What the @#%$^! Happened To Ross?!?!

[delurking]

Watched last night's ep with much anticipation...from what I have read here and seen on the promos, it seemed like there was a lot of comic territory to mine here.

There _was_, the writers just didn't strike gold. Or even lead, for the most part.

My biggest beef with last night: Ross, acting like a retard monkey with a speech impediment. It was actually sad, watching Schwimmer be upstaged by another actor standing there doing _nothing_. Willis exuded more reality and presence by standing still than Schwimmer did by stuttering and doing his "Lucy on Prozac" imitation.

If I sound bitter, it's because _I AM_!!! I've been taping my favorite eps from the syndicated reruns, and it's sad to see what has happened to the show. Someone here had a great qote about the show: "It used to be a funny show about people, and now it's a show about funny people." Ross, especially, seems to have morphed from a very sympathetic science geek to an annoying, borderline psychotic. The show used to be great at taking more-or-less realistic situations and tweaking them a bit for great comic value. Now it seems to be _inventing_ situations purely for laughs or outrageousness, rather than being believable, organic storytelling.

I have to place a lot of blame on the writers. Schwimmer was a presenter/speaker on a recent televised tribute to Harrison Ford. He was impressive in his delivery and calm. DS has comic and acting talent, but his role on Friends seems to have been reduced to "emotionally unstable goof."

And is it just me or does it seem like Monica and Ross seem to have a yelling quota for every ep? They keep screaming their lines!

Michael Martin wrote:

I agree totally. The show used to tell stories about the six of them and jokes would surface out of the story. Now, it seems like the writers have jokes in mind and try to write stories around the jokes. It may not be true, but I can't help but think that this Ross & Elizabeth thing was created to make some easy May-December romance jokes and then they built the story around it.

I also watched the Harrison Ford tribute and thought that Schwimmer stole the show with his self-depricating sense of humor. I was left in awe because of how different he was. Another thing to look at is TO That Could've Been because DS portrayed Ross like back in the early seasons. I don't know why the change occurred, whether it was the writers or DS himself wanting to change Ross, but this ep showed that it was a conscious change in his character rather than just overacting. The sad thing is I've read other forums where DS gets panned for his acting ability because people don't like watching Ross this way. In reality, he's carrying out his role the way he's supposed to, but most people just think he's a bad actor.

That seems to me like ineffective writing. It's like they're relying on exageration to get laughs instead of an effective script. It's like when you hear a band play loud because they think it sounds better, when in fact it takes away from the quality of their sound.

They need to make some changes in the direction of this show otherwise it would be pointless to continue.

Jay