Summary: Monica and Chandler get a surprise when Erica gives birth to twins. Rachel and Ross have a passionate night together but Rachel still chooses to go to Paris. Ross decides to go after her with Phoebe's help. Joey gets a chick and a duck for Chandler and Monica but they get stuck in the foosball table.
The Good: This episode feels almost like a "best of" compilation and that's totally fine. That's a big improvement for "Friends" because it means that we get a lot of the quality storytelling and jokes that were a staple of the early seasons of the show. The many storylines in this episode are quite fun to watch. The twins twist is a good one, and Monica and Chandler's reactions to this were quite funny. It was fitting to do one last birth story in this finale. There was also one final Chandler/Joey story, and their chemistry is as fun as ever as they solve a pretty ridiculous problem. There is some emotion in destroying the foosball table and seeing them say goodbye, but the dialogue and jokes are good too. Ross and Rachel's story is also really good. It was obvious that they would get together in this finale, but I really like the way that it was done with that classic "guy chases down the girl" story. The jokes in this storyline were very high quality throughout. Phoebe was her usual teasing self and her presence in this episode was terrific. So many moments worked really well, like Ross calling a baby-obsessed Monica, Rachel's interactions with the airport staff, and Phoebe's insane driving. The emotional aspect worked quite well, and the conclusion was excellent with Ross hilariously shouting at an answering machine as Rachel returns to his apartment. This led into the final few scenes of the episode which were melancholy and did a great job of capturing all that we would miss about this show. Lastly, I love that Gunther's long-running crush on Rachel was finally paid off, and his confession to her was one of the episode's best laughs. The Bad: We have seen so many births by this point that the birth jokes mostly fell flat. They weren't creative or funny. The early parts of the episode did feel quite rough with a lack of good jokes or story momentum. Some of the characters were still far too silly, with Joey being unreasonably stupid, and Chandler being uncharacteristically awkward. The left phalange joke is totally ridiculous. There's no way that I can buy everyone storming out of the plane for this absurd reason. It's too big of a stretch. Best Moment: The final moments were very emotional, and Chandler's final joke was a fitting joke to end the show. Character of the Episode: Ross. Conclusion: The series finale of "Friends" managed to recapture some of the glory of the show. It was funny, emotional, exciting, and enjoyable to watch. There was still some of the roughness that has been present in the last five seasons, but thankfully it wasn't very distracting. Overall, this was a definite high note to close out the series. The final season of "Friends" went pretty much as I had expected. It was too late for this show to reclaim its consistency and there was a fair bit of stupidity throughout the season, with the end of Ross and Charlie's relationship being the pinnacle of the horrendous writing in this series. That being said, there was some extra love given to this season through some creative comedy ideas, references to the past, and a great series finale that captured something special. This extra effort prevented season 10 from being a trainwreck, and while I still don't think that this is a very good season, there is enough quality stuff that this still feels like the great show that I adored for the first five seasons. It has taken me five years to review every episode of this show, so needless to say I've had a long road with this show. "Friends" overall holds a very special place in my heart. I believe that the first five seasons of this show are some of the best comedy that you can find. The show was consistent and it found a perfect niche with its comedy style, targeting young adults by being a typical sitcom but with the added twist of featuring realistic relationship-oriented comedy situations that made for an organic blend of reality and fiction. This niche was not only unique, but the injection of reality and relatability made the comedy style easily accessible and uniquely funny in a way that few other shows could manage. But as the show went on, it became clear that the writers were running out of fresh ideas to keep these situations fresh, and what resulted was a dramatic decline as the show tried changing everything to be funny. The situation comedy became repetitive, and the characters started to become simplified versions of themselves to keep these situations funny. Along with that, the long-running storylines became blander with duller side characters, constant focus on the will they/won't they of Ross and Rachel, and an overall decline in joke writing also dragged down the show in its later seasons. Every now and then we would get greatness (especially in seasons 7 and 8), but the consistency of the show was gone and a lot of what made "Friends" special was lost in its final five seasons. Season 9 was a prime example of this, a genuinely awful season of television that exemplified the fall of "Friends" from a top-quality sitcom to a show that I struggled to motivate myself to watch. But regardless of all of the bad stuff that came about, the first five seasons are so terrific that I am glad that I watched this show, and I maintain a positive opinion about this show because of these early seasons alone. Score: 77
5 Comments
Joe Y
8/6/2022 02:21:19 pm
Congrats on finishing it! 5 years is a long time. I haven't really seen enough of Friends to comment on it, as my tastes for 90s comedy always leaned more towards Seinfeld and golden-age Simpsons. But finishing reviews of a 200-episode show is an achievement. BoJack should be a lot of fun to talk about--it's a really ambitious show, and an interesting example of the dramedy problem we've talked about before.
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Aaronic
8/6/2022 03:29:50 pm
Thank you! :) My parents were big fans of Friends and Seinfeld, so those were some of the most significant shows I watched growing up. I intend to review both, it just takes a loooong time to go through all of the episodes again. I'm itching to write about BoJack, I have plenty that I want to talk about with that show.
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Joe Y
8/6/2022 03:51:31 pm
I don't blame you for not wanting to jump into the 9 seasons of Seinfeld directly after finishing the 10 seasons of Friends. But yeah--Seinfeld's a classic for a reason.
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Paul
8/6/2022 05:08:45 pm
Well done on completing reviews for the entire series. Friends is my favourite show of all time, so I’ve read every single one of your reviews as you’ve been writing them. I’ve particularly enjoyed when there’s been episodes that you’ve really liked that I never liked or vice versa. Thanks for all the effort you put into this.
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Aaronic
8/6/2022 06:54:24 pm
I'm glad you enjoyed my reviews! It's been a long journey for me, and I'm happy to hear that you have been tagging along with my (admittedly slow) watch of the show.
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
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