Ending The Love Of A Childhood Hero, Masters Of The Universe Is Mostly A Mess!

The Good: Moments of character, Moments of concept, Informative commentary track
The Bad: Most of the acting, Largely lacking in character development, Exceptionally dated special effects
The Basics: Despite some cool character designs and concepts for plot, the live action Masters Of The Universe is a mess of a film that eliminates the charm, magic, and morality of the original series.


Long before Transformers (reviewed here!) made a live-action, big-budget special effects film out of the popular toy line, the popular toy line Masters Of The Universe was given a live-action film of the same name. As I have recently rediscovered the love my childhood self had for He Man And The Masters Of The Universe (season 1 is reviewed here!), it is unsurprising that I would track down the DVD of the live-action Masters Of The Universe for my viewing pleasure. Unfortunately, it was not much of a pleasure to watch Masters Of The Universe.

Outside an element of sacrifice at the very end of Masters Of The Universe, there is very little of the morality or charm of the animated series that was based upon the toy line. Given how much I loved the toy line, it is unsurprising that as a child, I fell in love with Masters Of The Universe, but looking at it with objective, adult eyes . . . well, I cringe to think I was ever so young as to think this was great cinematography or storytelling. A fairly generic science fiction/action film, Masters Of The Universe mortgages its initially dark tone of a war story at the time of the defeat of the forces of good and transforms into a ridiculous fish-out-of-water story that is far less engaging than the film could have been.

Eternia and the magic Castle Greyskull, sits at the powerbase of the known universe. As the source of all power, Greyskull is sought by the evil warlord Skeletor, whose robotic forces have swept over Eternia and breached Greyskull after he infiltrated the stronghold and captured the magic Sorceress. With the Sorceress being drained of power and lifeforce, she makes a desperate call to Eternia’s her, He-Man. After rescuing the diminuative Gwildor, He-Man, Man-At-Arms, and Teela learn that Gwildor’s Cosmic Key inadvertently led Skeletor into Castle Greyskull. Using the key to escape Skeletor’s forces and try to enter Greyskull to rescue the Sorceress, He-Man and his friends find themselves overwhelmed and outnumbered by Skeletor and his invading army.

Using the Cosmic Key at random, He-Man, Gwildor, Man-At-Arms, and Teela teleport to Earth, where they realize they have lost the key. When the teenagers, Kevin and Julie, find the Cosmic Key, they begin pressing the buttons for the music it makes when they do. Their activating the Cosmic Key allows Skeletor to find where the heroes went. After sending a scouting party, which is stopped by He-Man, Evil-Lyn joins the second attempt to recover the key and by bewitching Julie, she is able to recover the Cosmic Key. With the Cosmic Key in her possession, Skeletor prepares to lay siege to Earth before returning to Eternia to get ultimate power from the Eye Of The Universe!

As with so many action movies, the real sense of disappointment in Masters Of The Universe comes from the characters. He-Man is a pretty senseless barbarian in Masters Of The Universe. He slashes, shoots lasers and runs around, but is almost entirely brutish, without any sense of strategy or depth. It speaks poorly of the film when the human girl, Julie (played by Courteney Cox) is given more lines and a greater sense of character and backstory than the film’s hero. Director Gary Goddard tries to justify the underwhelming nature of He-Man by stating that the film was written based only on the toy line and the accompanying comic books, which portrayed He-Man as a barbarian, but that defense is a very slim one. After all, by the time Masters Of The Universe was green-lit, the animated He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe was already off the air. In other words, whether it was originally written before that, by the time it went into pre-production, Masters Of The Universe had a much more extensive character base to call upon than the film actually ended up using.

That said, the characters of Man-At-Arms, Evil Lyn, and Skeletor all seem exactly like what one expects them to be. Jon Cypher plays Man-At-Arms as articulate and experienced (one of the few truly delightful moments of the film comes when the heroes are eating fried chicken and Teela learns that it is made from animals and Cypher portrays him with a wonderful sense of charisma). Similarly, Meg Foster is a bright spot in the movie as the cold and cunning Evil Lyn. Foster might be the only one who looks exactly like the character she portrays, based on the animated series, toys, and imagination of the fans.

Skeletor is played by Frank Langella and it is only late in the film that Langella is able to infuse some of his ability to bring depth and emotion to the role of the monolithic evil that is Skeletor. Langella is not bad as Skeletor; his character is just written pretty directly and blandly. Dolph Lundgren plays He-Man and instead of being a monolithic good, Lundgren just plays him as a brute with no real depth, save one moment near the very end of the film. Chelsea Field plays Teela as very militant and any young people who had any attraction to the character of Teela are likely to be disappointed by this rendition of her (not just because she does not wear a one-piece swimsuit-like outfit!). Billy Barty (Gwildor), Courteney Cox (Julie), Robert Duncan McNeill (Kevin), and Anthony De Longis (Blade) all do great in their new to the universe of Masters Of The Universe roles. James Tolkan plays Detective Lubic in a way that is very familiar to those who have seen him anything else.

The story of Masters Of The Universe starts out engaging enough, but when the heroes arrive on Earth, the movie takes a sharp right turn into Sucksville. The invasion of Earth to recover He-Man starts out interesting – the fight in the gymnasium that leads to He-Man rescuing Julie is pretty cool - and the subsequent punishment of the mercenaries by Skeletor enhances the sense of the character’s villainy, but the wave that includes Skeletor quickly turns into a ridiculous sequence that showcases special effects that are incredibly dated.

On DVD and Blu-Ray, Masters Of The Universe includes a commentary track that has director Gary Goddard defending the film as best he can and talking a lot about the limited budget, sped-up timetable and (especially) the lighting. I can’t recall a film where the director spent more time talking about the lighting than in Masters Of The Universe. The disc also includes the original trailer and character files of each of the film’s characters.

The bonus features, however, are not at all enough to justify sitting through the movie, even for those who want to love the universe of Masters Of The Universe.

For other fantasy and science fiction films, please visit my reviews of:
The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy
Labyrinth
The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe

4/10

For other film reviews, please visit my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

This Is Not Galaxy Quest: Zoom: Academy For Superheroes Is Too Stupid Even For Children

The Good: None.
The Bad: Wow, where to start: acting, characters, humor, plot
The Basics: In an unredeemable waste of time, children are trained to be superheroes in a movie that is as predictable as it is unfunny.


Wow. This is where actor's go for their careers to die.

You've no idea how much I wish that could be my entire review for Zoom: Academy For Superheroes, a movie I sat down to watch thinking it might be like Galaxy Quest (reviewed here!). Alas, despite the presence of Tim Allen, this was not the case. Apparently based on a children's book series, Zoom is a kid's movie and offers absolutely nothing for an adult audience. While the concept could have been executed in a way that might entertain adults (a la Mystery Men, reviewed here!) this is not the case, though Smashmouth did the music for this film, like they provided songs for Mystery Men.

Years ago, there were superheroes developed by the U.S. government and the most notable of them were the brothers Jack and Connor Shepard. Jack became the leader of the group with his ability to move quite fast; he was known as Captain Zoom. His brother, when the government tried to augment the superheroes' natural powers, became the villainous Concussion. Now, years later, Concussion is returning from another dimension and giving a plot-convenient fourteen days to arrive. This will allow the somewhat moronic Dr. Grant and his hot assistant Marsha to enlist Jack Shepard to train a new team of superheroes to take on and defeat Concussion.

In the first few moments of Zoom: Academy For Superheroes, the viewer knows the film is headed for stupidity and disaster when Dr. Grant is ordered to assemble a new team of young superheroes by finding the misfits and social outcasts. That line of dialogue just made me groan, but even I was unprepared for the stupidity that would follow. The first example of a "misfit" is a six year old girl who is bullied for her Halloween candy and responds by throwing him up into a tree. The ridiculous simplicity of this is compounded by the annoyed look Cindy's mother gives her for tossing the bully into a tree. Were I little superhuman Cindy, I think it would be a fair reaction to wonder why mom just watched me being bullied and looked annoyed at ME for responding the way I did! Cliche #2 is bullied girl, 16 year-old Summer who is annoyed by cheerleaders who keep taking her lunch tray and pushing before her in line. Her solution? Use her telekinetic powers to boil the sauces which blow up onto the cheerleaders who obligingly stand before the sauces waiting for it to happen.

