Friends S02E11 The One with the Lesbian Wedding Review

Summary: Carol and Susan decide to get married and Ross is conflicted. Eventually when they get into an argument, Ross ensures that the wedding does happen. Rachel's mother comes to visit and tells Rachel that she wants to divorce her father. Phoebe is possessed by the spirit of an old woman who recently died.

The Good: This was very funny throughout and there were some hilarious moments which helped to make up for some of this episode's flaws. The Phoebe storyline was pretty ridiculous and far-fetched but it featured several great laughs and funny moments to make it feel worth it. The highlight of course being the old man who makes an effort to sleep with Phoebe. That scene was really great. The Rachel storyline was very good here as well. There was some genuine emotion and purpose to it as Rachel's mother is going through a story which ties in a lot with Rachel's personal life. That added on a lot to the good comedy that Rachel's mother provided. The titular wedding was very funny as well with Chandler and Joey getting in a lot of hilarious lines and Ross being his usual funny self through his awkward interactions. I also liked Monica's stressed out anger as she forced everyone to work. It created a few well-timed laughs. Joey's performance on Days of our Lives was a nice little scene to get as well, showing good continuity from last episode. In general, this episode had some of the best laughs in the whole season.

The Bad: Phoebe being possessed was too ridiculous for my liking and it was treated too normally. I understand that this show is a sit-com but to have something unrealistic like that really hurts my immersion to the show. I wish that the Rachel storyline led somewhere as it didn't really get a definitive conclusion. Joey's "smell the fart" acting was a little too on the nose for me (pun intended), as it felt extremely unreal to see acting like that on a soap opera.

Best Moment: The old man scene was fantastic comedy.

Character of the Episode: Chandler, though everyone was good in this episode.

Conclusion: This episode had some big flaws with realism, but it was consistently funny and had a lot of good, meaningful storylines which is a big improvement from the last episode's weaker storylines. This was good fun.

Score: 77