Friends is epic. Seasons 1-5'ish are some of the best television for my generation--even kept NBC's Thursday nights up after Cheers and Seinfeld made NBC must watch TV. However, the story line of Monica and Chandler ruined the show as a whole. It still had funny bits, a few funny episodes, but generally started a decline that I cannot believe lasted 10 seasons.
If I had to pinpoint an episode that put Friends on the springboard to jump the shark it was this episode. Prior to this episode, there were two "flashback" episodes that totally stayed in the lanes of the storyline (the Prom Video, and the Flashback). This flashback episode though, totally places plot holes in the storyline; subsequent flashbacks get further and further as time goes on, but this is ground zero.
Chandler and Monica had such a deep past that included him having only 9 toes and this is first discussed here...? Chandler knew who Rachel was...? Chandler was the lead singer of Ross' band...? They quit the Gellar Cup football game...?
I mean, I get that Chandler and Monica had been tossed around for years before being written into the show and all, but to have this moment in the past where Monica was in awe of Chandler--to him being the point of her choosing a cooking career, and doing the weight loss thing in one calendar year is just ridiculous for the rest of the series, but hey at the time of this episode, Monica and Chandler were taking off so I guess they thought it was cute to give them a sudden backstory...?
Go take time to watch three episodes in this order: Prom Video (s2), Flashback (s3) and then this one. Then tell me how this is a great episode. This would have been better served up in like season 8 or 9 when they were struggling to keep the series afloat, but for the "golden years", c'mon...?
If I had to pinpoint an episode that put Friends on the springboard to jump the shark it was this episode. Prior to this episode, there were two "flashback" episodes that totally stayed in the lanes of the storyline (the Prom Video, and the Flashback). This flashback episode though, totally places plot holes in the storyline; subsequent flashbacks get further and further as time goes on, but this is ground zero.
Chandler and Monica had such a deep past that included him having only 9 toes and this is first discussed here...? Chandler knew who Rachel was...? Chandler was the lead singer of Ross' band...? They quit the Gellar Cup football game...?
I mean, I get that Chandler and Monica had been tossed around for years before being written into the show and all, but to have this moment in the past where Monica was in awe of Chandler--to him being the point of her choosing a cooking career, and doing the weight loss thing in one calendar year is just ridiculous for the rest of the series, but hey at the time of this episode, Monica and Chandler were taking off so I guess they thought it was cute to give them a sudden backstory...?
Go take time to watch three episodes in this order: Prom Video (s2), Flashback (s3) and then this one. Then tell me how this is a great episode. This would have been better served up in like season 8 or 9 when they were struggling to keep the series afloat, but for the "golden years", c'mon...?