Ah, it's a sitcom tradition to have the characters celebrate various holidays together. It makes sense because the holidays are times that drive people closer together... and drive people nuts. That combination is perfect for sitcoms that need an excuse to get all of its characters into one place and then have them squabble. I had this holiday-themed post planned, but it's just good luck that it falls the week before Thanksgiving.
Of course, one of the holidays in this season is Thanksgiving. They also dealt with News Year, which actually strikes me as the most obvious holiday for a series about a close-knit group of friends. Thanksgiving is for families, New Years is for friends. Then lastly, I skipped a few episodes to get to their Valentine's episode, also a pretty natural holiday to focus on given how much emphasis is placed on relationships in this show.
"The One Where the Underdog Gets Away"
I really wish the first ten or so minutes of this episode were as good as the last ten or so minutes. This episode was short on humor compared to the rest of the episodes, but when they get locked out of their door, it becomes strangely compelling. Some of the yelling - and really most of those last few minutes are just Monica yelling - isn't necessarily funny, but it just strikes as true.
Thanksgiving has a very high standard that pretty much everyone has. It's also rooted in tradition for most families so you can rely on getting roughly the same meal at the same place with the same people every year. Now, Monica suddenly has the burden of five other people's traditions and high expectations. Every single thing she yells is 100% true and I feel the urge to thank my parents for making Thanksgiving the way it is as a result. I don't think that was the purpose of the episode, but that's what I'm taking from it.
Anyway, Ross goes to find a skull that Carol borrowed - it could have literally been anything, the writers just needed an excuse to get Ross over there - and finds out that Susan has been talking to the baby through Carol's stomach. Ross doesn't buy it, but does it anyway because he's jealous. Ross is kind of a whiny bitch in this episode. Although I will say it does make sense that he would talk to the baby anyway, because he feels left out, which of course he is. But his incessant whining about Monica not making Thanksgiving the way their mom did was frankly annoying as shit. Maybe that's why Monica's rant really worked for me.
So Ross talking to the baby fell almost completely flat for me, humor-wise. I have to give the writers a little respect for trying to give an update on the baby situation, but almost nothing was funny and again Ross ends up looking badly (although mostly not due to this story line).
There's not really a plot, or rather the plot is just a collection of things that happens to allow the friends to be forced to have Thanksgiving together. They actually came up with some pretty great reasons. Just plain good writing. Ross and Monica get the ball rolling because their parents are on vacation. This is oddly enough the weakest reasoning of the six to me.
Chandler doesn't participate in Thanksgiving because of his childhood experience. They've strongly hinted at Chandler's terrible childhood in past episodes and I think this one is the first to just give us a good example. Phoebe's reasoning is shaky, but so far they've really beaten into the ground that's she's quirky and different so her grandmother's boyfriend celebrating Thanksgiving in December isn't out of nowhere at least.
Rachel and Joey's problems are the real gems if you ask me though. Of course Rachel's family goes skiing every Thanksgiving and since Rachel is cut off, she needs money for the flight. In the opening scene, her one-time boss Terry didn't really seem funny to me. It's hard to mess up him telling Rachel what an awful waitress she was, but he did. I can imagine Matthew Perry making this funny and I have to blame the actor for why it's not funny.
So Rachel fails at collecting the money so the friends give her $100. I didn't know they could make "Swoop, swoop, swoop" as funny as it was, but it was funnier each time they said it. (It was actually not funny at all at first, but then it got funny I should say).
Joey, on the other hand, was modeling for a disease, and he gets stuck with being the poster child for venereal diseases. That girl he talked with on the subway was remarkably forward. I think the writers overemphasized it in order to show how much the ad ruined it for Joey. Anyway, when he turns around and sees the ad, I lose it. Then, in the closing credits, he tries ripping off the bottom - because of course Joey still wants to be on an ad - and he keeps getting terrible associations like "stop wife beaters"and "hemorrhoids."
And to clear up the argument between Rachel and Monica, she clearly asked "Got the keys?" The way Rachel says "Okay" is kind of the perfect combination to where I can imagine Monica thinking Rachel is getting the keys and Rachel saying it meaning... well "okay." It's all-around terrible communication.