It doesn't even matter who comes next - there are two boys to balance the two girls - this is just dumped itself into the realms of utter, unredeeming stupidity. It's so terribly convenient that when asked to find "social misfits," "kids who don't fit in," Dr. Grant finds them so easily in white, middle-class suburbia. This is the whitest group of social outcasts I've ever seen. They are all obediently white, clean, middle class, and heterosexual (no doubt) with good American surnames like "Williams," "Jones," "West," and "Collins." Not a "Hershel" or "Freeman" among them!

Outside the utter conceptual stupidity of Zoom, the movie progresses to go from bad to worse with the team converging on the training facility for the most hackneyed gags (there is much falling down and knocking into things) and predictable blunders that even a child could not find surprising. As the threat of Concussion moves closer, the team goes through normal and predictable foibles that come with a superhero team in a kid's movie.

The enduring problem of Zoom: Academy For Superheroes is in the writing. Adam Rifkin, David Berenbaum, and Jason Lethcoe create characters that are all "types." None are extraordinary and none break the mold for who they could be or what they represent. The superheroes Mega Boy, Wonder, Houdini, and Princess are anything but special and director Peter Hewitt does not even make the movie look interesting.

The child actors playing the four heroes are universally bad. There are no Anna Paquins or Dakota Fannings here. These kids are children playing dress up and run around on celluloid. Sadly, the adult actors in Zoom are no better. Courtney Cox's performance as the supporting "woman" role is uninspired and serves only to remind the viewer that she got her start dancing with Bruce Springsteen - and that was a more natural acting job.

Tim Allen does his usual shtick as Allen that he's done innumerable times before. Here he's not funny and he's not entertaining and the character is in no way challenging or pushing forth his abilities in any meaningful way. Sadly, Allen makes an already terrible movie drag on with his uninspired antics.

The only one who is measurably worse is the aging Chevy Chase. On Family Guy, (in "Brian The Bachelor," season four - volume 4 on the DVDs) there's a joke about not mocking Chevy Chase because "He seems like the kinda guy who would sue. I mean, that guy's gotta have, like, no money left." Zoom: Academy For Superheroes seems to depend on that and Chase gives an awkward and ridiculously bad performance that mortgages any sense that he might have ever had any sort of comic genius. So, for example, much of his comedy here consists of screwing his face up slightly and speaking in a mildly high pitched voice, like in the beginning when the General notes that Concussion was destroyed years ago and they watched it happen and Chase merely nods yes, while saying "no."

This movie is an utter disappointment with nothing to offer adults in the way of entertainment. It's too stupid for even children. I'm shocked I could muster up so many words to describe how worthless this movie was. I'm surprised you could bear to read them all.

After all, this is where careers go to die.

For other works with Rip Torn, be sure to visit my reviews of:
Men In Black
Wonderboys
Men In Black II
Marie Antoinette
Men In Black 3

.5/10

For other film reviews, be sure to check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

A Season Of Changes Ends Friends The Complete Tenth (And Final) Season!

The Good: Good sense of character and plot movement.
The Bad: Shorter season, Bonus disc DVD bonus features are nothing special
The Basics: A shortened season, the tenth and final season of Friends adequately closes the character arcs of six New York City friends.


Here it is. My wife and I began watching Friends (reviewed here!) earlier this year and I have been slowly making it through the seasons of the show. At the end of it all comes season ten and it is a rare thing for any series to make it that far. Sadly, for fans of the show, Friends The Complete Tenth Season is a truncated season and on DVD, it is a tough sell at the same price as the earlier ones. But what the series has going for it at this point in its story is a strong sense of movement. The last season is heavily serialized and it is a coda, a season that is intended to reward the fans of the show. In other words, while I do recommend this film, it is not worth acquiring or even watching if one has not seen the prior seasons. The reason for this is simple: Friends is essentially a soap opera and this season finishes the character arcs that have been building for nine years.

As well, Friends in the tenth season is impossible to discuss without revealing a few things about prior seasons, most notably how the ninth season ends (or left the characters). Because there are character elements that are quickly resolved (and a few that take longer), in order to seriously discuss the final season of Friends the changes have to be noted. The season only has eighteen episodes and one suspects that part of the reason for the shorter season was the fact that Courteney Cox-Arquette got pregnant and (for reasons obvious to fans who have seen the season before this) that caused some insurmountable filming obstacles. Regardless, with eighteen episodes, with plots that flow very quickly from one to the next, this is a fast-moving season of situational comedy.

Opening with the six friends still in Barbados with Phoebe's boyfriend Mike and (now) Ross' girlfriend Charlie, Joey wants to let his relationship with Rachel progress, just as Ross wants to move things forward with Charlie. Both men, though, want to be sure things are okay with the other before they go forward. And when Ross finds out Joey and Rachel are romantically involved, he freaks out in a way that neither of them feels comfortable taking the relationship further. Ross is abandoned by Charlie shortly thereafter when one of Charlie's ex's want her back. As Chandler and Monica work to impress the adoption board, Ross, Joey and Rachel each try to work through their separate damages. At the same time, Phoebe and Mike grow even closer.

Despite everything, Phoebe and Mike get engaged and they look to a quick marriage. Monica and Chandler discover a rather dippy girl in Ohio who has gotten pregnant and is looking to give up her baby for adoption. But as Joey becomes more upset by the way all of their lives are changing, in the wake of Monica and Chandler finding a house in Westchester they want to move to, Rachel and Ross both have professional changes that threaten to change all their lives even more!

In the tenth season, Friends moves right along with such things as the teased relationship between Joey and Rachel getting resolved rather quickly. The show becomes very preoccupied with tying up loose ends and this season is largely about that. Will Ross and Rachel ever get together? Will Monica and Chandler become parents? Will Phoebe ever do anything normal? This season answers all of these questions and leaves a few very strange ones up in the air (like where do Phoebe and Mike live after they get married?). But, for the most part, the last season of Friends is largely about rewarding fans who have been watching for years and as such, it is intended to make fans feel good about how their friends get through their lingering obstacles.

Rather nicely, this season is mostly serialized without bottle episodes that have ridiculous premises. Outside the annual Thanksgiving episode, the episodes generally flow from one to the next with the character elements building upon each other. The result is that very little actually happens this season that can be described . . . outside everyone trying to get out of Emma's first birthday party when the cake that arrives turns out to be an erotic cake. Outside that somewhat contrived plot, everything flows from the character choices. Monica and Chandler have an interview with the adoption center, which leads them to a birth mother, which compels them to buy a house and so on. Similarly, Phoebe and Mike make their choices and the only thing that does not honestly make sense is how quickly Mike comes around to proposing to Phoebe, especially how adamant he was against it in the prior season.

And while most fans will enjoy the ultimate resolution to the show, it is hard not to feel cheated by the Joey and Rachel resolution. By the end of the second episode of this season, the relationship that has been teased for two years is over and done with and the fan-favored relationship between Ross and Rachel suddenly becomes a possibility again. The thing is, the chemistry is not quite there. Instead, Ross and Rachel come together as a plot and character contrivance that is remarkably abrupt. In the few episodes they are both present, Mike and Phoebe have much better chemistry than Ross and Rachel do (at least until the finale). The other significant change is that Joey's promiscuous quality dissipates. After he loses Rachel as a viable romantic partner, he does not date the entire season. Instead, Joey has to deal with the consequences of one of his prior bad relationships.

