5/10
Dated Jokes but Enough Here to Land a Prime position behind Seinfeld
5 December 2014
See a lot of people here giving this 10/10. That may be the way you feel emotionally about the series as a whole but this is no masterpiece of an episode by any means and doesn't stand up to the better writing and finer acting of the third, fourth and fifth seasons when the show was churning out solid and biting one liners with conviction and regularity. This episode feels rather contrived and forced. The acting is stiff, especially from Jennifer Anniston, and the story lacks any real grit beyond setting up punch lines for material that hasn't aged as well as Seinfeld and borders on soap opera pretensions at times. Farcical appearance of Anniston in a wedding dress showing up in a coffee house to see someone she hasn't seen in years and then imposing herself on them is a ridiculous premise and shows a lack of creativity by the writers to come up with a better, more natural script. Courtney Cox manages to save this episode by playing her character with subtlety and is given a good story line by the writers, the only interesting thing that goes on in the entire episode, giving the show its opportunity to speak freely about 20 something dating life and relationships in its aftermath. The first show on American network television to give a voice to a new generation of more open discussions of sex and coupling, but the episode itself is rather weak when compared to the broader body of work to come and other television shows of the past and future. Soap opera ending brilliantly brings in the girls en masse but comes off predictable but does showcase David Schwimmer as an underrated and smart actor when placed into uncomfortable situations. Le Blanc, Perry and Kudrow aren't given a lot of material beyond one liners in a group setting but show themselves to be versatile and solid character actors right off the bat. Casting found some excellent talents here.
8 out of 19 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed