My God, what a crappy episode. The One With the Lottery, #918, has to go down as one of the worst episodes EVER! The idea of bringing all six friends together for a storyline was commendable and almost evoked earliest seasons when the group used to hang out all the time. The difference then was they used to get together for real reasons. When they would talk about dating and sex and their personal struggles, the audience felt there was something meaningful going on. Even when they were joking and teasing each other, there was an undercurrent of more serious topics being broached. What do we get now? These six thirty-somethings acting like a bunch of nattering children at the silly and foolhardy prospect of winning the lottery. Is this really the biggest event in their lives? All the humor came down to their tiresome infighting and cheating on each other. Why are we supposed to care? I'm starting to wonder why would these six people would hang out at all anymore. I suppose Monica and Chandler's marriage and Rachel/Ross situation has caused this. The group members are no longer co-equals in their situations and outlooks and the show is worse off because of it. The original Friends formula, the warm group dynamic that many of us admired, is gone. The only part of this episode that held my interest was Phoebe flirting with Ross about being a "bad girl." However, with Ross' current situation, that was not even allowed to play out if only for comic effect. It was a shame. The rest of the episode was empty and not particulary funny.
918: The Formula Gambled Away
<< My God, what a crappy episode. The One With the Lottery, #918, has to go down as one of the worst episodes EVER! The idea of bringing all six friends together for a storyline was commendable and almost evoked earliest seasons when the group used to hang out all the time. The difference then was they used to get together for real reasons. When they would talk about dating and sex and their personal struggles, the audience felt there was something meaningful going on. Even when they were joking and teasing each other, there was an undercurrent of more serious topics being broached. What do we get now? These six thirty-somethings acting like a bunch of nattering children at the silly and foolhardy prospect of winning the lottery. Is this really the biggest event in their lives? All the humor came down to their tiresome infighting and cheating on each other. Why are we supposed to care? I'm starting to wonder why would these six people would hang out at all anymore. I suppose Monica and Chandler's marriage and Rachel/Ross situation has caused this. The group members are no longer co-equals in their situations and outlooks and the show is worse off because of it. The original Friends formula, the warm group dynamic that many of us admired, is gone. The only part of this episode that held my interest was Phoebe flirting with Ross about being a "bad girl." However, with Ross' current situation, that was not even allowed to play out if only for comic effect. It was a shame. The rest of the episode was empty and not particulary funny.
woah, someone has their boxer-briefs in a twist
that episode was classic friends and reminded me of earlier episodes
Seriously, it was one of the funniest ones I've seen in a long time. Classic Phoebe, Classic Joey, Ross wasn't too goofy, Rachel skewered him relentlessly, and Chandler was in a mature, serious mode which was nice to see.
Great episode, almost "My eyes! My eyes!" quality. It reminded me of the Thanksgiving one where Ross couldn't remember all the states.
Shawn
Not great, but not terrible. The general format of getting together and getting into silly fights reminded me of the "Crazy Plate Lady" episode, although admittedly not as good.
Really a waste of time to nitpick, but how did Phoebe get away to use a phone while everybody was scrounging for lottery tickets?
In alt.tv.friends on Fri, 4 Apr 2003 at 19:52:36, Charles Blair <c- [email]> wrote :
Cellphone?
My word. You must be completely delusional if you think that episode was any good, at all. What I just watched was total crap. It's sad there are people who feel they have to make excuses for things like these...
No excuse, my friend. I actually enjoyed it, enough to watch twice, in fact, which doesn't happen that often. Still funny the second time, Monica especially.
"Mommy" making fun of Ross was pretty good, too, and Phoebe being "daddy's girl!"
Shawn
Before anyone complains, here be spoiler space: . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..
Have to agree with you, I laughed out loud several times. And I loved the "awww" moment at the end where Joey revealed that his wish had been that Chandler get the job, not they all win the lottery.
I don't know why the OP on this thread hated the ep so much ... for me it was a pretty accurate rendition of how people would behave under the circumstances.
Caroline :)
Because it's a newsgroup, and the show has lasted longer than three seasons.
Shawn
Have to agree, at least for the main lottery ticket part of the episode. The selfishness and self-absorption displayed when fighting about who gets what lottery tickets was sad, not funny. Most people act somewhat more mature as they get older. Ross and Monica have just gotten more childish. It's arguable about the others.
It doesn't have to be like this.
It's fine to make the characters flawed. In fact it would be boring if they weren't. But making them petty and immature much of the time, particularly compared to the earlier seasons, really makes you wonder if the writers even realize why the show became popular in the first place.
You said "The original Friends formula, the warm group dynamic that many of us admired, is gone." I say it's almost gone. The Chandler job story at least showed that they cared about him. Unfortunately that was overwhelmed by the selfish "Lottery Ticket" plotline. I bought the first 3 season DVDs when they came out. I think I'll wait for the season 9 one until the price falls to $5.
Despite the declining quality, I still hope someone associated with the show can remember the early years, and get some of these characters back to the level of maturity/likeability they had in the first couple seasons. But I'm not holding my breath.
George
In alt.tv.friends on Fri, 4 Apr 2003 at 04:44:54, gdp wrote :
It grated with me a bit, too.
I agree the show has lost something, but it's almost impossible to define exactly what.
Despite wearing pink lacies, Bryan looked like a real lumberjack when saying:
it was pretty good imho, it was definitely MILES better than anything from 913-917, although that wasn't hard, my dog could have come up with something better than that.