Lastly, this is a terrible episode title. My God, Friends writers, does anyone think of the underdog getting away when thinking of this episode? I saw the title and knew it was about Thanksgiving, but had no idea what it was about.
Grade - B+
"The One With the Monkey"
Holy crap. This is the exact same episode as the Thanksgiving episode thematically speaking. The friends all have plans for the holiday and they all fall through before the big date. The difference is that in the Thanksgiving episode, they can't be with their families and in the new year's episode, they have no one to kiss. Otherwise, it is the exact same premise.
This episode tried to make the audience care about two relationships that formed in this very episode. Well, I'm not so sure they tried to make us care about Ross' relationship with the monkey, but they certainly acted like he's had a monkey for a while. The other relationship is between David and Phoebe, who get together and break up in the same episode.
Hank Azaria, who plays David, is awesome so this story works. It has no business working. I don't know how long the time period is between them meeting and New Years, but it's got to be less than a month. The emotional resonance the writers were asking for just wasn't there, because this relationship lasted less than 20 minutes in our minds. But it still works and is probably a reason why they bring him back in Season.... 9-10?
Getting them together was an unnecessary contrivance. So Phoebe is expected to play for a coffee shop and literally no one is allowed to talk during this performance? That's pretty much what the show is expecting us to believe - at least this one time. Because she calls him out - and while I understand how annoying it is to play music with people talking (actually I don't, but just go with it), this just seems like something you have to deal with given the setting. And there is no way they were talking THAT loud.
Anyway, on to the good stuff. I essentially like that the two major scenes we see with Phoebe and David has Phoebe playing the role of David. Instead of writing what a typical guy would do in a romance fantasy, they have Phoebe writing it. She tells David to clear the counter and throw her on the counter, which of course he does very delicately. (Though to be fair, there was a computer on there)
Then, so the audience doesn't think Phoebe is a bitch for making him abandon his dream to go to Minsk, she has to initiate the breakup. It's actually kind of sweet when she argues with hypothetical David with how she is supposed to respond. So count me a fan of Phoebe-David (sorry though Hank, I'm definitely pro-Paul Rudd in Phoebe relationships)
The other was Ross and the monkey. In theory, having a character complain about an animal like it was a real roommate is a solid concept. I guess it doesn't translate well. The whining from Ross became really annoying. Get over it Ross. It's a fucking monkey. What did you expect?
Anyway, it probably doesn't work most of all, because he gets the monkey in this episode. Like they should have done this story after a few appearances by the monkey. The parody of the situation is that Ross is tired of his monkey. But it's been a few weeks (if that). To work like a real parody, it needs to have been a few months or so. It just doesn't work and the humor falls flat.
As far as the reasons why each character doesn't have someone to kiss at the end, I'll go through each character and why they ended up with no one. Rachel's was funny and appropriate, because she should stop being with the goddamn plot contrivance that is Paolo. This works better on binge watching, but at the time this implies they've been together for months. How? He barely speaks English. So I enjoyed a storyline that essentially punished her for still being with him.
Chandler's story works because Janice. Is there really that much pressure to have someone to kiss on New Years? I guess I'll accept that in 1994 New York there was. If I can accept that, I can REALLY buy Chandler succumbing so easily, because that's the type of person he is. Joey's situation made no sense. Ok, his date brought kids fine. (It was sort of expected after finding out she was a mom) But why the hell did she sleep with the scientist guy? Oh well, we have no idea how to make Joey and her not kiss at midnight, let's just do this completely implausible thing.
Having fun Bobby have a death in his family was hilarious to me so kudos for that decision. I also like how they just didn't even have Ross try to get a date. Everyone else gets dates, he realizes he's the only one who won't, but still he's just like "Fuck it, I'm going with a monkey." Man, I'm trying to figure out how they get from season one Ross to later seasons Ross. Totally different characters.
