jokey way) Phoebe always jumped to his defence.

My comments in bold.

The episodes where the group leave an area Phoebe is asleep and dreams them.
She was drunk in Vegas and.... Did she even have a storyline in Barbados....
Ohhhhhhhhhh Mike and David well neither of them existed

Not a gripe as such, but getting Jason Alexander in to play...well, George Costanza, basically - 'I'm going to kill myself and nobody cares' - was a smart move. Even at its best, Friends couldn't quite match up to Seinfeld and this felt like a tacit admission to me on behalf of the writers. Series one in particular felt like a bit of a Seinfeld clone; 'I'm not in the zone.' 'Ross, you're mayor of the zone.' 'Paul the wine guy!' with a better looking cast and more hugs.

I really like that episode "Look i've got goosebumps" "Really?" "Well im wearing layers and its warm"

The Monica not trusting Chandler thing I kind of understand.

Sure I think that she was untrusting by assuming be would be having an affair and he's never shown any sign of cheating on her....BUT could she be thinking it was possibly due to the fact that 4 years prior Chandlers went behind his best mates back and went with Kathy? That could have been on her mind. You never know. But that's the only doubt she'd have.

See I don't think this show is meant to be taken so seriously or in depth as to what have happened 4 years ago. For me it was just funny, it didn't have any hidden meaning.

It's like when the whole group thought Chandler was cheating on Monica when he looked at the house, it was just part of a joke. I didn't instantly think they're bad people for thinking he cheated.

Oh i agree, I just mean it wasn't that far fetched to believe Chandler would cheat. Joey, Ross and Chandler have cheated before (OK, I get Chandler wasn't in a relationship, but I classify as him going behind Joey's back worse). So any of them cheating wouldn't have been some huge unreasonable "they would never cheat" thing with their OH like it would be in reality, but yes, I get what you mean. It's a TV show not reality.

With the Gunther thing I posted a few pages back about that. I just don't understand how they would be so pally with Gunther considering he was the one that told Rachel about Ross' cheating. I know Ross had more things to worry about and people he cared for to worry about, but you'd think he's hate Gunther for spilling the beans, but Gunther just continues being that "extra", being invited to parties etc... It was barely a year after when Gunther was invited to Emily's leaving party! The girlfriend of the bloke that Gunther hates!

Well to be fair Rachel was being selfish and planning a leaving party for Emily just so she could seduce Joshua.
She'd have probably invited all of Ross's ex girlfriends and school bullies if she thought they'd make up the numbers!
And Gunther wouldn't say no to Rachel even if the party was for Ross.

I suppose it's no surprise tho that no one calls Gunther on his hatred for Ross I mean look what the gang put up with from Phoebe in later years

Another funny moment is when Ross has his vanilla champagne and asks for 6 glasses. The hope and surprise in Gunthers voice when he thinks Ross wants him to join them. Then Ross says no,just 5 glasses.
I think it shows the feeling is mutual

One thing that gets me even though I like both characters is the reason Ross and Rachel brake up. We are lead to believe that he is being unreasonable when she is being very nasty about the whole thing. Yes he was with someone else but she did state earlier that episode that the relationship was over.

That break up does lead to some very funny one liners though one of them being we were on a break.

I'm on team Rachel in this situation, if i had broken up with someone and they went and slept with someone that very night then I would be devastated. I dont think she was being nasty at all

I'm with Rachel too. In her mind it shows that he couldn't have cared that much about her if he was willing to sleep with someone else a few hours after he thought they had broken up.

If it had been a few days or say a week later then yes Rachel would appear to be unreasonable but it was only approx 4 hrs or more later he jumps into someone else's bed

One of the other things I wonder about is did they wonder about where everyone else was or were they more focused on themselves trying to talk the situation out.

Its said by Monica when their hiding in her bedroom that Ross and Rachel hasn't realised she isn't home yet and she calls it selfish. But if you're stuck in a situation like that I doubt you have your mind on what other people are doing and to be fair Monica is the only one that they would need to think about as she lives in that apartment and the others don't

It's also worth remembering that Rachel and Ross nearly never happened because of the list he made about her and Julie, So in her mind he was not committed then and when they broke up he slept with someone else within hours

Looks bad when you think about it