Because the season is almost exclusively about characters and character choices, it is worthwhile to know who the characters are and what they are motivated by in the final season. The most stable cast ends as it began with:

Rachel Green - Quickly realizing that she and Joey will not work out because of her history with Ross, she returns to work and raising Emma. It is only when her work situation changes dramatically that she has to consider her relationships and what she actually wants in life,

Monica Gellar (because, as we learn this season, she neglected to change her name) - tries to avoid an old acquaintance, but discovers she cannot be that rude. She and Chandler work hard to impress the adoption agency and soon find the perfect house in the suburbs,

Phoebe Buffay - Committed to Mike now, she proposes when she realizes he is ready. With a short engagement, the two move to be married and figure out their future together . . . with or without her other friends,

Joey Tribiani - Still working on Days Of Our Lives, he gets no other gigs, nor any other relationships after letting Rachel go. He proves himself to be a good and loyal friend to Ross and Rachel through that and to Monica and Chandler when he tries to write a recommendation for them for the adoption agency and straighten a rather unique problem out with their adoption agent on the home visit,

Chander Bing - Working at the advertising agency, he and Monica focus on finding a child to adopt and a house in the suburbs. He "takes one for the team" in order to insure he and Monica do not get saddled with the worst possible neighbor,

And Ross Gellar - Losing Charlie to a crazy Nobel-prize winner, he focuses in his career and Emma. When Rachel's career gets turned upside down, he is forced to make a choice about what is truly important to him.

In the tenth season of Friends, there are no truly outstanding performances. Instead, this is an example of six people performing the roles they have made iconic. David Schwimmer still infuses Ross with a rage that comes up at awkward times, Matt LeBlanc still plays Joey as completely dippy and Matthew Perry's Chandler is still deeply sarcastic. None of the character traits truly change this season, the actors just have the characters honed to a flawlessly consistent portrayal of them.

On DVD, there are three discs of episodes and one of bonus features. While three episodes have commentary tracks, the fourth disc has featurettes. On the final disc, there is a featurette on the end of the series as well as gag reels. There is also a music video and a final featurette (standard for the last few boxed set DVDs of Friends) on the guest stars from the season.

But for fans, this is a great way to finish the series and it is goes too quickly. This becomes an essential coda to the beloved comedy Friends.

For the final seasons of other comedy television shows, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
Fraiser - Season 11
Arrested Development - Season 3

8/10

For other television show reviews, please be sure to visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

| | |

In Its Ninth Season, Friends Settles In For Average Episodes And Average DVD Presentation.

The Good: Some funny moments, Decent character development
The Bad: Very standard DVD bonus features, Often more plot-oriented as the season goes on.
The Basics: A fun season, Friends Season Nine on DVD is still a bit more contrived and average than truly extraordinary or indispensable.


When a long-running television show does not know just how much longer it has, it is interesting to see how it develops and how it makes use of the time it has left. According to the commentary track on Friends Season 8 (reviewed here!), it was relatively late in the eighth season that the producers learned that all of the contract negotiations were set and Friends would be back on the air, renewed for two more seasons. As a result, the eighth season ended with a somewhat awkward cliffhanger and the ninth season was left with a lot of room to develop and play out, especially because the producers knew it would not be the show's last year.

Because of the nature of the finale to the eighth season, it is impossible to write about the ninth season - with any level of competency - without mentioning how the eighth season ended. For those who want to have a truly pure viewing of Friends (reviewed here!) this would be an appropriate place to stop reading. But given how long the series has been off the air and on DVD, it hardly seems shocking to mention. The ninth season of Friends is an interesting mix of much more cohesive - in terms of character development - and much less cohesive (in terms of plot) than the prior two seasons. Previous seasons of Friends have been heavily serialized with a few episodic moments. One season was spent entirely building to the wedding of Monica and Chandler and the eighth season was largely devoted to Rachel's pregnancy. The ninth season has serialized elements - like Chandler's stint in Tulsa or Phoebe's dating Mike - but there is no one overwhelming element that the season is truly about.

Following Rachel mistaking Joey's actions in the prior season's finale as proposing, Ross, Rachel and Joey try to figure out their collective relationships in the wake of Emma's birth. Rachel and Ross work together to keep Emma happy and safe, while Joey works through his lingering feelings for Rachel. But while their little drama progresses and Rachel settles in to being a mother, Chandler manages to fall asleep at a meeting where he inadvertently agrees to go off to Tulsa to head up his company's operation there. While Chandler and Monica deal with only seeing one another three days a week, Phoebe falls hard for a man named Mike whom Joey finds for her. But the tensions between Ross and Rachel and Chandler and Monica soon reach a head and at Christmas, Chandler quits his job and Rachel moves back in with Joey.

The season then progresses with Rachel realizing she might have feelings for Joey while Joey dates a paleontologist named Charlie. As Chandler tries to get his foot in the door at an advertising agency, Phoebe discovers things are not quite working out with Mike and the whole group plays the lotto together. The season climaxes with the whole group going to Barbados to listen to Ross present a paper and a series of surprising reversals for Phoebe, Ross, Rachel and Joey!

The ninth season of Friends had the great potential to explore some genuinely deep human emotions. Instead, the show went for obvious humor and clichés. So, for example, early in the season as the heaviness between Ross and Rachel heats up, comes “The One With The Pediatrician,” which has the ridiculous premise that Ross still is attended to by his pediatrician, which is why he does not want Rachel to take Emma to him. As well as the obvious episodes where there are uncharacteristic elements, there are episodes that feel remarkably familiar . . . because they are. “The One With Phoebe’s Dinner Party” is just a mild twist on season two's “The One Where No One's Ready.” Instead of Ross hounding everyone to get somewhere, though, it is Phoebe waiting and the differences beyond that are almost nonexistent.

Still, some of the stories are surprisingly fresh, even years after. For example, “The One With The Sharks” is surprisingly funny as Monica walks in on Chandler, who hearing her, switches from watching porn to watching a documentary on sharks. This leads Monica to the conclusion that Chandler is turned on by undersea carnage. It's a fairly original concept and the execution of it is funny. But even so, the bulk of the concepts are more contrived than truly hilarious. Like why Ross, one of the more enlightened characters on the show, has a problem with a male nanny for Emma in “The One With The Male Nanny” is somewhat in neglect of his actual character. But watching Ross and Rachel sing “Baby Got Back” to Emma in “The One With Ross’ Inappropriate Song” is cute.

As well, Friends continues to introduce new characters in the ninth season and they do appear to be trading some on the celebrity of many of their guest stars. Christina Applegate pops up as Rachel’s other sister, Amy. This is actually one of the better uses of a guest star, though Applegate is given little to play that she has not previously played on her role from Married With Children. Other recurring guest stars like Paul Rudd and Aisha Tyler trade less on their celebrity, but hold their own with the main cast. Fans of the series will also be delighted by the return of Hank Azaria for a few episodes.

But when the show isn't busy being contrived with the situations, it actually makes a decent attempt to grow the characters. In the ninth season, the principle characters of Friends are:

Monica Bing – Happily married to Chandler, she has a lot of stress when Chandler goes to work in Tulsa for most of the week, leaving her alone. Upon his return, though, she begins to work with him to try to get pregnant and soon it becomes clear that their efforts are strangely in vain,

Ross Gellar – A father again, he manages to avoid proposing to Rachel and he works with her to raise Emma. However, the emotional ramifications of that soon become a toll and he finds himself attracted to Joey’s girlfriend, Charlie,

Joey – Experiencing some real feelings for Rachel, he manages to avoid awkward situations by her and Ross getting closer and then him getting involved with Charlie. Joey’s acting career continues surprisingly strong as his character is given more lines, which makes him nervous and puts him into an awkward situation with Rachel when she moves back in,

Chandler Bing – Thrilled at the prospect of having a child with Monica, he is less-than wild about his job taking her away from him. When a Christmas apart – and with a coworker who seems to want to tempt him – forces his hand, he quits . . . and explores advertising,

Phoebe – After being set up with Mike, she experiences the thrill of a good, long relationship for most of the season, until the pair breaks up. But when she is single again and the love of her life, David, pops up, her friends conspire to figure out who she truly ought to be with,

and Rachel Green – Having had her baby, she begins to grow as a single mother and develops into a surprisingly selfless person. But when she discovers Ross has been keeping phone messages from potential suitors from her, she moves back in with Joey and there she discovers she may have feelings for him!

The acting in Friends is homogeneously strong this season, but once again Matthew Perry and Jennifer Aniston lead the pack. While David Schwimmer seems content to direct more episodes, Perry plays real angst against his character's usual sarcasm, especially in the penultimate episode of the season, when Monica and Chandler learn something important from the fertility doctor. But this season is one of Jennifer Aniston’s strongest, as she truly develops Rachel into a fully realized human being. Motherhood works wonders on the character and the actress plays that up perfectly, becoming more emotive and giving throughout.

On DVD, Friends Season Nine includes a blooper reel and three of the episodes have commentary tracks, though those are particularly dull, even for a sitcom. There is a pointless music video from the Flaming Lips and the only truly wonderful bonus feature is the trivia game, though even that gets a bit repetitive.

Even so, there is more here on DVD than there is in syndication, making the DVD set just strong enough to recommend. Fans of the series will find there are fewer moments that seem original and a few more that seem unfortunately contrived, but for the most part, this is a fun boxed set.

For other works with Paul Rudd, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Year One
I Love You, Man
Monsters Vs. Aliens
Forgetting Sarah Marshall

5.5/10

For other television season reviews, please be sure to visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

| | |

Almost A Perfect Season? Friends The Complete Sixth Season Comes Close!

The Good: Funny, Good character development, Generally good plots, Generally good acting
The Bad: A few missteps, Light on DVD bonus features
The Basics: Arguably the best season of Friends, Friends The Complete Sixth Season might have minimal bonus features, but it is still worth picking up on DVD.


There is something appropriate to beginning my review of Friends The Complete Sixth Season with the acknowledgment that I purchased the complete series of Friends (reviewed here!) for my wife when we got married. The reason for this is obvious to those who are fans of the show Friends, which ended its fifth season with a surprise wedding (spoilers ahead!). As my wife succeeds in getting me more and more into Friends, I find myself enjoying it when the characters are at their most adult and the scenarios are not geared toward the ridiculous.

The best season so far for me as a Friends neophyte is the sixth season. The thing is, it is hard to recommend "The Complete Sixth Season" of Friends as a standalone experience. The four-disc set with all twenty-five episodes of the sixth season follows closely on the heels of the fifth season and the character arcs in this season find the characters growing and changing. While it is a wonderful season on its own, to appreciate it best, it helps to see the prior five seasons. This is largely because by this point in the series the writers and producers assume that people have been watching. As a result, they do not clarify such things as the exact magnitude of Richard in the two-part season finale. That said, most of the season is quite self-explanatory and it recaps just enough of the prior season's action to allow new viewers to step right in.

When Chandler and Monica rush to get married in Las Vegas, they discover that Ross and Rachel have gotten drunk and beaten them to the punch. Freaked out, Chandler, Monica, Joey and Phoebe retreat to see what will happen next. Having no memory of the prior night, Ross and Rachel are as surprised as anyone to learn they are now married. Returning to New York City, Rachel nudges Ross toward a divorce, which he does not want (it would be his third) and Chandler and Monica make plans to move in with one another. With Rachel getting evicted from Monica's, Ross sees this as a chance to keep his marriage to Rachel alive and real, so he lies to her about getting the marriage annulled.

Soon, though, Ross and Rachel are divorced and when Chandler moves out, Joey is left in a lurch for a roommate, taking in the super-hot Janine. When she leaves, he is compelled to take a job at Central Perk. Rachel moves in with Phoebe, who despises the way Rachel decorates (with manufactured products from Pottery Barn). Their divorce finalized, Ross goes to work as a professor and begins dating a former student which leads Rachel to date Ross's girlfriend's father. And as living together causes Chandler and Monica to grow closer, the pair makes plans to take the next step.

The sixth season of Friends is largely serialized, as opposed to episodic. That means most of the episodes continue the same arcs as the prior episode and the conflicts and characters grow upon one another. This is rare for a comedy and Friends makes it work by doing "mini arcs." The sixth season of Friends may be easily broken down into the Ross/Rachel divorce, the Joey/Janine, and Ross/Elizabeth arcs with Chandler and Monica pretty steadily navigating their relationship throughout. This is not to say that the sixth season is devoid of episodic episodes where everything is neatly encapsulated in a single half-hour.

No, Friends - The Complete Sixth Season has a few bottle episodes, like "The One With Unagi," where Ross's alleged martial arts skills are put to the test against Rachel and Phoebe. Similarly, "The One With The Joke," where Ross and Chandler both claim the joke printed in Playboy is theirs is pretty much a bottle episode (though it does have the serialized element of Joey ending up waiting at Central Perk). Most impressively is a two-part bottle episode, "The One That Could Have Been." That episode presents an alternate reality where each character has one change made to their initial characterization and the results explored. For example, Monica is still obese and Phoebe has a job as a stockbroker. The two part episode recreates Friends without any consequence to the overall series as the musing is ended by the end of the second part. Still, the divergence is fun and the creativity in it is not usually evident in mainstream shows like Friends. Instead of alienating the audience, though, they seemed to embrace the alternate universe Friends and the series continued after as if it never happened.

The sixth season of Friends does have some classic bits to it. For example, the annual Thanksgiving episode features Rachel cooking a dessert that is an unfortunate mix of a dessert and a shepherd's pie. Similarly, the dance routine in "The One With The Routine" is funny and disturbing. Anyone who likes physical comedy will appreciate the ridiculous dance moves Ross and Monica go through in that sequence.

For a better understanding of what the sixth season of Friends is all about, it helps to know who the primary characters are. Friends had a remarkably stable ensemble and in the sixth season, all of the principles returned. For this season, they were characterized as:

Joey - Having not worked in a while as an actor, he is destitute when Chandler moves out, despite Chandler's cunning attempt to slip him money without him figuring out he is Chandler's charity case. He takes in Janine, who is very much Joey's type, but when she leaves, he finds himself once again unable to make ends meet. When their apartment burns down, Joey takes in Phoebe and then Rachel. After a stint at Central Perk, Joey works on a pilot that gives him top billing,

Ross - Accidentally married to Rachel, he becomes despondent at the thought of being divorced for a third time. When that finally happens, he finds himself hanging around Rachel's younger sister and then dating a student, which nearly has disastrous results for him. He begins teaching at a university, which causes him to adopt a fake accent out of nervousness,

Chandler - Continually growing up, the businessman moves in with Monica and finds himself repulsed by her when she gets ill. He admits he hasn't been able to cry since he was a child, which sets Monica off and the longer they live together, the more convinced he becomes that he wants to spend the rest of his life with Monica,

Phoebe - The bearer of Ross's secret - that he was unable to get an annulment - she becomes stressed until the truth comes out. She takes Rachel in, but her anti-consumer tendencies lead to conflicts between them. When Rachel burns down their apartment, she moves in with Joey. She helps Chandler pick out the ring for Monica,

Monica - Adapting to living with Chandler, the professional chef once again exhibits her tendencies toward obsessive compulsive behavior. Still, she and Chandler get along quite well, especially when Chandler reconciles with Monica's parents over an old weed-smoking incident. When Chandler wigs out on her over commitment issues, she finds herself intrigued by Richard resurfacing,

and Rachel - Upset over marrying Ross while drunk - though she admits responsibility - she moves to have the marriage dissolved based on Ross's mental health. Still, she becomes jealous when her younger sister dates Ross. Things turn around for the fashion buyer when she begins dating Paul, Ross's girlfriend's father.

More than the prior seasons, the sixth season of Friends relies on famous guest stars being utilized for their talents as opposed to their names. This season has recurring roles for Elle Macpherson (Janine), Reese Witherspoon (Rachel's sister) and Bruce Willis (Paul, Elizabeth's father). Having Bruce Willis around for three episodes commits the series to using him well and his role as Paul is memorable for his initially angry character which quickly becomes a weird guy with low self-esteem. Willis blends with the cast well and makes good use of his three episodes. Conversely, Macpherson's character is often segregated from the full cast, giving Matt LeBlanc more to do with her outside the group dynamic.

As for the acting by the main characters, by this point they are solid in their paces. They know what they are doing and they do it well. Here they continue to use their well-honed comic timing to make jokes and keep the situations interesting. Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry continue to lead the cast with strong, often emotionally-charged performances and quick-witted deliveries of the best lines. This season even sees Courteney Cox-Arquette growing as an actress as she is finally able to keep a poker face raised when other characters make jokes. Pairing her with Perry works quite well for the series for the peripheral benefit of keeping her laughter under control.

