The SmarK DVD Rant for Friends: Season Five
As many of my longtime readers probably have figured out for themselves by now, I LOVE Friends. Next to Seinfeld, Friends is easily my all-time favorite TV show, because I can relate so closely to the characters and have grown attached to them over 10 years of the show’s run.
The fifth season marks some big character changes for everyone on board, some for the better, some not. Ross and Chandler in particular undergo the most dramatic transformations, while Joey starts to come into his own as a character by showing a more human side that he didn’t have for the first few seasons of the show. This was also the year that Lisa Kudrow broke their Emmy jinx, winning Best Supporting Actress for the baby episode.
This is a 4-disc set, covering all 24 episodes of one of my favorite seasons, and containing my all-time favorite episode of the show. See if you can guess which one
The Film
Picking up from the fourth season’s cliffhanger when Ross said Rachel’s name at the altar and thus screwed up another marriage, this season also follows a major plot thread as a result of Chandler and Monica having a secret tryst while in London and thus beginning a relationship that continues to this day.
Disc One
– The One After Ross Says Rachel. As mentioned, there’s two major bits of fallout here — Ross gets punched in the stomach by Emily after finishing the vows, and Chandler & Monica spend the rest of the trip trying to find a time to sleep together again before they leave London and thus are forced to leave their newfound monkey-lovin’ on the other side of the Atlantic. Ross begins a desperate search for his runaway bride (beginning his slow descent into insanity for the year) and Joey keeps interrupting before Chandler & Monica can find some alone time. Rachel, meanwhile, thinks she’s still in love with Ross, which presents a problem when Emily sees them about to leave together on what was supposed to be Ross & Emily’s honeymoon. I’m sure Dear Abby never had THAT one to solve
– The One With All The Kissing. Chandler accidentally kisses Monica goodbye before work, leaving everyone else wondering what’s going on, so to cover, he decides to start kissing Rachel & Phoebe, too, to “bring a bit of culture to the group”. Joey’s reactions to it are hilarious, of course. Rachel, meanwhile, confused about her feelings for Ross, looks for someone to take control of her life and make all her future decisions for her, and of course Monica is more than happy to be that person. Ross, increasingly distraught over Emily’s refusal to even speak to him, becomes further confused when Rachel ignores all of Monica’s advice and decides to confess that she still loves him, anyway. Because, you know, everyone likes to hear that. And Phoebe is upset that everyone is still high-fiving over London while she was stuck in New York, and a planned group getaway to Atlantic City on her behalf is the result until her water breaks. Whoops.
– The One Hundredth. Taking place entirely in the hospital, this is a milestone for the show, of course, as it’s the 100th episode, as Phoebe finally delivers her brother’s triplets. Don’t ask. It’s made somewhat more stressful by the doctor, who is completely competent, but loves Fonzie. Joey, meanwhile, seems to be having sympathy pains, but it’s actually kidney stones. Or maybe it’s kidney stones. And Chandler says the wrong thing again and has to do the first of many backtracking jobs with Monica to pull the foot out of his mouth. I don’t love this one as much as many seem to, but the Dr. Fonzie stuff is really good, and Chan & Mon are both right into the characters by this point and starting to develop the relationship that we would all know and love.
– The One Where Phoebe Hates PBS. An interesting philosophical question is at the heart of this one: Is there such a thing as a selfless good deed? Chandler’s glazed-over expression while having to listen to mental giants Phoebe & Joey arguing philosophy is worth the price of admission. Anyway, Joey apparently has a gig co-hosting a PBS pledge drive, but the truth is somewhat less glamorous. Ross, meanwhile, wants to convince Carol & Susan to move to London so he can be with Emily, but they’re less than enthused about that idea. I can’t imagine why. And Monica lies about seeing a waiter from work to cover up for Chandler, leading to Chandler AGAIN doing something dumb. It would be a theme for the season in his quest for an adult relationship. Chandler’s dance is great, the rest not so much, although Ross getting psychotic over a bad encounter with a Magic 8-Ball is funny in a sad kind of way.
– The One With the Kips. This is one that took a while to grow on me, but now I absolutely love it. It has a lot going for it: A funny and weird premise, a big moment in the show, and the all-time great Joey facial expression. Here we go: Since obviously someone had to find out about Monica and Chandler eventually, Joey gets to be the first, because it’s the funniest idea. It’s set up by Monica & Chandler sneaking off to Jersey for a weekend alone, but their personality traits clash and Monica ends up obsessively switching rooms while Chandler just wants to watch a high-speed chase. Unfortunately, they leave behind clues so obvious that only Joey could fail to put them together for long. Meanwhile, Emily breaks the super-bitch barrier and demands that Ross never see Rachel again if she’s going to come back to New York, which leads to another Ross v. Rachel battle in the kitchen with the other four barricaded in Monica’s room. Luckily, Joey has condoms ready, in case they need to repopulate the earth this time. Finally, another thread sees Rachel becoming paranoid about being “phased out” of the group, just like Chandler’s old roommate Kip, which is where the title comes from. However, the reason I love this episode so much is the expression on Joey’s face at the end when he finally pieces together what’s going on behind his back, and you can actually see the brain cells firing for the first time. Although the plot threads are pretty scattershot, it just has so many funny moments and lines (“This is REGULARLY scheduled programming!”, ” because CONDOMS are the way to do that.”) that it’s a winner by sheer willpower alone.
– The One With The Yeti. Now, sources (Scotsman) tell me that this one was intended to begin phasing out Ross over contract issues and replacing him with Danny (George Newbern, the voice of Superman on Justice League), but then those sources (Scotsman) are kind of an idiot, so take that with as many grains of salt as needed. Anyway, this one is a transitional episode of sorts, as Newbern joins the cast for a 3-episode arc as Rachel’s sort-of love interest Danny, after a chance meeting in the basement that results in him getting fogged with a bug bomb due to long hair and a beard (hence the title of the episode). Ross, meanwhile, makes concession after concession to Emily, but the marriage is officially over by the end of the show when he ultimately chooses his friendship with Rachel over his marriage. What a great guy. And Phoebe wears fur. Nothing with Chandler and Monica to speak of here, although they’re present while Ross is bitching out the gang while moving from his apartment for Emily, a move which helps to trigger his later dementia. Too much angst, not enough funny, although Joey’s bizarre rant about keeping his emotions RIGHT on the surface is funny stuff, to be sure.
– The One Where Ross Moves In. The fall from grace is beginning, as Ross gets kicked out of his new apartment and decides to room with the guys for the time being, which gives Chandler some really bad college flashbacks. Rachel, meanwhile, tries to seduce Danny, but appears to be overthinking things somewhat. And Phoebe dates a health inspector, but although she initially gets off on his abuse of power, soon all her favorite restaurants are getting shut down and it’s just no fun anymore. Much like this episode.
Disc Two
– The One With All The Thanksgiving (Flashbacks). There’s some confusion over the title, as it’s listed as both “TOW All the Thanksgivings” and “TOW the Thanksgiving Flashbacks”. Either way, it rules, and it’s one that absolutely floored me the first time I saw it. Now, Thanksgiving eps are traditionally the best for the show, but this was one that went above that by not only being about Thanksgiving, but by actually building an entire show around a Thanksgiving theme. In this case, while recovering from a huge meal, the gang reminisces about their worst Thanksgivings. And so we go zooming back to 1987, when Monica was fat, Rachel was decidedly a Jewish princess, Chandler had a Flock of Seagulls haircut, and Ross was first dating Carol. You don’t even NEED a plot for these sorts of episodes, just throw them in 80s outfits and it all writes itself. In this case, we discover that Fat Monica had the hots for Seagull Chandler years before they hooked up for real, although Chandler didn’t feel the same way at the time. This one is heaven for Friends geeks, with tons of little character moments all thrown in as gifts for longtime viewers, and softballs like the matching Miami Vice outfits left there for new viewers. And it all leads to a historic moment, as present Chandler tells Monica that he loves her for the first time, while she’s wearing a turkey on her head. Could it BE anymore romantic than that? An absolute classic, with a major easter egg for fans to spot: In the flashback to 1992, where Joey has the turkey on his head, it’s during the time when Phoebe and Monica were living together. When he’s standing by the door, the camera pans around slightly, and what should be hanging on the wall, but GLADYS, the ugly piece of artwork Phoebe was trying to dump on Monica this season! Now how’s THAT for continuity?
