Painfully Obvious, Run Fatboy Run Is Average, But Gets Some Laughs.

The Good: Funny at times, Decent-enough DVD bonus features, Acting isn't bad
The Bad: Utterly predictable plot and character arcs
The Basics: Funny, but so predictable to not hold up for a second viewing, Run Fatboy Run is not worth the buy, even if it is all right.


Of late it seems much easier to convince my partner to go with me to comedies or watch comedy films when I pick them up from the local library, so it was little surprise to me when I brought her home a choice, she picked Run Fatboy Run out of the pile, as that was the lone comedy I had brought home. It was actually not a surprise at all that she picked the movie; David Schwimmer directed Run Fatboy Run and my partner is a huge fan of Friends (reviewed here!). I had seen several previews for the movie on other discs I had gotten out, so it seemed like it would be a fairly fun movie. It was stiflingly average and obvious in virtually every way.

Run Fatboy Run is the directoral debut of David Schwimmer and continued to introduce Simon Pegg to a broader audience in the United States. One suspects that his role in Star Trek (reviewed here!) has pretty well nailed him into the public's mind there, but Run Fatboy Run made him even more recognizable on the art theater circuits here. If nothing else, the movie is fun, even if it is not superlative in any aspect.

On his wedding day, Dennis Doyle gets cold feet and literally jumps out the window and runs for his life. Five years after he abandoned his pregnant fiance Libby at the altar, Dennis is a security officer at a women's clothing store and slouching through his life. He botches taking his son to see the stage production of The Lord Of The Rings and gets himself arrested, which continues to lower him in the eyes of Libby, their son Jake and Libby's new beau, Whit. Whit makes it clear to Dennis that he intends to move forward with Libby and become Jake's stepfather.

Feeling threatened by Whit's presence in Libby and his son's lives, Dennis vows to change. Whit, as it turns out, runs marathons for charities and he is running in the London Marathon in three weeks. Dennis vows to Libby that he shall run in and complete the same marathon, which leads his best friend Gordon to bet everything he has in Dennis's favor. With the respect of his son, the heart of the woman he loves, forgiveness on all of his back rent and everything Gordon owns on the line, Dennis begins training for the London Marathon!

The fundamental problem with Run Fatboy Run is that it is so terribly predictable as to almost completely gut any merit to the film. Every opportunity for the most predictable humorous reversal is taken, such that anyone with even the most basic knowledge of how comedy works will remain unimpressed and unsurprised. So, for example, after a spinning class, Whit warns Dennis to be careful going down the stairs and Dennis scoffs at him before falling down the stairs. By the time the morning of the race comes and Dennis enthusiastically sets his alarmclock and declares he has to be gone from the house by seven, only the dimmest viewer will not figure out that he is going to oversleep. The movie is painfully predictable, which makes one wonder how it took two people to write this movie.

In fact, when one reads the setup: man vows to run race against his love interest's suitor to try to win her back, earn his son's respect and keep his house, the film pretty much writes itself . . . if one is not creative. Unfortunately, screenwriters Michael Ian Black and Simon Pegg are not at all creative with Run Fatboy Run. As a result, there is the most predictable sense of conflict, Dennis runs into an obstacle which causes him to give up, has an incident which renews his resolve and he goes on. Even worse than the predictable arc with Dennis are the peripheral characters.

Whit seems like an up-front guy, but as he slips, he falls farther than anyone would guess. That is, unless one has read anything back to a Greek comedy, which always has the adversaries to the hero turning out to be flawed in deeper ways than the protagonist! Libby is little more than an accessory to Whit and in the film her role quickly becomes to look pensive at key moments and process her emotions in ways that the viewer gets even when she is not speaking.

Libby is ably played by Thandie Newton, who has a good sense of nuance and is all that saves Libby from being one of the worst roles for women in years on screen. Libby's arc is predictable, but Newton does a decent job of going through all of the appropriate motions to sell the character's growing sense of doubt in Whit. Similarly, it is no fault of Hank Azaria - who plays Whit - that Whit is so badly written. Azaria does an excellent job of planting the seeds of Whit's sublimated anger and discomfort early in the movie, but the arc is entirely predictable.

I've not seen Simon Pegg in much on screen so far, but it does seem like his contract requires him to appear in all of his films with hair that is sweat-plastered or waterlogged (Star Trek submerged him in a cooling duct for this, for example). In Run Fatboy Run Pegg has several scenes, running and simply anxious, where Dennis is covered in sweat and his hair is plastered to his skull. I'm mentioning this rather than going into depth with an analysis of Pegg's acting because even with the limited exposure I've had to Pegg's work, I've seen this performance from him before. Dennis is a slacker character who tries to make good and Pegg plays that role a lot, just like Michael Cera plays goodnatured young geeks.

On DVD, Run Fatboy Run comes with a few deleted scenes, which do nothing to improve the movie in any significant way. There is a commentary track and it is funny; Pegg, Newton, Schwimmer and Simon Pegg's mother, Gill, participate and they have a great sense of humor about the work. There are trailers as well and an outtake reel which is amusing. These are pretty much the standard DVD bonus features for a comedy and they add little extra value to the very average movie.

And that is the death knell of Run Fatboy Run; it starts fine and is funny, but it is not terribly original or worth watching more than once.

For other works with Thandie Newton, be sure to visit my reviews of:
2012
The Pursuit Of Happyness
Crash
The Chronicles Of Riddick

5/10

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

© 2012, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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John Carter Might Look Good On The Big Screen, But . . .

The Good: Visually engaging, Moments of action
The Bad: Acting is largely terrible, Light on character development, Plot is mundane at best.
The Basics: When John Carter is taken off to Mars, the viewer is given a visual marvel that is ultimately insubstantial.


Every year, it seems, I get my hopes up for a movie I truly know nothing about. Sure, I’m jazzed for Prometheus, The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers later this year, but when I saw the trailers for John Carpenter, I thought I would root for this strange, wonderful-looking science fiction epic. Having attended a preview screening of the film, I am once again in that place I too-often find myself after I get my hopes up; I am disappointed. In the case of John Carter, I am not sure if “utterly disappointed” applies, but I do know I am pretty disappointed.

The source of my disappointment is simple: John Carter is campy, poorly-acted and in so many ways mundane. What looked like it would be a sprawling epic turns into a series of obvious conflicts with a protagonist who is hardly worth rooting for. Instead, I spent much of the time watching John Carter waiting for something – anything – to happen that would make me care about the title character. Unfortunately, that moment never came and I left the more than two hour movie feeling bored. It is also worth noting that I have not read any of the books upon which John Carter is based. As a result, this is a very pure review of the film John Carter.

John Carter, who fought for the Confederate Army and has ended up in Arizona looking for gold. Chased by Powell and a group of Native American Indians, John Carter is abducted and taken to Mars. On Mars, he quickly discovers that the lower gravity affords him greater strength and agility than he ever had on Earth. Joining the green Martian Tharks – they call Mars “Barsoom” – Carter fights his way to a prominent position in the tribe and he begins to find life on Mars more worthwhile than his terrestrial life.

When the Tharks capture Dejah Thoris, a red-skinned Martian from the Helium tribe, John Carter feels the abduction is unjust. Liberating her, Carter flees with her. Her rescue puts Carter at the center of planetwide conflicts that force him to use his strength, stamina and smarts to both survive and unify the fractured planet.

I’m not exactly sure who John Carter is intended for, other than those who are already fans of the pulp science fiction novels upon which the movie is based. John Carter suffers from being seriously campy and campy in an earnest way. John Carter is campy in the way that Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow mercilessly parodied, but John Carter does not seem to realize it is truly that hokey. Instead, the film progresses with a serious tone even through its more unintentionally laughable moments. It’s like Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time (reviewed here!) but set on Mars. It has one gimmick, a lot of special effects and ultimately adds up to nothing at all impressive or in the range of its potential.

Like The Sands Of Time, Disney assembled a surprisingly wonderful cast for John Carter, with Willem Dafoe, Mark Strong, Ciaran Hinds, Thomas Hayden Church and Bryan Cranston all appearing physically or as CG constructs with their vocal talents. John Carter has a suitably impressive cast . . . for the supporting parts.

What John Carter lacks entirely is a performance by the lead protagonist that sells the new reality to the audience. Taylor Kitsch is, in a word, horrible as the title character. To be fair to Kitsch, John Carter is a sword and sorcery type fantasy movie set on Mars and it seems like one of the big criteria for the character of John Carter has to be that he looks damn good without a shirt on. In that regard, Kitsch delivers. But beyond that, he is utterly unlikable in the role of John Carter. Kitsch is stiff, distant and physically withdrawn far too often to make John Carter a likable or plausible protagonist. Instead, he lacks a spark or any sense of quirky individuality that would otherwise sell the viewer on such a fantastic character. John Carter may be disaffected and morose, but Kitsch seems that way playing him.

Kitsch is paired with Lynn Collins, whose primary qualification seems to be that she looks good and is near the height of Taylor Kitsch. Her bright eyes look more vacant than expressive far too often.

While John Carter has fairly decent computer-generated effects, the 3-D effects are nothing to write home about. I was much more impressed by the effects in the reworked 3-D version of The Phantom Menace. While one might expect the digital landscapes of Mars to be wonderful in the 3-D medium, director Andrew Stanton does not make very good use of the technology. As well, John Carter suffers from editing that ranges from mediocre to terrible. There are a number of sequences that feature awkward cuts and surprisingly rough transitions.

Ultimately, John Carter is a science fiction epic that does not engage the viewer or make a bolder statement than “look at what we can put on screen.” Sadly, that is not enough.

For other Disney live-action works, please check out my reviews of:
Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Tron: Legacy
Oceans
Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time
Alice In Wonderland
Old Dogs
G-Force
Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe
Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl
The Princess Diaries
Tron

4/10

For other movie reviews, please visit my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the movie reviews I have written.

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Close Enough To A Perfect First Season: NYPD Blue Season 1

The Good: Great acting, Wonderful character arcs, Nice stories, Effects
The Bad: Minor sense of repetition
The Basics: The 15th Precinct of New York City deals day in and day out with criminals while the detectives work on relating to one another in the complete first season of NYPD Blue.


Note: This was originally written when the show actually made its debut on DVD. I liked the tone and my snarky comments on ABC, so I have kept most of the original text unchanged. Enjoy!

NYPD Blue has finally started trickling onto DVD. It's about time. Actually, it's the perfect time for the series to be put into this medium: it's the ten year anniversary of the show's start and the current season is doing amazing work when it isn't being pre-empted for whatever current idiotic "reality" show ABC decides to put on. In the rush to get series' out on DVD, studios and networks are putting a premium on current popularity, as opposed to genuine quality. With the advent of NYPD Blue on DVD, Fox is reminding the patrons of this fantastic medium that the real treasure of DVD is capturing forever truly great works.

NYPD Blue tells the story of the 15th Precinct's detective squad. Opening with a drunk officer's vendetta against a notorious gangster, the series becomes more and more complicated in the first season. Detective John Kelly works at bringing down the Mob while his ex-wife finishes divorce proceedings against him. Andy Sipowicz, shot in the pilot, must overcome his hatreds as well as work on staying sober, a task made more difficult by a burgeoning relationship between himself and an ADA. The lieutenant at the 15th Squad is plagued by Sipowicz and his racism as well as the vague threats of other cops looking to bring him down. There is a uniform cop named Licalsi whose ties to organized crime put her in direct conflict with her love for John Kelly. The crew is rounded out by a junior detective named Martinez who is paired with an exceptionally nervous detective named Medavoy. Their pairing keeps life interesting for both of them and through all of their myriad personal problems, the officers of the 15th Squad catch a successive file of rapes, murders, and robberies.

With 22 episodes, the NYPD Blue Complete First Season DVD set is a value at the $55 you're likely to spend on it (It’s cheaper now!). It's worth it, though. The six disc set has commentaries on six episodes, an hour long behind-the-scenes featurette and other exclusives like one on relationships in the first season of NYPD Blue. Between the quality of the episodes and the bonus features, this is a must for any fan of NYPD Blue.

But more than that, it is an opportunity to get into something that is truly extraordinary. NYPD Blue tells stories of the basic human need for justice through the results of that going too far. For example, David Schwimmer plays a resident of Kelly's former apartment building who was mugged in the building and as a result, he buys a gun and becomes a vigilante. The obsession he exhibits seems very realistic. This is a series known for nudity, strong language and radical camera movements, but it is truly, on the most important levels, all about people.

The people in the first season of NYPD Blue are:

Detective John Kelly, a brooding professional with a knack for interrogation, he has an instinct toward protecting women and a sincere desire to help other people. Kelly's marriage fell apart because of his vigilance toward the job and his new relationship with Licalsi is complicated by his personal need to see right and wrong set apart. He's a tortured soul mentored by Sipowicz. A typical problem Kelly faces in the first season is like "Personal Foul" where a friend of his inadvertently kills another friend in a fight on the basketball court.

Andy Sipowicz is a drunk whose life turns around when he is nearly killed by gangster Alphonse Giadello and then finds himself pursued by ADA Sylvia Costas. Sipowicz is a boss-hating racist who finds being dry a challenge and his need to do his work is complicated by a mean streak he has in his soul.

Lt. Fancy runs the squad and in the first season, he finds himself forced to defend his role as a minority in a position of power. He is tough and fair and ultimately wants nothing more than to have every crime committed solved by his detectives.

James Martinez, a young officer whose joining the 15th Squad is a huge learning experience. He's fast and agile and close with his family, a condition which is complicated by his brother, who is a drug user in a lot of trouble.

Laura Michaels, the estranged wife of John Kelly is on a quest to find direction in her life. She leaves working for the city, quits the subsequent law firm and ends up in the DAs office. As John and Licalsi get closer and closer, she has more complications in her dealings with the 15th.

Officer Licalsi is a uniform cop whose ties to organized crime put her in an awkward position when she makes a worse decision, killing an important mobster. Licalsi spends the season searching for redemption from Kelly and trying to escape the ties to the mob. She's a deeply conflicted character who knows what she wants, but not how to get it.

NYPD Blue undergoes a reasonable transition in the first season, progressing from a cop show very focused on procedure and the methods of detective work into a series focused on the individuals and their struggles. It is a sensible development as the characters do detective work all the way through, but it would quickly get tiring to see the entire process that follows each crime every time.

The hallmark of this series, what separates it from all of the other television shows out there is that NYPD Blue is exceptionally well-written and well acted. The writing is tight and every episode has a freshness to it, despite the fact that it is a repetition of crime and discovery. Each episode has a sense of newness to it and the threads of other stories going throughout the entire season lends a nice serialized sense to the series. It's an adult series and adults can commit to watching episode after episode to see how things develop and NYPD Blue does that exceptionally well.

The acting, then, caps off an already amazing show and the casting department and the various directors of the first season episodes have a strong sense of how to use each of the actors to their best ability. While James McDaniel does a fantastic job as Lt. Fancy, he is relegated to more of a supporting role in the first season and thus does not have the opportunity to dominate the way some of the other actors do. Sheri Stringfield is in the same position as Kelly's ex-wife. Because she is around mostly to reflect off Kelly, she never gets the chance to present her character as terribly vital or necessary. The three actors who steal their thunder are Amy Brenneman, David Caruso and Dennis Franz.

Brenneman leaps onto the screen as Licalsi, a fairly young cop who has connections. Brenneman, as seen in the first season of NYPD Blue, has a versatile look that is ultimately very practical and makes it easy for the viewer to believe that she is an officer. She doesn't have a Hollywood beauty to her and it goes a long way to making her intense expressive eyes more of an asset. Brenneman says much throughout the season using undertones in her voice and subtle body language and she creates quite vividly a conflicted character.

David Caruso makes his presence instantly felt on the screen as John Kelly. Caruso has wonderful facial expressions and a voice that modulates with an exceptional amount of expression. As a result, his performances are consistently great. Caruso makes the series very easy to watch at the beginning and for those who are fans of the show, it is somewhat surprising to go back to see how much Caruso dominated the episodes.

But the thunder of the acting in NYPD Blue is in Dennis Franz. His portrayal of the drunk, racist and angry Sipowicz is outstanding. The way we know Franz is such a great actor is that he is completely different from his character. Unlike Sipowicz, in every interview, every public performance, Franz is seen smiling and he has great charisma. He is generous to his fans and gracious at every award ceremony he's been filmed at. In short, he's nothing like Sipowicz, but he makes Sipowicz utterly believable. That's great acting.

If you've never seen NYPD Blue, this is a great chance to get into it at the beginning. There are minor flaws in the first season, a line or two here or there that just doesn't come off, but the truth is, it's a 22 episode single story and it is pulled off as near to perfect as any series has ever done for the first season.

For other reviews of police-related programs, please be sure to visit:
Homicide: Life On The Street
In The Heat Of The Night
Crash

9.5/10

For other television reviews, please be sure to check out my Television Review Index Page by clicking here!

© 2012, 2007, 2003 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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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.

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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.

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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.
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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.

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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.

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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.


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