On DVD, Friends The Complete Sixth Season has minimal DVD bonus features. Three episodes have commentary tracks - which are stiflingly similar to commentary tracks from earlier seasons (we get that the Thanksgiving episodes are special for Friends!) - and there is a blooper reel. As well, there is a trivia game and a season seven preview which is now pretty unremarkable. The best bonus feature is the guest star reel which has recurring guest stars interviewed about their experiences on Friends.

This is a DVD boxed set where the source material is good enough to warrant the buy and the show succeeds in the sixth season because it is consistently funny.

For other works featuring Bruce Willis, please be sure to check out:
Unbreakable
The Story Of Us
The Verdict

9/10

For other television reviews, please be sure to visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

Little To Distinguish It, Friends The Complete Fifth Season Is Average An Sitcom On DVD.

The Good: Moments of humor, Chandler and Phoebe's character arcs
The Bad: Some truly juvenile plots, Plot-heavy, Limited DVD bonus features
The Basics: In a very average season of Friends, Phoebe has triplets, Chandler and Monica develop a relationship and the Ross/Rachel plot is abruptly dropped.


Every television series seems to have its ups and downs, but few that endured impress me with how drastically they changed (qualitatively) as Friends. My wife is a huge fan of the series and for our wedding, I purchased all of the seasons for her. As we make our way through them (alternating with shows I enjoy), I am shocked that this series retained its popularity as long as it did. This is especially true of Friends - The Complete Fifth Season, which is largely watchable only on the strength of Chandler's character arc and Lisa Kudrow's acting. Jennifer Aniston's Rachel is swept to the side far more often this season than in the past and Matt LeBlanc's Joey gets decent airtime, but does not actually develop. Similarly, Ross dominates this season, but we see nothing truly new from him or actor David Schwimmer. And Courteney Cox's acting gets no better in this boxed set.

The four-disc set contains all twenty-three fifth season episodes (the season finale is double-long and presented in its original form as a single episode) and is plagued with minimal DVD bonus features. Only three episodes have commentary tracks, though at least "The One Hundredth" is one of them and the final disc contains the other featurettes. One is a now-worthless sneak peak at season six featuring Gunther gossiping on the direction of the series. There is an hour-long documentary which is decent, but the "Friends: On Location In London" would have been more appropriate in the prior DVD set. The fifth season picks up with repeating the final moments of the fourth season's finale, so it is impossible to discuss it without mentioning the surprise ending to that season.

In London, Ross and his entire wedding party are shocked when he says Rachel's name instead of Emily's. Emily goes through with the marriage, though immediately abandons Ross. While Ross struggles to reconcile with the furious Emily, Rachel tries to determine what it means that Ross said her name. Meanwhile, Monica and Chandler deal with their coupling and the ramifications of that. Shortly after the gang returns to New York City, including a dejected Ross who is still attempting to contact Emily, Phoebe gives birth to the triplets.

What follows in the season are more episodic episodes. Chandler and Monica actually commit to a relationship with one another and Ross's second marriage collapses because Emily wants him to never again see Rachel. Ross also loses his apartment and is suspended from his job for exhibiting rage at work. Rachel has an awkward encounter with a new neighbor in the building, but otherwise focuses on her job, when she snags a new job at Ralph Lauren. Having recovered from birthing the triplets, Phoebe encounters her birth father and dates a police officer . . . with disastrous results. Joey continues to flounder at acting, but appears to get his big break with a movie role in Las Vegas, which sends the gang there for the end of the season.

Friends The Complete Fifth Season is not a masterwork of comedy or drama and as a result, it settles into a very middling niche in television history. By this point, the show has a soap operatic quality with the Ross/Rachel relationship and unfortunately, ridiculous plots begin to dominate the episodes. "The One With The Ball" has Chandler, Ross, Joey and Monica all skipping work and their obligations to simply throw a ball around because Ross and Joey had gone hours without dropping it. Similarly, when Ross moves into Ugly Naked Guy's apartment, the tenants there treat him like dirt for not chipping in on the retiring handyman's gift in an episode ("The One With The Girl Who Hits Joey") which is just aggravating to watch. The supporting characters are monolithically cast when it makes no real sense that Ross would spend a hundred bucks on a guy he never met.

The sense of serialization in the fifth season of Friends is similarly sporadic. There is a lone appearance of Janice - with Ross! - who references Chandler as being in Yemen, which is a good callback to the prior season, but largely each episode stands on its own. Indeed, the most extended arcs this season are Rachel's flirtations with Danny - which only lasts three episodes -, Phoebe's dating Gary and the occasional appearance of Emily to cause Ross some ire. Worse than the lack of sense of growth throughout this season is the way the writers become sloppy with the details. The easiest example of this is in "The One With All The Thanksgivings," which includes multiple flashbacks to Ross and Rachel's parents' house for Thanksgivings where Chandler and Rachel are guests. This is a problem for anyone who watches the series - not even all that closely! - as the season three episode "The One With The Flashback" clearly illustrates Chandler and Rachel had never met in that period.

The convoluted plot aspects combine with low character development, which is very disappointing. After Ross says her name at his wedding, the lovestruck Rachel easily abandons her interest in Ross, despite flying to London to tell him how she feels. This is utterly unrealistic as she sees Ross suffer through losing everything in the wake of the wedding and his eviction. Instead, Rachel gets tied up in her own stuff without looking back at Ross for almost the entire season. Similarly, after Phoebe gives a heartfelt speech to the triplets, they disappear without mention for the remainder of the season (save the offhanded remarks that she did the favor for her half-brother).

As a result, the characters are largely who they are when they begin the season. In the fifth season, the principle characters are:

Ross Gellar - Soon-divorced a second time, he begins dating again and struggles at work with anger management issues. He pushes Ben into acting when his young son is offered a commercial opportunity. After a brief, but annoying, stint as Chandler and Joey's roommate, he moves into Ugly Naked Guy's apartment and fails horribly to flirt with a woman who thinks he's creepy,

Monica Gellar - Secretly seeing Chandler, she tries to keep her friends and brother from finding out. Otherwise, she apparently works at the restaurant (she gets a 98% on her health inspection) and is a supporting character this season. In the flashback episode, we learn why she lost all the weight she is alluded to have before the series began,

Chandler Bing - Dating Monica and still craving cigarettes, he tries to get away with Monica at every opportunity, often with problematic results. The way Chandler kisses up to his boss is revealed and he almost cracks when Phoebe tries to suss out his secret through seducing him. Joey leaves him for Las Vegas when Chandler fails to believe in the potential success of Joey's new film project,

Rachel Green - Shocked that Ross might still love her, she is angry when Ross abandons her on the plane to Athens. She returns to New York City, bug-bombs a neighbor and discovers he has a creepy closeness to his own sister. She moves to working at Ralph Lauren and discovers all of the important work is done on the cigarette breaks, which leads her to try cigarettes. She buys herself an expensive cat and secretly tries to help Ross hook up with a woman he is interested in,

Joey - The first to discover that Chandler and Monica are sleeping together, he begins to crack under the strain of keeping that secret, especially when the pair slips up repeatedly. When the secret comes out, he is overjoyed. He also experiences the pain of kidney stones and a girlfriend who punches him a lot. After months of acting classes and generally flailing professionally, he is offered the lead role in a movie being filmed in Las Vegas,

and Phoebe - Pregnant and miserable, she goes into labor when her friends decide to take her to Atlantic City. She dates a health inspector and a police officer this season after giving birth to the triplets. When her beloved grandmother dies, she meets her biological father and she pushes Chandler over the edge when she realizes he and Monica are together. To make up for not being able to go on the London trip, she is eager to go to Las Vegas.

This season the most evident acting talents are from Matthew Perry and Lisa Kudrow, who present vivid emotions that add depth to their repertoire in the primarily comedic roles they find themselves. Perry adds a great sense of uncertainty to Chandler as Chandler begins to navigate an adult relationship and it works perfectly. Similarly, Kudrow has several scenes where she is able to play the usually dippy Phoebe as a vital, sometimes agonized, woman.