– The One With Ross’ Sandwich. Another transitional episode, as Ross finally leaves his job at the museum after 5 seasons of working there. The day after Thanksgiving, Monica makes him a leftovers sandwich to bring to work, but it gets eaten and Ross snaps and has Phoebe write him a harshly-worded note for the next sandwich. However, this convinces his colleagues that he has in fact gone mental and he’s diagnosed as having rage issues as a result. This actually predates “Anger Management” by a few years, so maybe Adam Sandler is a big Friends fan? Anyway, the other storyline is a “wacky stack”, where you keep building bigger and bigger misunderstandings on top of one another as a running joke through the episode. In this case, Joey has to cover for Monica & Chandler in a series of increasingly-weird and hard-to-explain circumstances, starting with a pair of Chandler’s dirty underwear in Monica’s couch and only getting worse from there. Finally, Rachel & Phoebe take a literature class together, but Rachel isn’t good at actually reading the literature, so Phoebe has a little fun with her to teach her a lesson. All three stories are winners, and Ross’ total mental breakdown officially begins here and progresses throughout the rest of the season.
– The One With The Inappropriate Sister. Weirdness abounds here, as Rachel and Danny finally hook up on a date, but he’s seen hanging around town with another woman on his arm his sister. Well, they sure don’t ACT like they’re related, which in turn has everyone creeped out. Say goodbye, Danny. Meanwhile, Ross is bored, so he decides to motivate Joey to write his own script, but Joey is more interested in creating the rules for a self-explanatory game called Fireball. Chandler sticks up for his friend, and soon it’s arguing all around in the guys’ apartment. Finally, Phoebe becomes a bell-ringer for charity, but New Yorkers aren’t quite as generous as she’d like. Pretty average episode.
– The One With All The Resolutions. Okay, back to top form again, as another friend finds out about the secret romance. In this case, the theme is New Year’s resolutions, as Ross vows to do something new every day, Chandler vows not to make fun of anyone for a week (with his resulting deadpan expressions being funnier than almost anything the writers could have thought up for “Hornswaggle”), Joey vows to learn the guitar from Phoebe, and Rachel vows not to gossip anymore. However, Rachel is immediately put to the test when she picks up the phone and hears a conversation between Monica & Chandler, and the only person nearby to talk about it with is Joey. Joey, meanwhile, is distraught because Phoebe’s teaching method is a little nutso (“Fine, go to your qualified instructor!'”) and Ross discovers that trying to get leather pants back on once you’ve got them off is a bitter pill to swallow. Especially if your help is coming from Joey. Funny, funny stuff from start to finish, and a lot of extra bits cut from the TV version, too.
– The One With Chandler’s Work Laugh. As we draw closer to the Big Reveal a few eps away, Chandler & Monica start getting more daring, including going to a work party together as a couple. However, Chandler puts on a fake laugh and suck-up personality to deal with overbearing boss Doug (the scene-stealing Sam McMurray, ex of the Tracy Ullman show and one of the few people that didn’t jump to the Simpsons and become a multimillionaire voiceover guy D’OH!), and if there’s one thing Monica can’t abide, it’s deliberately losing a game of tennis! Rachel, meanwhile, confronts Monica about her lies, but she insists that Chandler is just a huge racist. Trust me, it makes sense if you’ve seen it. And Ross truly bottoms out, as Emily announces her engagement to another man (presumably Colin, her unseen boyfriend from season 4) and he makes the scariest one-night hookup that anyone could imagine Janice. Only SHE’S not the whiny one in the relationship this time. The breakup is gold (“So you’re telling me that I annoy you, Janice? Oh, my, god.”) and the believability of Monica & Chandler being able to keep things secret much longer starts to get stretched, so it’s a good thing that the end of the secret is approaching. I love Janice and hope they spin her off with Joey just for the fireworks that would result.