Grade - C+
"The One with the Candy Hearts"
Grade - B+
"The One With the Monkey"
Holy crap. This is the exact same episode as the Thanksgiving episode thematically speaking. The friends all have plans for the holiday and they all fall through before the big date. The difference is that in the Thanksgiving episode, they can't be with their families and in the new year's episode, they have no one to kiss. Otherwise, it is the exact same premise.
This episode tried to make the audience care about two relationships that formed in this very episode. Well, I'm not so sure they tried to make us care about Ross' relationship with the monkey, but they certainly acted like he's had a monkey for a while. The other relationship is between David and Phoebe, who get together and break up in the same episode.
Hank Azaria, who plays David, is awesome so this story works. It has no business working. I don't know how long the time period is between them meeting and New Years, but it's got to be less than a month. The emotional resonance the writers were asking for just wasn't there, because this relationship lasted less than 20 minutes in our minds. But it still works and is probably a reason why they bring him back in Season.... 9-10?
Getting them together was an unnecessary contrivance. So Phoebe is expected to play for a coffee shop and literally no one is allowed to talk during this performance? That's pretty much what the show is expecting us to believe - at least this one time. Because she calls him out - and while I understand how annoying it is to play music with people talking (actually I don't, but just go with it), this just seems like something you have to deal with given the setting. And there is no way they were talking THAT loud.
Anyway, on to the good stuff. I essentially like that the two major scenes we see with Phoebe and David has Phoebe playing the role of David. Instead of writing what a typical guy would do in a romance fantasy, they have Phoebe writing it. She tells David to clear the counter and throw her on the counter, which of course he does very delicately. (Though to be fair, there was a computer on there)
Then, so the audience doesn't think Phoebe is a bitch for making him abandon his dream to go to Minsk, she has to initiate the breakup. It's actually kind of sweet when she argues with hypothetical David with how she is supposed to respond. So count me a fan of Phoebe-David (sorry though Hank, I'm definitely pro-Paul Rudd in Phoebe relationships)
The other was Ross and the monkey. In theory, having a character complain about an animal like it was a real roommate is a solid concept. I guess it doesn't translate well. The whining from Ross became really annoying. Get over it Ross. It's a fucking monkey. What did you expect?
Anyway, it probably doesn't work most of all, because he gets the monkey in this episode. Like they should have done this story after a few appearances by the monkey. The parody of the situation is that Ross is tired of his monkey. But it's been a few weeks (if that). To work like a real parody, it needs to have been a few months or so. It just doesn't work and the humor falls flat.
As far as the reasons why each character doesn't have someone to kiss at the end, I'll go through each character and why they ended up with no one. Rachel's was funny and appropriate, because she should stop being with the goddamn plot contrivance that is Paolo. This works better on binge watching, but at the time this implies they've been together for months. How? He barely speaks English. So I enjoyed a storyline that essentially punished her for still being with him.
Chandler's story works because Janice. Is there really that much pressure to have someone to kiss on New Years? I guess I'll accept that in 1994 New York there was. If I can accept that, I can REALLY buy Chandler succumbing so easily, because that's the type of person he is. Joey's situation made no sense. Ok, his date brought kids fine. (It was sort of expected after finding out she was a mom) But why the hell did she sleep with the scientist guy? Oh well, we have no idea how to make Joey and her not kiss at midnight, let's just do this completely implausible thing.
Having fun Bobby have a death in his family was hilarious to me so kudos for that decision. I also like how they just didn't even have Ross try to get a date. Everyone else gets dates, he realizes he's the only one who won't, but still he's just like "Fuck it, I'm going with a monkey." Man, I'm trying to figure out how they get from season one Ross to later seasons Ross. Totally different characters.
Grade - C+
"The One with the Candy Hearts"
And here's the Valentine's Day episode, which is shockingly different than the previous two holiday episodes. I kid, I kid. This is another Chandler-Janice story so of course it works. Seriously, give Matthew Perry anything in this season and he'll make it funny. I had trouble quoting any lines for this episode, but laughed a lot. It had a lot to do with his movements and the way he said things that don't come across as funny on paper.