But on the balance, this season is very average and while Friends fans will find plenty to enjoy, this is not the best season for those looking to get into the show.

For other works with Lisa Kudrow, be sure to visit my review of Easy A here!

5/10

For other television reviews, please visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

| | |

More Erratic Than Enjoyable, Friends Slips Into Average Territory With "The Complete Fourth Season."

The Good: Chandler and Joey character work, Jennifer Aniston's acting, Phoebe's character arc
The Bad: Far too many moments where the adults act like kids, Light on DVD bonus features
The Basics: Good, but with a few real lemons, Friends The Complete Fourth Season is too erratic to be considered truly great.


As one who has watched what some might call an obscene amount of television on DVDs - I swear, I never watch this much television on a nightly basis! - I feel I am a good choice for readers looking for a discriminating review of their potential purchase. My reasoning for this is actually simple; if I've seen it before elsewhere, I make a note of it and if something can be viewed away from the hype and evaluated in a less bias way, this can be of great use to readers. I mention this at the outset of my review of Friends - The Complete Fourth Season because watching the season and considering it, the season is terribly erratic. In fact, as I prepared to pen my review, I continued to think about one of the episodes, which did not get a single laugh from me ("The One With All The Rugby," though it took me reading through a couple to realize that was the completely laughless episode) and I was forced to go back through the episode summaries of each episode. This, however, reminded me of how great some of the episodes were and the result is that this is a season that stands out for some remarkable highs and remarkable lows, not just for Friends, but for television in general.

The crux of my problem with the fourth season is that there are some very funny moments - the game between the two apartments, Chandler in a box, the free porn - and some genuine moments of character that progress the characters forward remarkably well - Phoebe getting pregnant, Joey and Chandler fighting, Rachel realizing that her infatuation with Joshua is just a rebound from Ross - but that there are an equal number of moments or episodes where the characters act in ridiculous ways that are immature and disappointing. Chandler trying to avoid Janice by flying to Yemen, Ross playing rugby, the clipshow as Ross sends out invitations to his next wedding, these are all huge disappointments and show that the characters (or the writers) can regress to a point where the characters have not grown at all in the prior few years. These are supposed to be people in their late twenties, not their teens and some of the elements are so ridiculous on a character level that they make adult viewers shake their heads and say "I don't buy it."

But when the fourth season gets it right, they get it right! In this season, which opens with Ross deciding whose room he is entering at the beach house (picking up exactly where the third season left off), the group returns to New York City where Ross and Rachel pretty much put a nail in the coffin of their relationship, though this time their friends are much more able to deal with the fallout. Chandler hooks up briefly with Rachel's boring boss, only to get locked to her desk and Ross rebounds with a slob, before playing the field with women who live farther away. Soon, though, Joey and Chandler are on the outs when Chandler develops a love for Joey's girlfriend, Kathy.

As they sort themselves out and swap apartments with Monica and Rachel, Rachel takes a new job as a personal shopper at Bloomingdales and inadvertently sets Ross up with a British woman whom he hits it off with. Rachel deals with Ross and Emily by rushing a relationship with Joshua, a recently divorced client of hers. And as Ross and Emily move toward marriage, Phoebe steps in to help her half-brother have children and after a single egg implantation attempt, she finds herself carrying triplets, with all of the mood swings and cravings that come with them.

The fourth season of Friends is at its best when it is focused on the characters and those characters act like real people. So, while it might seem absurd that Chandler would spend Thanksgiving in a box, Friends knocks that episode out of the park because of how it is set up with a powerful character-driven scene. The sense of serialization to the season works wonderfully as well, which is probably why bottle episodes in this season work less well. Joey getting locked in the entertainment center in "The One With The Cat" sets up Chandler buying furniture out of guilt in "The One Where Chandler Crosses The Line," which in turn sets up the premise for Chandler sealing himself in the box. If one misses the sequence, the episodes might seem more absurd than anything else, but it works perfectly because there is growth episode to episode.

Similarly, it is the detail-oriented viewer who will appreciate Rachel's character arc this season. After pining for Ross much of the last season after they part, it becomes obvious to viewers early on that she is pursuing Joshua way too quickly. As a result, viewers are likely to see the inevitable before Rachel and not just because of the inevitability of Ross and Rachel. As a result, we are better able to appreciate Rachel's anguish and the about-face she makes in the season finale.

The most obviously serialized aspect of the fourth season of Friends is Phoebe's pregnancy. The idea of Phoebe getting pregnant to help her dimwitted half-brother out is perfectly within character for someone who is as loving as Phoebe. Throughout the process, Phoebe is challenged by her values (like vegetarianism) and wrestles with the emotional impact of the impending giveaway that she will be forced to do (she does not give birth this season). Actress Lisa Kudrow is brilliant as Phoebe this season, even scary with the way she presents mood swings in "The One With The Worst Best Man Ever."

As with every production of note, the fourth season of Friends is best when it is focused on the characters. In the fourth season, the principles are:

Ross Gellar - The museum tour guide, he chooses Rachel only to discover that she has strong conditions for his return, which he is unwilling to consider. As a result, he begins to explore other romantic interests before he meets Emily and when he meets Emily, he does his best to move on with her,

Rachel Green - Still pining for Ross, she is irked that he does not take responsibility for the problems in their relationship. As a result, she explores a relationship with Joshua only to realize that she is still hung up on Ross. Eager for stability in her life, she is left with a tough decision when her friends run off to London for Ross's wedding,

Joey - After dating a woman he meets in his acting class, he is dismayed to learn Chandler has a thing for her after Chandler kisses her. After giving up Kathy and punishing Chandler, he relishes moving with Chandler to Monica and Rachel's old apartment and getting free porn. Work heats up for him, after he takes a job from Ross at the museum, when he gets a movie gig opposite Charlton Heston,

Monica - Struggling through her work as a caterer, Monica abandons Phoebe when a restaurant she criticizes offers her a job. Her new life as head chef leads to more conflict with a disgruntled staff and her competitive nature leads her to lose her apartment to the men. She figures out a way to get it back and she finds herself in a vulnerable position that opens her up to Chandler's recurring advances,

Chandler - Agonizing over Kathy while Joey is in a relationship with her, he soon becomes jealous of her and inadvertently trashes things with her. After dodging Janice, he finds himself once again interested in Monica. Nothing happens professionally with Chandler this season,

Phoebe - After she loses her job as a masseuse for being caught in a compromised position with one of her clients, she invests heavily in Monica and her catering business, only to be abandoned by Monica. She is given the opportunity of a lifetime when her half-brother asks her to bear his children, which she does against her birthmother's wishes.

This season is decent on the acting front with Matt LaBlanc and Matthew Perry giving Joey and Chandler new emotional depth. Cox still has trouble keeping a straight face (one wonders how she reacted at table reads and dress when she laughs so much on-camera), but the other two women truly come into their own. Jennifer Aniston gives Rachel real emotional depth as she plays Rachel torn between Ross and moving on. Aniston plays the role with an uncertainty that moves the character brilliantly.

But the real winner this season is Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe. Kudrow has been forced to play Phoebe as somewhat dippy and here she is able to add a depth to her that is serious and compelling, yet realistic for her character. In this season, Phoebe grows up and Kudrow's performances make it believable.

When the characters are growing and well-performed, Friends works and the complete fourth season is easy to recommend, but it is hardly the flawless gem most fans want to consider it as.

For other memorable fourth seasons of comedies, please check out my reviews of:
Frasier Season Four
Boston Legal Season Four
30 Rock The Fourth Season

6.5/10

For other television reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

| | |

Friends Heats Up As Friends Come Together And Fall Apart In "The Complete Third Season!"

The Good: Good character moments, Moments of performance, Serialized plots
The Bad: Light on DVD bonus features, Some acting
The Basics: Fun and memorable, the third season of Friends is the crucial turning point in the Ross and Rachel storyline.


As the television series Friends progressed, there were a few truly solid fallbacks for the show. During sweeps, there were recurring guest stars - like Tom Selleck returning as Richard - or utterly pointless guest appearances - like the appearance of Billy Crystal and Robin Williams for the teaser of "The One With The Ultimate Fighting Champion" - but there were few solid ways for the show to open or close the season like messing with the Ross and Rachel relationship. So when my wife and I were sitting down to watch her DVD set of Friends - The Complete Third Season, I was thrilled when she told me that for the third season, Phoebe pulled the season finale. I wish, very much, she had been right.