– The One With Joey’s Bag. The final Secret Romance episode, although it doesn’t actually figure into this one. Two storylines dominate this one: Joey gets a makeover from Rachel to audition for a part as a dapper jetsetter, including a unisex (“No, Joey, that’s U-N-I-sex”) carryall bag, and Phoebe’s grandmother (last played by Cloris Leachman in the first season) dies, which allows Phoebe to finally bump into the often-mentioned-but-never-seen Frank Buffay Sr. (played by Bob Balaban, one of my favorite character actors) and do a bit of long-overdue father-daughter bonding. Neither Frank nor Phoebe is very good at it, of course. The whole thing with Joey’s bag is kinda sweet, as he grows more attached to it while Chandler and Ross make gay jokes about it, until finally it has to be nearly pried out of his hands. Lisa Kudrow gets to play the insensitive bitch Ursula again to maximum effect (hey, they should have a show where she gets to be Ursula all the time oh, wait ) and this one’s all about the J-Man otherwise. Sadly, Frank Buffay probably walked out of Phoebe’s life again, because he was never seen or mentioned that I can remember from this point on. Oh, and there’s a dumb subplot with Monica giving bad massages that’s only there to give Chandler something stupid to say before making the save again. This episode also marks the change in opening, from season 4 highlights to season 5 highlights. In case you care.
Disc Three
– The One Where Everyone Finds Out. And with that we reach my favorite episode of Friends, or pretty much any other sitcom (outside of “The Contest” on Seinfeld), as we say hello to Monica & Chandler as a full-time on-screen couple and goodbye to Ugly Naked Guy as a running joke. UNG moves out, and Ross decides to go for the apartment, but perhaps he needs something more enticing than mini-muffins (“Well that’s 12 bucks I’ll never see again “) to convince him that he’s the right applicant. However, while checking the place out, Phoebe sees our favorite couple doing it up against the window, and things turn into a game of incredibly awkward cat-and-mouse, as Phoebe and Rachel mess with Monica & Chandler, they mess back, and poor Joey just wants to have it all in the open so he can sit in his chair in peace with Hugsy, the Bedtime Penguin Pal. This is grand sitcom farce at its best (“Ah, but they don’t know we know they know we know. And don’t say anything, Joey.” “Even if I wanted to “) as Phoebe hits on Chandler and things keep building to what seems to be an inevitable sexual encounter between them, if only because Monica’s team ALWAYS has to win. And the more uncomfortable and forced the situation gets, the funnier it gets. I can’t really do justice to all the funny lines in this one, because pretty much every other line is great. Chandler and Phoebe swapping sexy lines in voices so uncomfortable as to rob them of ANY sex appeal are all winners, for instance (“I’m glad we’re going to have all the sex” and her reply, “You should, I’m very bendy” are particular faves of mine). As for why it’s a better episode than the other front-runner for “best episode ever”, “The One With All The Embryos”, each episode focuses on two main stories: The Shakespearean farce in “Everyone”, and the game show in “Embryos”. Both are, I’d say, equally strong and equally hilarious, although I might give the edge to the game show because of all the fantastic character bits and one-liners that came out of the competition. However, there’s also the secondary storylines — Phoebe gets impregnated and Ross tries to get Ugly Naked Guy’s apartment. Whereas the pregnancy was only written into the show because of Lisa’s own pregnancy and had no long term effect on the character or the show (and was largely forgotten about soon after), Ross still lives in that apartment and it makes for a ton of interesting story ideas to have him living within eyeshot of Monica & Chandler’s apartment. Plus the storyline effectively wrote Ugly Naked Guy out of the show for good, which marked a major change for them. So there you have it.
Unfortunately, the rest of the season starts to go downhill from there.
– The One With the Girl Who Hits Joey. This is one that’s been played in syndication ad infinitum and which I’m now sick of entirely. It has ex-Punky Brewster star Soleil Moon Frye (now a grown-up hottie who had to have breast reduction surgery a few years back because they were so freakishly huge) starring as Joey’s girlfriend, who is tiny but hits him REALLY hard in a playful manner. Of course, no one believes the abused until it’s too late. It also features Ross moving into the new apartment, and immediately getting hit with a touchy bit of etiquette, as he’s asked to contribute $100 to the handyman’s retirement fund, despite only living in the apartment for two hours. He decides to throw a party to show just how cool he can be, although wearing two nametags (one with “Ross” in quotes) kind of defeats that purpose. And finally, Chandler has a fight with Monica and with no help from her as to how to fix things, he decides to propose as a last resort. That doesn’t go so well. There’s nothing WRONG with this one so much, but I’m just so tired of seeing it in syndication that I can’t enjoy it any more.