Well, Joey is certainly a grade A asshole in this episode. Holy crap, he basically forces Chandler to go on a date with him and then bails on him knowing full well Chandler doesn't want to be there. It's kind of in character, but I'd hope even womanizing men like him would be able to have their friends in mind.
Chandler ends up being a nice friend and going of course. And of course he stays with Janice at the date because he's not an asshole. The credit card thing is smart to put in the plot so both of them have a reason to stay (free food!) and a reason to hook up (alcohol). But Joey is pretty broke and him paying for the meal despite his actions are completely inconsistent with his character.
So of course Chandler and Janice get together. Then it borders on absurdity when Janice and Chandler walk out, and eventually all the friends say hi to Janice. It's actually kind of funny in that the more people that see Janice, the more absurd the scene becomes. And then there's Chandler's responses to everything ranging from sarcastic to begging her to leave. Most of them funny.
Then Chandler breaks up with Janice and she insists this isn't the end - which it isn't of course. I like how hard Chandler tries to tell her that it is in fact over. So this isn't the last we see of Janice! She appears in 16 more episodes! But it is the last time in this season.
Maggie Wheeler will always be remembered for playing Janice. In fact, this role kind of started her semi-decent career of guest-starring on comedy television shows. After this show, she ended up having recurring roles in Ellen, Everybody Loves Raymond, and Archer. I have to wonder if this show typecast her or helped her somewhat unimpressive career become what it was. Although, there is really nothing to indicate she's all that good of an actress anyway who deserved better than this very respectable career (one that I would take if I became an actor). But... in her first episode, there's no reason to believe she would have returned if Wheeler didn't make it memorable.
This episode was written by Bill Lawrence, his only credit episode on this show. He later went on to create Spin City, Scrubs, and Cougar Town. That's a decent stable of shows (though I've never seen Cougar Town) so it's not a surprise that this is a pretty good episode. In addition to Janice subplot, Ross tries to go on a date for the first time in nine years.
Man, they REALLY changed his character. Ross is, as of this episode, is a man who is lost who doesn't know how to function after he's been with the same woman for years. He has next to no experience with woman. And explaining the jet lag of dogs was just painful to listen to. It was a very believable bad date.
Surprisingly, they treated this material very well. The woman wasn't insane, it was Ross who messed up the date. But the way he messed up is really understandable in that he doesn't really know what to do. Hell, the woman left and the audience can't even blame her because he had effectively ignored her.
The scene where Ross tries to get Carol to get back together with him was a very real and sympathetic scene. You get what he's going through. He doesn't want to go on dates, he just wants everything to be easy. I know Ross became funnier in the later seasons, but this version of Ross was a better character. This portion of the episode was just extremely well-written.
The last subplot? Eh. I'm not going to waste too many words with it, but basically Phoebe, Monica, and Rachel have a ritual to burn ex-boyfriends, let the fire get out of hand, and then flirt with jackass fireman. It wasn't really funny, or revealing, or anything to me. I don't even know how to describe my feelings towards it because it elicit nothing. Not even anger or disgust or displeasure. Just boring.
Well I got to give this a pretty good grade, but it's too bad one subplot did literally nothing for me at all.
Grade - B+
Well, Joey is certainly a grade A asshole in this episode. Holy crap, he basically forces Chandler to go on a date with him and then bails on him knowing full well Chandler doesn't want to be there. It's kind of in character, but I'd hope even womanizing men like him would be able to have their friends in mind.
Chandler ends up being a nice friend and going of course. And of course he stays with Janice at the date because he's not an asshole. The credit card thing is smart to put in the plot so both of them have a reason to stay (free food!) and a reason to hook up (alcohol). But Joey is pretty broke and him paying for the meal despite his actions are completely inconsistent with his character.
So of course Chandler and Janice get together. Then it borders on absurdity when Janice and Chandler walk out, and eventually all the friends say hi to Janice. It's actually kind of funny in that the more people that see Janice, the more absurd the scene becomes. And then there's Chandler's responses to everything ranging from sarcastic to begging her to leave. Most of them funny.