Unfortunately, though, by the time the third season finale comes around, there is tension between Ross and Rachel again and the series uses Ross to close it to get viewers to tune in next year, or buy the next DVD set. That said, the third season of Friends solidly builds upon the second season (reviewed here!) and those who have not seen at least the second season are likely to feel left behind on several crucial details because Friends is a rare serialized sitcom. It is important as well to note that it is impossible to discuss the characters of the third season of Friends without revealing some of the events of the later part of the second season, so for those who are only beginning the series and want to be surprised, this is a good point to stop reading.

The third season of Friends begins with Chandler dating Janice, who is in the process of divorcing her matress-selling husband. Monica is still dealing - poorly - with her breakup with Richard, who pops back up briefly. Ross and Rachel are happily dating, Phoebe is happily singing and Joey is struggling as an actor to find work. Soon, though, the lives of the six friends are spiraling out of control; Phoebe's half-brother resurfaces engaged to a woman twice his age, Monica hooks up with Richard, finds herself back in the same place they were before, and begins dating a poet who works at the '50's diner with her. When that does not work out, she is hit on relentlessly by a millionaire named Pete, who slowly wears down her resolve to not date him. Joey begins teaching acting classes and becomes involved in a terrible play where he falls for his female costar.

But much of the third season is a dramedy about Ross and Rachel. Opening the season together and very much in love, Rachel soon realizes that she is a terrible waitress and does not want to be doing that any longer. She quits working at Central Perk and is given a job in fashion by Mark, whom Ross is instantly and deeply jealous of. As Rachel's job begins to consume more of her time, Ross is frustrated over the lack of time they have together (and the amount of time Rachel is spending with Mark). After a heated conversation where Rachel tells Ross she wants them to take a break, Ross goes out, gets drunk and has sex with a woman from the copy center. This leads to the breakup of Ross and Rachel and a great deal of tension with the other four. As the season progresses, the two spar and when Ross is set up by Phoebe, Rachel becomes confused about what she truly wants.

Friends in the third season is delightful for those who love serialized television shows and DVD makes for an ideal viewing experience as it is easy to burn through the six episodes per disc with the way they flow from one episode to another. Chandler's relationship with Janice offers consequences that cannot be resolved within a single episode and the dislike Joey has for Janice complicates things for the actor when he witnesses Janice cheating on his best friend. Similarly, for all of the melodrama surrounding Ross and Rachel, the relationship, breakup and aftermath of their romance reasonably is drawn out over several episodes. Those episodes explore well the complexity of people who have strong feelings for one another, a strong love and then deep hurt. Indeed, despite the fact that it is not funny at all, the episode "The One The Morning After" is a great example of the quality of acting and writing that the show is able to pull off. Part of this is because of the credibility of David Schwimmer and Jennifer Aniston in character as Ross and Rachel as they struggle with the consequences of their actions.

The best serialized works explore consequences to actions and Friends does that remarkably well in this season, with most of the major characters forced to wrestle with the effects their actions and words have on others. The show maintains a high amount of dialogue-based humor ("The One With The Jam," for example, has a great exchange between Joey and Rachel that my partner was quoting long before I saw the episode, but it was still hilarious), but the show is still in many ways a "chick flick" television show which is preoccupied with relationships of late twenty-somethings.

In the third season, the principle characters are the same as the prior seasons (Friends has the most stable ensemble of any modern show, as near as I can find - there are no additions to or subtractions from the cast over the entire run of the series) and they do have decent arcs in this season. Here is how the third season finds the Friends:

Monica - Exhausted and unfulfilled following her breakup with Richard, she is inconsolable. She starts jarring jam, becomes obsessed with a Thanksgiving football game, and considers going to a sperm bank to get the child she wants. After having a fling with a poet, she becomes involved with the millionaire, Pete, whose ambitions make her wonder about her compatibility with him. She inherits a doll house she long coveted from her aunt, as well as getting her own restaurant, compliments of Pete,

Chandler - After overcoming his fear of commitment, he has his heart broken once again by Janice and he sleeps with one of Joey's sisters. To quit smoking, again, he begins using a hypnosis tape designed for women and he dates Rachel's boss, whom he loathes. He stands up to his boss, who has been slapping his butt,

Phoebe - After dating a guy who is obsessed with her twin sister, she dates a guy who wears shorts that reveal his manhood whenever he sits down and dates two men at once. She tries to get to know her half-brother better, despite the fact that he is a creepy loser and she becomes Joey's agent for a brief stint. She also encounters her former singing partner, who is now a jingle singer and loses "Smelly Cat" to her,

Joey - He tries very hard to like Janice - for Chandler's sake - but fails horribly, which makes it difficult when he has to break the news to Chandler that Janice is cheating on him. After getting more work via Phoebe and teaching a class on acting for soap operas, he buys a chick and a duck so he and Chandler have a pet. He begins acting opposite Kate, a classy actress who despises him, whom he falls for,

Rachel - Dominating most of the season, she begins by trying the Princess Leia fantasy with Ross and begins to feel like she is in a personal and professional rut. She quits working as a waitress, begins working as a fashion buyer and becomes frustrated with Ross's jealousy. When they break up, she tries to move on, but finds that is harder than she thought it would be,

Ross - Happily in love, he begins to feel threatened by every other man who he thinks might want Rachel. He becomes frustrated when his friends and partner are not ready for a symposium he is delivering the keynote speech at and is glad when Rachel takes a more active role in the life of his son. He gets jealous, sleeps with another woman and loses Rachel. When he moves on, he finds her ambiguity problematic for his new relationships. He also has a strange growth that most doctors cannot identify.

On DVD, viewers are able to enjoy the quality of the acting of Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer and Jennifer Aniston, who all have great parts this season. Matthew Perry, unfortunately, has a great part for the first half of the season before largely being neglected in the latter half. Courteney Cox is just terrible this season, a fact that is amplified as she acts opposite Jon Favreau's Pete.

Schwimmer and Aniston, though, dominate this season and their acting is rightly well-praised. Schwimmer evolves from boyishly in love to heartbroken and seriously penitent. He has a good sense of physical comedy when he arrives at Rachel's office to attempt a romantic dinner and a truly heartwrenching physical sense when he is in character trying to explain and repent to Rachel. Aniston has a wonderful arc as a woman standing up for herself and her own wants and needs this season and she does it well. She plays Rachel as brilliantly flustered, empowered, ambitious and emotionally confused. She does more with her eyes in a single scene in "The One Without The Ski Trip" than Courteney Cox does the entire season with all of the plot activities Monica is granted.

On DVD, there is a commentary track on "The One The Morning After" which basically has the writers/producers explaining that the episode is dark. It is an uninsightful commentary track. There is a tour of Joey and Chandler's apartment and James Michael Tyler as Gunther "dishing" about the main characters. This is a bit light on bonus features and fans are likely to want more for their money, even though this set has come down in price.

But for those looking for the best episodes of Friends, this season has some of the better ones chock full of funny moments (Joey putting on all of Chandler's clothes, for example). Anyone who likes good comedy will find something - except extensive bonus features on DVD - to enjoy on this set.

For other works with Jon Favreau, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Cowboys And Aliens (director)
Iron Man 2
The Clone Wars - Season 2
Couples Retreat
G-Force
Iron Man
Daredevil
Batman Forever

8.5/10

For other television season reviews, please be sure to visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


| | |

Serialized And Sharp, The Second Season Of Friends Is A Winner!

The Good: Funny, Good character development, Decent-enough acting
The Bad: Some dumb plots, Light on DVD bonus features for the price
The Basics: A little better than average, the second season of Friends is worthwhile on DVD and has some truly great character moments!


