Spoilers...
Alright, is it just me or is Friends going downhill in a big hurry. It's starting to get the feel that many, many long running sitcoms get. Every episode either feels like, "Tonight, on a very special Friends" or it feels like, "What wacky, zany antics will these jokers be up to next! Tune in to find out!"
First, we've got Rachel calling her doctor at 3:00 AM. My wife and I just had our first child, and no one is a more paranoid parent than me. But Rachel calling her doctor feels just painfully unrealistic and absurd. However, it looks like the best plotline ever compared to Ross still going to his pediatrician and called "Rossy".
Next we have Chandler being transferred to Tulsa in a true-blue "Three's Company" misunderstanding. He falls asleep in a meeting, and we're supposed to believe he can't fix this? What's too bad is, corporate transfers and moves from one state to another are very real and very common things. It could have been handled so well and been a great plotline. How about Chandler coming home from work depressed and everyone's trying to figure out what it is? Not the greatest idea, but better than what they've done.
Am I the only one really, really concerned that a Joey-Phoebe thing may be in the works? Maybe I'm just paranoid. But Joey meeting some guy in the coffee house and getting him to go on a date with Phoebe? To qoute Chandler, "Quick, what would Jack and Chrissy do?"
Yea, there are some laughs here and there. There are some good lines. But when a show is still on the air, fans tend to view them one episode at a time. This episode was good, that one wasn't, etc. And that's based on how many laughs are in an episode. But when Friends is off the air and fans own all the seasons on DVD and they look at the show as a whole product and a whole storyline, the first few episodes of this season will be reviled and hated.
John