Then Chandler breaks up with Janice and she insists this isn't the end - which it isn't of course. I like how hard Chandler tries to tell her that it is in fact over. So this isn't the last we see of Janice! She appears in 16 more episodes! But it is the last time in this season.
Maggie Wheeler will always be remembered for playing Janice. In fact, this role kind of started her semi-decent career of guest-starring on comedy television shows. After this show, she ended up having recurring roles in Ellen, Everybody Loves Raymond, and Archer. I have to wonder if this show typecast her or helped her somewhat unimpressive career become what it was. Although, there is really nothing to indicate she's all that good of an actress anyway who deserved better than this very respectable career (one that I would take if I became an actor). But... in her first episode, there's no reason to believe she would have returned if Wheeler didn't make it memorable.
This episode was written by Bill Lawrence, his only credit episode on this show. He later went on to create Spin City, Scrubs, and Cougar Town. That's a decent stable of shows (though I've never seen Cougar Town) so it's not a surprise that this is a pretty good episode. In addition to Janice subplot, Ross tries to go on a date for the first time in nine years.
Man, they REALLY changed his character. Ross is, as of this episode, is a man who is lost who doesn't know how to function after he's been with the same woman for years. He has next to no experience with woman. And explaining the jet lag of dogs was just painful to listen to. It was a very believable bad date.
Surprisingly, they treated this material very well. The woman wasn't insane, it was Ross who messed up the date. But the way he messed up is really understandable in that he doesn't really know what to do. Hell, the woman left and the audience can't even blame her because he had effectively ignored her.
The scene where Ross tries to get Carol to get back together with him was a very real and sympathetic scene. You get what he's going through. He doesn't want to go on dates, he just wants everything to be easy. I know Ross became funnier in the later seasons, but this version of Ross was a better character. This portion of the episode was just extremely well-written.
The last subplot? Eh. I'm not going to waste too many words with it, but basically Phoebe, Monica, and Rachel have a ritual to burn ex-boyfriends, let the fire get out of hand, and then flirt with jackass fireman. It wasn't really funny, or revealing, or anything to me. I don't even know how to describe my feelings towards it because it elicit nothing. Not even anger or disgust or displeasure. Just boring.
Well I got to give this a pretty good grade, but it's too bad one subplot did literally nothing for me at all.
Grade - B+
Quotes
"Ross, don't take this the wrong way or anything, but BACK OFF" - Phoebe
"Ok Monica only dogs can hear you now" - Chandler
"Oh, you got the bigger half, what did you wish for?" - Phoebe
"The bigger half" - Joey
"I have twelve new songs about my mother's suicide and one about a snowman." - Phoebe
"I made a smile and eyes of coal, the smile was so bewitching. How was I supposed to know that my mom was dead in the kitchen?" - A really catchy, yet disturbing song by Phoebe
"I think that bitch cracked my tooth" - Rachel after Ross goes on about him and his monkey growing apart
"Janice is going to go away now" - Chandler desperately trying to get Janice to leave
"Now we need the semen of a righteous man" - Phoebe in her ritual
"Number three, learn to let go of the anger and try to love yourself" - helpful fireman advice
Playlist
1. "Ab Soul's Intro" - Terrace Martin ft. Ab Soul
2. "Champagne Supernova" - Oasis
3. "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" - The Temptations
4. "Hey Judas" - Black Star Riders
5. "Keep Ya Head Up" - Tupac
"I made a smile and eyes of coal, the smile was so bewitching. How was I supposed to know that my mom was dead in the kitchen?" - A really catchy, yet disturbing song by Phoebe
"I think that bitch cracked my tooth" - Rachel after Ross goes on about him and his monkey growing apart
"Janice is going to go away now" - Chandler desperately trying to get Janice to leave
"Now we need the semen of a righteous man" - Phoebe in her ritual
"Number three, learn to let go of the anger and try to love yourself" - helpful fireman advice
Playlist
1. "Ab Soul's Intro" - Terrace Martin ft. Ab Soul
2. "Champagne Supernova" - Oasis
3. "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" - The Temptations
4. "Hey Judas" - Black Star Riders
5. "Keep Ya Head Up" - Tupac
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