'Friends' fans: did the series ever jump the shark?

[orangeyeahthatsright]

And if so, at what point in the series?

For me I think the episode with Emma's birthday party was where it all started to feel really laboured. Although it had been getting there since the episode where Phoebe blagged her way into Sting's house, for me anyway.

(Side note: I know Friends hasn't aged well in some regards, but that's not really where I'm going with this thread.)

But her body has always been a little faster than Western medicine.

In the 1890s maybe 🙄 Not in the 1990s in the UK. Completely normal.

My mum was a single mum in the early 80’s and it was absolutely fine.

But her body has always been a little faster than Western medicine.

😂😂😂

@WhyDoesItAlways That irritated me too about the pregnancy test because surely that's impossible?

Personally I always thought ‘Ron’ negotiating back and forth with Mr Zelner to keep Rachel employed and in the country was a tad too far fetched.

Rachel bumping into Ross at the airport gate when she was on standby for a different flight, taking Emily’s ticket, bypassing check in, security and just strolling onto the plane to Greece? Really?! Come off it. And then Emily, sans ticket, also arrives at the gate!

Mike proposing to Phoebe after being so anti marriage too. She was better suited to David. But, you know, Paul Rudd. Silver linings!

Gunther buying all Ross’ possessions that Rachel had touched, and her ridiculously overpriced cat on a barista’s salary? Alrightyroo.

Not to be pedantic, but the Manx cat was series 5, so she was at least working at Bloomingdale’s, if not Ralph Lauren.

@CrazyArmadilloLady great name! But I meant Gunther buying the cat from Rachel on his wage.

Ah, sorry - good point…!

When Joey thought the Porche was his. ’Yeah, that's what I drive. I make $4/hr and saved up for 350 years’.

@CrazyArmadilloLady and getting all those matching Porsche clothes! We saw someone in a Jaguar jumper in a shop. My kid leaned over and whispered to me ‘did a Jaguar throw up on him?’ We’ve clearly seen too many episodes 😂

Not in Central New York . No way. Unless in strict religious communities.

I quite liked Susan, her deadpan put downs to Ross were classic.

Also loved Estelle 🤣

The actress playing Estelle also plays the midwife who delivers Ben!

I'd have liked the Charlie Wheeler character to have been in it for longer

I never noticed that! goes to watch the episode again

I was shuned and shamed when I was a pregnant single mum the exact same time as Rachel's pregnancy in Friends.

My mother (non religious) said the exact words 'I'm ashamed'. She didnt want to admit to her friends I was pregnant. She actually said 'when's the wedding?' (Not even living together!)

Then I had a ex see me visibly pregnant and pointed at laughed at me in the street.

Friends dumped me. Men ran a mile.

I was looked down on and left out of conversations by the older married mums at multiple baby groups.

I had a senior at work tell me he didnt approve of unmarried mothers.

I had no baby shower (nothing to celebrate) and only 2 hospital visitors. No baby balloons or flowers. Only 1 or 2 cards.

This is just what I can remember off the top of my head about events 20 years ago.

Maybe Elle McPhersons character

They didn’t have any chemistry at all.

@ladygindiva the op who made the comment regarding it being shocking was from Ireland.

In 1992 my uni friend accidentally fell pregnant by long-term boyfriend. They were a strong couple. But the comments and the sneering and whispering was grim, and all of it was based on them being unmarried and being judgey about it being an accident.

I can happily zone out in front of a Friends episode, but I can’t sit through any of the Rachel/Joey romance ones. They were just sooo bad.

Also Bruce Willis. Those episodes were dire.

Oh, I loved Bruce Willis singing Love Machine to himself! 😁

The Rachel/Joey ones are total cringe, you can really feel the absence of chemistry. Although weirdly, earlier in the series when Joey developed the massive crush on Rachel while she was pregnant, there was definite chemistry there in the episode where they went on a date - imho anyway.

The whole Charlie/Ross/Rachel/Joey Square-angle was silly. Why on earth would Charlie want to date Joey who by this point was so stupid I'm surprised he could tie his own shoelaces.

I agree that it is the Rachel/Joey relationship where it went badly wrong. I also don't like the way that they made Monica, she went from a normal woman with normal flaws, to a shrieking hysterical control freak. She was fine up to around Series 4/5 then got unbearable after Las Vegas and Chandler moving in.

and I know that whole point of Ross/Rachel is will they won't they, but the way it just keeps on going once she is pregnant, is very annoying. They each decide they want the other just when the other has decided that they want somebody else and then the finale, it gave the audience what they wanted, but it just came out of nowhere.

That said, it is one of my favourite ever shows, and me and DD are currently watching it again, we are up to Series 8. I introduce her to it a few years ago, and she absolutely loves it. At one time we watched it on a loop so started back at the pilot as soon as we had seen the final episode, she loved it so much.

Thankfully as she has got older, we have discovered more things to watch together, much as I love Friends . I took her to Friends Fest last year and she loved it.

I keep telling her she doesn't know how lucky she is to be able to watch it on a loop, we had to wait a week between episodes and a whole year between series.

I think some of the points about unwed parents miss the fact that it was a storyline with some risk attached - it might have been set in cosmopolitan New York but there is a streak of Puritanism runs through US culture, so it could, and probably did, alienate a certain sector of the home audience.