To not like Rachel from Friends anymore? (Light hearted)

[WickedWitchOfTheEast87]

Inspired by the Carrie Bradshaw thread from a little while ago. I've recently been watching my Friends dvd boxset and I really don't like Rachel anymore. She's petty, jealous and vindictive especially to Ross. She sabotaged his relationships and seems to go out of her way to get one over on him or humiliate him in some way. Anyone else agree or am I about to get a tsunami of hatred from Rachel fans 🤣🤣

I always found Phoebe quite annoying/not very funny but never thought of her as mean. Any more examples of the mean-ness?

@DancinOnTheCeiling

I always found Phoebe quite annoying/not very funny but never thought of her as mean. Any more examples of the mean-ness?

Ghosting Rachel from their morning workouts because Rachel had a weird/funny run. Generally insulting people supposedly by accident and allowing Chandler's colleagues to take the Mickey out of him! Shouting at David and his friend when they were chatting in the cafe because she was singing. There are so many!

She was just generally quite vacuous - but the script writers expected us to accept some questionable behaviour as just 'funny'.

Btw - I DO like Phoebe, but I totally get what others are saying about her being mean!

Ghosting Rachel from their morning workouts because Rachel had a weird/funny run.

That was the other way around!

@LoveGrooveDanceParty

Ghosting Rachel from their morning workouts because Rachel had a weird/funny run.

That was the other way around!

Really? To my memory Phoebe ghosted Rachel?

Maybe I need to brush up on my Friends skills 😂 I am still on season 2 at the moment @LoveGrooveDanceParty

Who’s more likely to run funny - Phoebe or Rachel?!

Trust me, as a Friends obsessive - it was Rachel who ghosted Phoebe.

.

Yup! I even googled it. Goodness knows how I got that one muddled! Lol

@froggy1811

I think basically, for all of Friends' un-pc faults, it's just TV gold! It may sound so dramatic, but it got me through a really dark time of my life years ago, when I had nothing else to look forward to than half an hour with the beloved 'friends'! It absolutely made me feel better about everything. And as silly a show as it is/was, there's a 'friend' that everyone can either identify with personally, or can recognise is someone else they know in real life!

I agree. And it's my comfort tv still.

When I watched it as a teen I loved Phoebe- I found her quite hard work on rewatching recently, and was surprised to find I’ve become a Chandler fan. I didn’t see that coming at all!

But of all of them, Ross really makes me
cringe- he is an enormously problematic character- manipulative and controlling with Rachel. And gaslighty. I think he does that to Monica too... And let’s not forget he dates a student!

Chandelier is the best

I’ve always loved friends, must have been about 10-11 when it came out. Caught up on repeats at various points of my life and still find it funny now.
It was very popular before everyone was permanently offended.

I loved Phoebes clothes!

There is a lot in Friends that has aged badly, and all of the characters have their flaws, BUT I think that is what makes it so popular and iconic.

Yes, the characters are all messed up in their own way but that's what makes them so identifiable. None of them are perfect or black-and-white good-or-bad, but then again neither are any of us. It's relatable. We all mess up, we all embarrass ourselves, we all change, we all have disagreements or arguments with people we love. We can all make caustic comments or have our foibles or be insecure. It's easy for us to disect how Phoebe is nasty or Ross is jealous and controlling or that Rachel is shallow and manipulative and yes, all those things may be true, but we're critiquing a TV show with fictional characters whose lives we're not involved in and a set script that we can go back and analyse ad infinitum.

Real life does not work like that. I don't think Friends is harmful or a relic personally.

@Sulusu

My advice is don't watch Scrubs again. It hasn't held up well over time. Dr Cox is still an amazing character but JD is just awful! Misogynistic, whiney, fat shaming and just horrible. Friends has aged better IMO despite its problems.

I recently rewatched Scrubs and noticed this too.

However, I've also been listening to the Scrubs rewatch podcast with Zach Braff and Donald Faison (it's called Fake Doctors, Real Friends and it's laugh-out-loud funny at times) and Zach is soooo focused on weight in real life too. He points out when Donald has gained a few pounds (and keeps laughing about it even when Donald is clearly upset and offended), he talks about episodes of Scrubs where he looks "doughy", he crows about how thin he currently is and how long he spent on his Peloton bike that week... it's never-ending. As someone trying very hard to shake my disordered eating and leave diet culture in the past, it really makes me roll my eyes.

The early episodes were so real and grounded but towards the end it was just ridiculous.

I know it's not a documentary bit still.

I do like it though. Reminds me of Channel 4 in the early nougties. Friends, Big Brother and BBLB all summer.

You aren’t supposed to like her, you’re supposed to be entertained by her. Comedy holds up a mirror to society’s flaws that’s what it’s for.

Rachel was my favourite of the three girls. Chandler was my favourite Friend, overall.

So forgot about this, until DH reminded me; BIL called his daughter Jennifer Rachel after the beautiful Ms Aniston!
.Now when I think about it, I think it was quite rude to her! Only because she was stunning too