Other than that, I wholeheartedly agree with what you say, look at this group, it's as good as dead right now, out of the people who used to contribute here a lot a year ago, there's only three or four left, everybody else disappeared into oblivion. Especially how they write Ross these days, it just makes me want to cry. I used to be one of the people on here who would try to defend him whenever someone would pop up and thrash the character, but these days... There'd be no point in doing it, they really made sure to remove every likable character trait he had. Maybe they do want to go down the Joey & Rachel road after all, wouldn't surprise me anymore. Joey is another story, he's written so OTT dumb at times this year, you just have to ask what Chandler asked him in S2 "how do you not fall down more?" - and if they do hook him up with Rachel, they will have achieved their goal of showing that a group of six charming and likeable people can develop into a bunch of despiccable, self-centrered thirty-somethings with no backbone. Except for Phoebe really, but she never gets anything big to do, so it's hardly surprising. They're probably saving that for S10
Andr� - still watching, despite really not liking the show anymore
I disagree with you. I believe it's going to be a VERY exciting S10 if the writers develop Joey and Rachel into a full-fledged romance. I've been their cheerleader since S8. ~~~ Kathy
"cookie dude" wrote in message news:3e8dc74c$0$21950$[email]...
something
everybody
want
just
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into
<< I disagree with you. I believe it's going to be a VERY exciting S10 if the writers develop Joey and Rachel into a full-fledged romance. I've been their cheerleader since S8. >>
yep i want them together too, forget ross and rachel
In alt.tv.friends on Fri, 4 Apr 2003 at 19:16:24, DominicanIndian wrote :
No way - R&R 4ever. :)
Despite wearing pink lacies, Kathy looked like a real lumberjack when saying:
and thereby completely ignore Joey's strict moral code? "you don't kiss your friend's mother, you don't make out with your friend's girlfriend, if the woman you're after could possibly be living with the father of her child you need to step back and allow for that chance." - all more or less taken straight from Joey's mouth.
I don't care about Ross and Rachel, that has been ultimately destroyed beyond repair, especially if you look at what Ross has become. What I am worried about is that they will turn Joey into a spineless bastard as they've already done with Chandler, Monica, Ross and Rachel. It's like his stable boy fantasy from 912, Rachel simply is forbidden grounds for him. Primarily because she's the ex-wife of one his best and closest friends and also the mother of his daughter. You just don't go after that woman, unless you're a totally self absorved dickhead - and we know Joey isn't. If Joey and Rachel do pair up, it'll be the total anti-climax (probably just as much as Ross and Rachel together would be)
He did. It didn't work. Rachel can't happily live with Ross.
He's awfully close to it, sometimes. Self-absorbed, that is, more than dickhead. Is Rachel to be Ross's territory forever, even when she says she's not? No man can ever have her again?
Can you imagine a scenario that wouldn't be an anti-climax for you?
Shawn
Yeah, I think it's the only way to go. Ross and Rachel will just never happen, it's far too late, and they are ALL wrong for each other.
Shawn
*Shawn Hill* :
"Awkward" would be the word that came to /my/ mind. The episode in which Rachel kisses Joey or something like that will be the last I watched.
I still like them, especially when they behave like in 918. I'm okay with being alone with this attitude.
Btw.: Is it just me, or is it mostly females who are in favor of Joey + Rachel?
"Christoph Paeper" wrote in message news:b6st8a$6tc$[email]...
You're not alone although I think you many be almost. Anyway, I love Joey as he is, not as a romantic interest for Rachel. I think putting Joey in this role would be a big mistake for the comedy of the show. And as one of the last fans of Ross, I would be very unhappy with the writers completely discarding him after they've already trashed his character in the last few seasons. I mean, one thing Ross has always said is that he loves being married, loves having a family and logically, it would be great if somehow, he and Rachel could find their ways back to each other eventually. If there's an R&J hookup, this would never happen. Any happy ending for Ross where he would actually be with the mother of one of his children would be in great doubt. I know there's a lot of Ross haters that would think that this would be just fine but really, this is a comedy where hopefully this show will have a satisfying ending for ALL the 6 characters, not just 5 of them. I THINK the writers want us to care about all of them even though some of the choices they've made in the past have been questionable, especially regarding Ross. I can't see why they would go down this road.
I can�t agree with you, Joey and Rachel... I would prefer Joye and Phoebe. Both of them are crazy and funny "Christoph Paeper" escribi� en el mensaje news:b6st8a$6tc$[email]...
<http://www.friends-tv.org>
(newest)
No, Joey and Rachel would be perfect together. Maybe the timing wasn't right the first time around when Joey told Rachel how he felt about her, but now that the baby is here and she's back at his apartment, she'll see him in a different light. Actually, there have been a couple of episodes where Joey has shown he has more parenting sense than Ross does. The "b-a-b-i-e" episode comes to mind first. ~~~ Kathy
"seila canedo" wrote in message news:uwwka.475206$[email]...
the
with
Christoph Paeper wrote:
I'm male.
Shawn
In alt.tv.friends on Mon, 7 Apr 2003 at 15:58:02, Shawn Hill wrote :
Then why do they keeping ending up in bed together?
In alt.tv.friends on Fri, 4 Apr 2003 at 13:33:41, Kathy wrote :
However, if they go down that road, I'll become even more jaded and cynical - I've been one of the biggest opponents of a Joey/Rachel romance from the start.
I agree. I thought this was one of the worst episodes ever. None of their attempts at one-liners were funny, and the laughter was all canned. Ross was the only decent one in this episode. And Phoebe's phone call as the bird? Not funny at all.
In alt.tv.friends on Thu, 3 Apr 2003 at 19:39:37, Bryan wrote :
While it wasn't one of the best, I wouldn't go that far.
Agreed.
Who doesn't do that?
For me that was one of the low points.