Some VERY overdue observations on TOW Ross Got High

OK, Larissa, I finally really took time to watch it.

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I will try to avoid rehashing the obvious and go for things that haven't been mentioned here before. As many of you who know me might have guessed, I thought this episode was awful, and not only because Ross was even more immaturely written than the premise really required him to be.

1. Phoebe's thing where she fantasized about Jack, and then Jacque Cousteau, was pretty dumb.

2. I got the idea that Malins began with a premise: the Gellers hate Chandler. Now, why might they hate Chandler? What they came up with - Ross smoked pot once in college and blamed it on Chandler - is too trivial to have caused the kind of bruhaha it did. Jack and Judy came out of the sixties. If they are going to become unglued the moment they find out one of their kids tried *one* joint ten years ago, they need a severe reality check. Now, if he'd been running an opium den in his bedroom for a year and a half, the reaction of characters involved might have been justified. I think Malins wrote himself into a corner and didn't know how to get out.

3. The dynamic between Mr. and Mrs. Geller and their kids is really disturbing. Ross and Monica are adults. Jack and Judy should treat them like adults. This business of Ross being terrified of whether or not Mommy and Daddy will accept that he was being naughty in a different decade is just stupid. And the "I was tricked" line... where the hell did that come from? It was an unfinished joke. Either he can come up with an elaborately tragic tale of how he was led astray by the big, bad world, (and now, glory, with the aid of Chandler, he has SEEN the light, HALLELUIA!) or they should have cut it. It sounded like something my son might say, and unfortunately, it just does not ever work to have a protagonist act like that.

• Malins clearly had no idea what to do with Phoebe.

5. It has never been made clear to me why Joey and Ross didn't leave after the argument.

6. Monica is really screechy and unpleasant to be around, even when she's right. I now thoroughly hate this character. Ross at least vacillates; he returns to his former self when it is expedient for them to have him do so. Monica is a demanding self-centered pain in the ass 25 episodes a season. This is really a shame.

7. The scene with Ross and Rachel in the hall...what was that supposed to be about? You know, I don't mind that she rejected an advance he didn't actually make, but once again her reasons were really fuzzy and she seemed much more concerned about how ALONE, alone, he was than Ross was. It was dead air. It didn't advance the plot, it didn't advance their story arc, it didn't reveal anything about their relationship, it wasn't funny... once again, Malins wrote himself into a corner and didn't know how to get out.

8.The trifle worked. The trifle was funny. And you know who saved the trifle storyline? Can anybody guess? Who could it be? Who has the highest success rate of any Friend for consistently acceptable (though rarely outstanding) comic interludes in the past two years? Joey! Once again, the only laughs that came out of me were from Joey.

See below

The old premise for not liking chandler was that he was 'the boy that hated thanksgiving'. And its not so farfetched. After all Ross is the favorite, and they seem to have poured all their efforts and hopes into ross to make him suceed and along comes this person Chandler and threatens that success with drugs then yea i can see them not liking him.

Ok as i've said before phoebe is done. She can continue coming back as a comic relief or as a soundingboard for other characters but basically she's done. Maybe if you brought back one of her old boyfriends or started up J&P there might be something there, but i doubt they will. If there is to be a shake up next season (if there is to be a next season) kudrow has the perfect opportunity to leave. Most likely she'll join joey as comic relief . Note that apart from joey's insurance both these characters have had nothing this season

Hands up everyone that thinks there'll be an R&R shocker at the last second of this season

Thats because joey is easy to write for. He's the lewis in the martin and lewis, the costello in abbott and costello, you don't need complex punchlines for him. In fact i'm surprised they don't mix in a little slapstick humor into his routine

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609 "TOW Ross Got High"

In article , William Pora wrote:

..an affair with Jack Geller? However unlikely that would have been, it would be preferable to the dream storyline, (though I did laugh about the seahorse).

Tennant

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609 "TOW Ross Got High"

In article , Claire Abraham wrote:

I thought this episode was a joy, but curiously Claire, you're about to find me agreeing with much of what you wrote... :)

I felt this to be the weakest element of the whole script. It began promisingly well, could Phoebe & Jack be about to embark on an affair? Such a turn of events would be an amazing storyline for Phoebe who has rather been left out it lately - as well as one in the eye for dreadful Judy. Then suddenly Phoebe had another dream!!!

"I was just starting to take my Thanksgiving nap" she began to Rachel. When has Phoebe taken Thanksgiving naps? She always helps Monica with the extra cooking, and even Rachel (who usually ducks domestic duties) pitches in. What Phoebe was actually doing was avoiding eating any trifle - she goes as the trifle is served, and returns as soon as Rachel's other guests have tasted it. So was the whole stupid Cousteau thing a pathetic lie?

He fell into the Parents Are Parents And Always Were Parents trap. It's the same syndrome that stops you swearing or discussing sex in front of your grandmother, even though she was once a teenage girl who got into trouble for screaming at Elvis The Pelvis or riding on the back of motorcycles.

Or Malins could have written that Chandler really *did* lead Ross astray but Ross was in a complex double bluff.

My theory is that Phoebe's story was just a last minute filler...

..because originally Joey & Ross *did* leave, and found that Janine's "dancer friends" were men - but Elle's r�le was virtually written out.

I don't hate the new Monica, at least when not being screechy which is most of the while, but she *is* my least favourite - when for five seasons Monica was my most favourite, such that it almost hurts to see her in reruns. :(

This scene was so badly written that some on ATF didn't realise Ross was trying to distract Rachel, but was trying to get back with her - which is what he should have been doing, they are still legally married and they should be sorting that out, (I may be a Robean, but that doesn't mean I don't sympathise with all the Roscelians out there).

The trifle was indeed the best storyline, and indeed the one that has generated the most comment. And you are right that it was Joey who gave us all the laughs here, but don't underestimate Rachel's part in this, JA was a very good straight-man.

Tennant

When I took the video of this ep round my friend's house (It's a weekly occurence to take the latest Friends ep round her house and all the people there watch it), my friend's brother's friend [Omar] told us that he, like Chandler, was the scapegoat for someone else who was found smoking pot. This 'friend' of Omar only smoked it once, yet still his parents went ballistic when they finally found out (and they still hate Omar, because they think it was him that led their son astray even though he's a thoroughly nice well-meaning decent guy.)

sesameslang - erm yeah, Omar's kinda cute, too :)

In article , [email] (Sesame Slang) wrote:

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Good for you, Sesame.

And this set of parents were teenagers in the sixties?

Tennant