After watching the episodes TOW Ross and Rachel Take a Break and TW the Morning After many times, I have to say that Ross is quite probably the most ignorant educated man I have ever seen (and not only because of these two episodes, of course - kudos to David for making him so believable).
Although I think these two eps are very well acted they are badly written. I'd love to see them written properly. Of course, if they had been written properly (and fairly, for both characters) they would not have broken up, so there you go. Which is why I find these two episodes the most disappointing because of the results they brought about and the way they did it. They could have been written a lot more intelligently and have had them resolve the issue in an adult way. The breakup could still have happened a bit later in a more realistic manner.
The on again off again thing through the years was also ridiculous. It seemed to me that Rachel was only interested in Ross when he was going out with someone else. If she had wanted to be with him she should have been with him.
I loved the series through it's highs and lows because the writing was great for the most part and the acting was excellent most of the time. But there are too many things that were done for laughs rather than for the moral.