– The One With the Cop. This one introduces Michael Rappaport as Phoebe’s love interest for a few episodes, which contradicts her later claim that she was never in a serious relationship. She finds an NYPD badge in the coffee house and decides to protect innocent trees from cigarette-wielding madmen, but soon she becomes drunk with power until the cop returns for his badge. Meanwhile, Ross buys a sofa, but has trouble with the physics involved in actually getting it up the staircase at home, leading to one of the great Crazy Ross moments of the season (“PIVOT! PIVOT! PIVOT!”) as he has no trouble getting in touch with his inner rage. The joke about the couch wedged in the staircase is uncomfortably close to a similar one in Douglas Adams’ brilliant book “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency”, but in comedy it’s not stealing, it’s tribute. Finally, Joey sees Chandler & Monica cuddling and starts having non-erotic dreams about Monica, but when he decides to build future relationships on friendship and companionship instead of sex, all it does is give him a great pickup line. This one is mildly notable for foreshadowing the eventual Joey-Rachel story arc, but they wouldn’t have had that in mind at the time. Also I should note that Rachel was never cuter than when she was asking Joey “What’s up” in a really weird voice. (By the way, for those who care, Rachel, then Monica, then Phoebe. Monica ranges too much from cute to overly thin and irritating, and Phoebe is just too weird for me, although she is “very bendy”. Rachel is dumb enough to not be intimidating, but smart enough to carry a conversation, and the most consistently hot of the three).
– The One With Rachel’s Inadvertent Kiss. Another transition ep for a character, as the show moves farther away from “your job’s a joke / you’re broke / your love life’s DOA” and Rachel gets her current job with Ralph Lauren, thus making a ludicrous four out of six characters with successful, high-paying careers (with Joey’s return to Days soon to follow). In fact, by season 9, it would get so ridiculous that Chandler would be promoted to president of the company he hated so much in the first season. That was always one aspect of the later years of the show that bugged me — part of the hook of Rachel’s character was the idea of a spoiled rich girl struggling to survive on her own as a waitress, and now she’s a high-powered fashion executive. The combined salaries of the six friends in season 9 had to approaching the actual salaries of the real life actors who played them, which is really weird considering, for instance, we don’t even know what Rachel and Chandler majored in while in college. In fact, did Rachel even finish her degree? Anyway, that aside, this one sees Rachel going for an interview with the network executive from Joe Schmo and accidentally kissing him, thus giving him, she believes, the wrong idea. It of course turns into a Wacky Stack from there. Meanwhile, Monica gets jealous of Gary & Phoebe being the hottest couple, so she gets a bit competitive over it. That poor bastard, Chandler, having to have sex with her all day and night. And finally, Joey has a window-to-window flirting relationship with a hot girl in Ross’ building, but can’t seem to find her, as counting betrays him yet again. Joey’s frustration with the number of windows in the building carries this one, the rest is middling at best.
– The One Where Rachel Smokes. This is another one beaten to death by syndication. The main story has Rachel left in the cold by her boss (Joanna Gleason in a recurring role) because she smokes and Rachel doesn’t. So Rachel, in a rather desperate and pathetic attempt to suck up, decides to start. And no one is happier to hear it than Chandler. Monica plans a surprise party for Rachel, but leaves Phoebe with nothing to do but cups and ice, and Phoebe decides to make her rue the day. And Ross’ son Ben (remember him?) gets an audition for a soup commercial, so Joey decides to tag along and ends up in competition with the kid. Of course, Joey’s acting skills prove to be no match for him, as he’s foiled by noodle soup. None of the plots are really terribly funny, although this one runs REALLY long on DVD, 25 minutes, with some neat extra stuff, like Ross acting all weird in the casting room and Carol declaring “He’s my EX-husband, I’m totally gay now!” to anyone listening. The smoking stuff always feels heavy-handed when they do it, though.
– The One Where Ross Can’t Flirt. Much better, as it’s the six of them stuck in a room for half an hour again and things pick up as a result. Ross orders pizza and notices that Chandler is flirting with the delivery girl, so he decides to show everyone HIS skills, and the results aren’t pretty (“I just thought you should know, I like 8-year old boys”). However, this leads to a discussion between Monica and Chandler about who’s allowed to flirt and why (and it’s all TRUE). And Phoebe makes the mistake of lending Monica’s earrings to Rachel, which is of course a terrible idea because she loses everything. The payoff of the main storyline with Joey’s big appearance on Law & Order is really kinda unfunny, but the brutal flirting and Chandler’s expert opinions on the differences between men and woman (“Well, I’ve taught you so much already, but whatever “) really pull this one out. Good stuff.
– The One With the Ride-Along. Michael Rapaport’s story arc continues, as he takes the boys along in the back of the police car for some cop-work. However, a near-death experience with a backfiring car causes Joey to throw himself on Ross in a moment of heroism, and Chandler is naturally upset at being snubbed. Of course, it turns out that Joey was less heroic than hungry. Meanwhile, Rachel & Monica head over to Ross’ apartment to steal some Margarita supplies (and large bills), but Rachel overhears a message from The Evil British Ex on the answering machine, which leaves her with a moral dilemma. All filler, no killer here, although the extra bits with Rachel doing her version of a British accent are good for a cringe if nothing else.
Disc Four
– The One With the Ball. You wouldn’t think you could squeeze a 30-minute sitcom out of throwing a ball around, but there it is. Ross & Joey play catch in the apartment (not in the Ren & Stimpy sense of the term, of course, although they WOULD nap together in later years ) and find that they’ve been going for 2 hours straight, and of course Monica can smell competition a mile away and wants to join in so she can be on the winning team. Meanwhile, Gary wants to move in with Phoebe, so she decides to send in the big guns to head off any talk of that: Chandler. However, Gary’s love (and some choice police interrogation tactics) wins the day, until he shoots a bird, then it’s over. Love can be so fickle. Also, Rachel buys one of those ugly hairless cats, and it’s not funny. The closing montage of Chandler dropping stuff IS funny, however. So call it even.
– The One With Joey’s Big Break. The episode that introduced a game that sadly failed to sweep the country: Answering questions really fast to avoid thinking about the answers. Phoebe teaches it to Joey to help him decide on a route to Vegas for a movie role, and that naturally means a road trip with Chandler. He makes sure to pack lots of sweater vests, which is really the first time that it becomes a running gag in the show. However, they make the mistake of playing the question game in the car, and Chandler accidentally lets slip that he doesn’t think this movie will be Joey’s big break, thus cutting short the road trip. Meanwhile, Phoebe is mad at Ross, and she can’t remember why. I hate it when that happens. It’s not even the smell of the hair gel! And finally, Rachel has something wrong with her eye, but has a hang-up about having her eye touched, which makes an examination and eyedrops a problem. This leads to the kind of good moments we don’t get enough of between Monica & Rachel, as they have a very funny and very real fight about it and whether Monica was doing a practice drop or not. I always like those little moments when they ditch the big dialogues and talk like real people, because the girls always had good chemistry in the early seasons and didn’t interact much once they started mixing and matching characters in later years. Anyway, to the shock of no one, it turns out that Joey’s movie isn’t happening after all, and that sets up the season finale, with Joey stuck in Vegas
– The One In Vegas. The season wraps up with a one-hour finale (well, 45 minutes without commercials), as Joey desperately tells the others not to come to Vegas to visit him, which guarantees they will. The trip starts bad for Monica & Chandler, as Mon has lunch with Richard and doesn’t tell Chandler, which prompts a rather unusual show of testicular fortitude from him and he actually STANDS UP TO MONICA. Well, that wouldn’t last too long into the sixth season, but it was nice to see him showing some backbone for once. Ross & Rachel fly in separately and spend the entire flight tormenting each other, as payback for an embarrassing night of misinterpreted signals caused by Naked Rachel. Actually, it was a fairly ironic turnaround in that they spend 5 years gawking at Ugly Naked Guy, and the joke in this one is that Ross is gawking at Hot Naked Rachel from the OTHER side of things. Ross gets the ultimate revenge on Rachel, though, writing on her face in unwashable ink, which results in them spending most of the show getting drunk in his hotel room and playing wholly non-standard variations of blackjack so that Rachel can win every hand. We don’t see enough drunken Friends, actually — we’ve seen Chandler multiple times (usually after getting dumped), Monica once, Rachel once, Ross a couple of times, and Joey and Phoebe never. It gives David Schwimmer a chance to do physical comedy, which he’s pretty darn good at. Anyway, the two big storylines are Chandler & Monica reconciling over a romantic game of craps and bringing the stakes all the way up to marriage, while Ross & Rachel, as mentioned, get REALLY drunk and do something very stupid (although not unexpected where Ross is concerned), which causes Ross to break one of his New Year’s resolutions. His year would, amazing, continue its download trend in the next season. Pheebs and Joey have kinda lame filler storylines, with Phoebe getting stalked by a Lurker and Joey obsessed with his “hand twin”, which are funny but felt like they were just there to fill up a double show. At any rate, this was the first really weak ending to a season, with yet another tease-and-retract on the Ross/Rachel thing to continue screwing over the loyal fanbase, and I really found the season premiere of the next year, “The One After Vegas”, to be vastly superior to the finale that set it up.
And that’s the fifth season of Friends. Not my favorite, to be sure, but it contains my single favorite episode. The fourth is far stronger in terms of hit-to-miss ratio on the jokes and characters, but this one is focused a lot on Chandler and Monica, as the writers prove they can develop a relationship without jerking everyone around. I didn’t like what it did to Chandler’s character so much, but it made him happy at least, so it was good in the long run.
The Video
Definitely a TV show transferred from videotape, and it shows. Colors and contrast are about the same level as, say, a really good digital cable channel, although I noticed a lot of compression problems in darker scenes and some noise on the transfer. It’s as good or better than broadcast, so that’s the important thing.
The Audio
Redone in Dolby 5.0 surround, it’s never really used. Pretty much all from the center with the audience occasionally mixed into the rears, it’s generally a waste of disc space and would have been just as well served in 2.0 stereo. I should note that the episodes from this season which were featured in the Best of Friends volumes 3 & 4 DVDs, which were released what seems like ages ago, had major problems with the sound mix, and they’ve been fully corrected for this release. A good mix, but not a necessary one.
The Extras
Speaking of the Best of Friends set, you get the 40 minute “The One That Goes Behind the Scenes” documentary from that release, put on here because it’s following the development of “The One In Vegas” and thus makes sense to be here. Still, it’s kind of a slap in the face to owners of that previous set, because there’s really nothing else here. Although if you HAVEN’T seen the documentary and you’re a Friends nut like me, you’ll go crazy for it. It’s really awesome stuff for fans of sitcoms in general who want to know what goes into making one. Next up, you get Gunther’s preview of season six, which runs a minute, a 2-minute “featurette” about shooting in London (it’s just the cast talking) and the Cast & Crew listing. Oh, and there’s an easter egg, sort of. Highlight Gunther’s peek at season six and hit the right arrow, and you’ll get three coffee cups. Click on each one and Gunther tells you that you’ve found the easter egg three different ways, each more bored than the next. You also get commentaries from Kauffman/Crane/Bright on the best three eps of the season (as is the trend for these sets), namely “The One Hundredth”, “The One With All the Thanksgivings” and of course “The One Where Everyone Finds Out”. I wanted to hear more because they all clearly love making the show and have endless stories to tell about it, but three sadly seems to be the limit. One big “extra” is the episodes themselves, as every one is extended with added footage and jokes by 1 – 5 minutes, since the DVDs aren’t restricted by TV airing time and commercials. It actually fleshes out some jokes that seemed out of place in the original airings and just made the eps more fun to watch, so you could pick out what’s new. And that’s it for the extras this time around.
The Ratings
The Film: ****
The Video: **1/2
The Audio: ***
The Extras: ***