As those who follow my reviews might be aware of, when I began watching Friends with my wife, I was not impressed. Objectively viewed, I thought the first season (reviewed here!) was actually fairly dull, obvious and passe. It surprised me especially that the show was picked up after its surprisingly rocky pilot. Still, as my new arrangement with my partner goes, she picks a season of a show, then I get one, back and forth. As a result, after we finished our viewing of the second (and final) season of Aaron Sorkin's Sports Night (reviewed here!), we soldiered on with the second season of Friends. Of course, she was looking forward to it a lot more than I was as it is one of her favorite shows of all time. For my part, Friends The Complete Second Season is a decent boxed set of half-hour comedies and the only real gripes come in a single episode and the fact that the show is a bit light on DVD bonus features given the cost of the set.

In its second season, Friends essentially continues the story of a group of six friends and their assorted love interests. The show is a rare serialized comedy that works because the actions of the characters have consequences and over the course of the season, the characters grow, develop and learn. This season picks up literally the moment the first season ended and then continues. Still, viewers will not be lost if they have not seen the first season; the characters are pretty clearly established and the situation that the viewer walks into the middle of that opens this season is explained fully within the first few minutes of the season. For those who like sitcoms with a pretty standard, though not overbearing, soap operatic sensibility to them, the second season of Friends is entertaining and engaging enough to pick up and watch several times.

As Ross leaves his plane from China, Rachel is waiting for him and she sees him first, on the arms of another woman, Julie. Rachel attempts to cover her reason for being there and when Ross introduces Julie to his friends as his new girlfriend, Rachel is heartbroken. Still, Ross and Julie begin a very serious and successful few months of dating, while Chandler feels guilty over telling Ross to move on. As Rachel struggles with Ross's new girlfriend, Monica loses her job, Joey and Chandler lose Ross's baby, and Phoebe loses the husband no one knew she had! But when it slips out that Rachel reciprocates Ross's feelings, Ross and Rachel come together, though they are torn apart by it (in no small part because of a pro/con list Ross wrote up).

As Ross and Rachel inevitably move toward a romantic relationship, Monica spices things up with an older man who she is quite serious about, an eye doctor named Richard Burke. Chandler begins opening up to more women by removing his restrictions to all sorts of body type or personality issues and Joey gets the role of a lifetime on Days Of Our Lives. But when Joey makes a comment about how he changes the writers' lines frequently, he is fired and has to move back in with Chandler, whose creepy new roommate makes Chandler's decision very easy.

Friends works very well as a DVD boxed set in that the show is heavily serialized and as a result, one episode usually begins right after the prior episode's end (in terms of story). In fact, the one-hour "The One After The Superbowl" is presented in its original format without any sense of where or when the break in the story would have come (as it is broken up in syndication now). The fact that the show is so developed with plots continuing on and characters actually developing allows the shows to do effortless callbacks to prior episodes (though there are not many outside this season one would need to have seen to understand them) and references to characters who go unseen for long periods of time - like Chandler's ex-girlfriend, Janice. Janice pops up at the end of the third episode in this season and is referenced a few times afterwards.

Unfortunately, though, this makes it far more pronounced when the series takes a turn to do a more episodic episode. "The One After The Superbowl" resurrects Ross's monkey, Marcel (wish they hadn't!), but is otherwise a series of episodic vignettes that has little bearing on the rest of the season or series. Similarly, Joey and Chandler losing Ross's son Ben on a bus is not met with any consequences that we see afterward in this season. Phoebe's sham marriage is only mentioned one other time this season and given that the episode is supposed to have some real emotional impact, this is disappointing. But the epitome of where the show goes wrong with leaning toward episodic half-hour comedy as opposed to long arcs of developing characters is "The One With The Bullies." Near the end of the season, the show put forth an episode where Ross and Chandler are plagued by two bullies and end up fighting and the plot is so hackneyed and lame that it could have come from virtually any sitcom with little or no differentiation to how it is presented here on Friends.

That is, fortunately, the exception to the rule, as long arcs featuring Julie and Richard help to contrast. The recurrence of Ross's ex-wife and her new wife put Friends at the cutting edge (at least of their time) with positive gay and lesbian characters and a generally friendly outlook toward homosexuals. The series is still predominantly white, but Julie adds a nice ethnic flavor for a few episodes. Overall, the show is funny and the characters develop such that their original "types" are not what they are bound to. So, for example, Joey is pretty much the classic idiot, but he is also deeply sarcastic, which is a trait that pretty much defines Chandler. The differences between the two of them are highlighted in episodes like "The One With Five Steaks And An Eggplant" (which should have been called either "The One With The Money Talk" or "The One With The Hootie And The Blowfish Concert"). In fact, anyone who is having trouble talking with their friends who are more financially successful might want to sit them down to that episode as it makes some salient points seldom brought up on television, especially on sitcoms!

But more than the plots, Friends in its second season is more about a very special group of characters. As the most stable sitcom cast in quite some time, Friends offers a stable group of six characters and this is who they are in the second season:

Ross Gellar - Having given up on getting the woman of his dreams, Rachel, he begins dating a fellow museum worker, Julie, who returns from China with him. Upset at missing many of Ben's milestones, he eagerly becomes more involved with his son when time permits. Uncomfortable when Monica, his younger sister, loses her job and starts dating Richard, he flounders around until it is finally revealed how long he has loved Rachel and the lengths he was prepared to go to for her,

Monica Gellar - After becoming comfortable with making more money than Rachel, Phoebe and Joey, she promptly loses her job and becomes pretty despondent. Unhappy over the idea of hitting her parent's up for cash, she struggles to keep her apartment by taking catering jobs and eventually landing a cook job at a Fifty's themed restaurant. She begins seeing her father's friend, Dr. Richard Burke, which offers serious complications from the age difference,

Rachel Green - Oblivious for so long about Ross's feelings, now all she can do is want Ross. When he returns to the States with Julie, she rebounds to Paolo and dates Russ, a guy who looks and acts shockingly like Ross. Her parents begin divorce proceedings and as a result, Rachel finds her mother emulating her and struggling to find anything in common with her jerkish father,

Joey - After years of struggling as an actor, he finally gets his big break. This takes the form of a role as doctor on Days Of Our Lives. The recurring role earns Joey enough money to move out on his own when he and Chandler have a disagreement. Soon, though, he discovers having money is not as fun as having his friend and when his character is killed off on the soap opera, he has to eat some serious crow. Supports Phoebe's search for her father,

Phoebe Buffay - The witless singer reveals her own heartbreak when her gay husband comes out of the closet to divorce her . . . to marry a woman! She is excited by the return of a naval officers, who comes at the worst possible time (when she has chicken pox) and she begins a search for her father, who is not dead. This leads her to discover her half-brother and her music career gets a boost when "Smelly Cat" is picked up by a record company,

and Chandler Bing - Haunted by his recommending Rachel leave Ross alone and the death of Mr. Heckles, whom he finds many commonalities with, he begins to be less stringent about the women he is willing to be with. His dating life goes up and down and professionally he continues to ascend - save for a time he hires Joey to work in a tangential division. Sarcastic and occasionally bitter, he is hurt when Joey moves out of their apartment.

Friends continues to illustrate the acting talents of a surprisingly strong cast. David Schwimmer is wonderful as Ross. He is given a chance to play head-over-heels in his scenes opposite Jennifer Aniston and the woman who plays Julie. He is able to play moody in the scenes he shares with his character's ex- and Marcel. He is also able to perfectly capture the ridiculous joy of a parent in his scenes with Ben when Ross actually gets to be around for one of Ben's firsts. Lisa Kudrow is also wonderfully convincing as Phoebe and her ability to play the fool with heart is impressive. In this season, she comes into her own in episodes like "The One With Phoebe's Husband" where she is given some emotional depth.

But, for me, the one to watch is Matthew Perry as Chandler. Chandler is sarcastic and off-putting and Perry's role is one that would seem to be hard to like. But Perry plays off guest stars like Adam Goldberg perfectly and he is able to reveal a deep enough sense of damage that it seems perfectly appropriate that Perry finish off this season. Anyone who likes decent comedy will find enough to like about this season of Friends. I was surprised when I did!

For other works featuring Jennifer Aniston, please visit my reviews of:
Horrible Bosses
The Bounty Hunter
30 Rock - Season 3

8/10

For other television reviews, please visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |