Friends - The Complete First Season

Rating:
Summary: Watch out! US-Season boxes are worth waiting because...
Review: I'm a FRIENDS fan from Europe (originally Germany but at present in the UK) and I just wanted to add something:

It is true, that we can buy all FRIENDS season boxes months before they are released for you in the USA.
But believe me, you should really stick to your releases.
And that is not only because of the region codes!

The UK releases are way more expensive (starting from 50 £ and more!) and the British releases don't provide any Special features and the other European boxes (e.g. Germany) neither!!! (There is only the music video of The Rembrandts and in one of the later seasons a really insubstantial "behind the scenes" featurette about the London episodes.)

So instead of complaining, be happy and enjoy you're FRIENDS!

I, for my part, will order from the US although it's somehow more complicated than simply going to a shop here.

Hope that was helpful! :-)

Rating:
Summary: The decline is so sad...
Review: I've been buying the DVDs as they come out, and after watching the 7th season recently (and catching the odd new episode every now and again), I popped this first season back in for another view. Between my fits of laughter, I was utterly taken aback by how the show has changed since this year, how quickly the change came about (really with the second season, when the Ross-Rachel storyline took over for good), and how sad this show's decline has been. While the seventh season was enjoyable, I can count the number of times it made me laugh out loud on the fingers of one hand, where I couldn't do that for one EPISODE of this series. Here we have what the show was supposed to be: six twentysomethings, fresh out of college, with little happening in their lives and short melodramas typical of a group of friends such as these. When they started getting romantically involved and dealing with "issues" the show tanked. This series is a time capsule of a truly great show that bears little resemblance to any subsequent seasons, which makes it so great. Unlike future years, it is genuinely biting, funny, and not at all as intellectually offensive as it became (nor are the characters as narcissistic and insanely stupid as they are in future installments).
One point: Chandler, what happened? If this were earlier and the show not ending, I would seriously write to Matthew Perry and ask him to review this season for inspiration, because the character has gone so far downhill from this plateau it is truly sad. Ross has become more of a whiner, Rachel is a spoiled, immature, stupid brat who could not possibly hold a job like she does, Joey has become so stupid it is no longer believable, Monica is just annoying, and Phoebe has taken her character to an extreme of stupidity, to be sure. But in the first season Chandler was great, better than all the others combined; every word out of his mouth was hilarious. Now, what is he? A shadow of his former self and one who takes to delivering corny- and contrived-as-hell monologues to satisfy Monica. He would never do that in this season, thank God, and it is a shame the writers let him go to hell like all the rest.
All that said, it's hard to notice the decline when you are buying them as they are released, but this is the only one truly worth owning and savoring as you watch the show continue to spiral.

Rating:
Summary: BRILLIANT
Review: I've been looking at some of these reviews and to tell u the truth i think u should stick to the US version of DVD boxsets. i have seasons 1-9 dvd boxsets and there arent any special features til season four and even then its the same til season 7 where they include extended episodes. although i have all the series im still gona buy them all from US jus because i want the speacial features. apart from that enjoy season 1 starting from when rachel does a runner from her big day to when rachel finds out how ross really feels abt her!! ENJOY

Rating:
Summary: Start the Decade of Friends
Review: It is hard to imagine that this has been
running for ten years! I can remember
the first episode clearly in my head. Shows
ya how time flies.

Young or old everybody likes Friends. It
is a great concept and a great fun show.
The DVD is worth it if you liked the show
which was actually very funny and made
everyone a star. Not bad for a TV show.

Rating:
Summary: like a bowling game full of strikes...
Review: Last year, I moved into my new place the day of an ice storm, and cable installation was delayed for about one month. The videos of the "Best of Friends" helped out when I was home stranded, so this year I stocked up on the entire season series.

It's different to just watch it from DVD's, one show after another. For one thing, I had forgotten how funny the first season was, it was like a bowling game full of strikes. Also, when the show began it was establishing itself among other NBC comedy hits such as Seinfeld, Mad About You, and Frasier. Watching it on TV every week among the other shows created a different atmosphere, but Friends did more than rise to the challenge, they raised the bar themselves.

The commentary was interesting too, apparently the writers had initially envisioned Monica and Joey becoming the big couple, not so much Ross and Rachel. This is a great series to own. The only thing missing was the Rembrandt's video of the theme song, I enjoyed that from the videos.

Rating:
Summary: F.R.I.E.N.D.S season one Greats.
Review: like a really, funny treat, like a comedy bomb, F.R.I.E.N.D.S has landed on our WB. or FOX,, i'll never forget this series.
F.R.I.E.N.D.S, season1 was the most greatest!
in our community of seriousness, f.r.i.e.n.d.s has bought joy and happiness, and comedic adventure, into our TV.
i like rachel (JENNIFER ANISTON) and joey (MATT LEBLANC)
and Phoebe (LISA KUDROW) their very!! funny, and they have a sence of comedy.
and chandler, monica, and ross, are ok.
but ross (David Schwimmer) is a bit of a Punk.
well...they have their goodnesses and badnesses, we can't judge them! we are invited to watch, then lets just watch.
a story of rachel and ross in love was a good a very good twist.
and a invatation for Janice, was very funny, OH=MY=GOD!
it was very funny very funny indeed.
especially the running of chandler (Matthew Perry) and his screaming of:I'm FREE! i'm FREE!
it was very funny.
and monica (Courtney Cox) was squicking like a mouse.
that was funny too.
i have to say that this is the funniest show i've ever seen.
F.R.I.E.N.D.S
I GIVE IT *****STARS.

Rating:
Summary: So this woman in a bridal gown runs into a coffee shop...
Review: Now that we are getting near the end of all things with the final season of "Friends," it is interesting to go back and start at the beginning and see how we got to where we are from where they started. The pilot episode (written by Marta Kuffman & David Crane, directed by James Burrows), establishes the character types from the start: Rachel is a spoiled little rich girl cast adrift in the big bad world, Monica is an obsessive neat freak, Phoebe is a New Age flake, Joey is a dim witted lothario actor, Chandler is a non-stop jokester, and Ross is depressed because his wife has left him for another woman. Although the entry of Rachel, who has just left her orthodontist husband-to-be Barry at the altar to move in with her old high school pal Monica, is what kick starts the show, adding her as the new person (but old friend) into the mix of the Central Perk gang, it is the story arc of Ross, who learns that his ex-wife Carol is pregnant in the first official episode, that defines the first season. The Ross-Carol-Susan triangle becomes important because it allows the other characters to define themselves in response to the attendant traumas leading to the baby's deliver in the penultimate episode of the season.

The standout performances in the first season of "Friends" are Ross and Chandler. David Schwimmer provides the pathos as Ross looks back on the ruin of his marriage while trying to deal with the impending birth of Ben and the resurgence of his feelings for the totally oblivious Rachel. One of those would be enough of a train wreck for one season, but Ross gets the double dose. Matthew Perry is usually considered the one of the sextet who has the worst career prospects (although this was the judgment before his appearances on "The West Wing"), but he has the hardest task on the cast with the requirement to constantly interject jokes into any and all situations. Plus, they are almost always funny, even when they are forced. Lisa Kudrow, of course, is always in the running, because she is really the one of the Friends with the most accessible heart. Besides, as the one who is the most out there she is the one who gets to speak the great truths, like when she defuses the turmoil over the baby's birth with the observation "Here's this little baby who has, like, three whole parents who care about it so much they're fighting over who gets to love it the most." At this point Courtney Cox and Matt LeBlanc are dealing with characters who are too much one note (she's obsessive and he's dumb) to really break through, and Jennifer Aniston only begins to emerge from the poor little rich girl at the end of the season.

Best episodes of first season: "The One with George Stephanopoulos," or more accurately his pizza, which is delivered to the girl's drunken slumber party; "The One with Butt," where Joey gets his first big movie role as Al Pacino's butt double and sings as the star of the musical "Freud" (and Rachel gets her new "do"); "The One with the Blackout," finds Chandler stuck in an ATM vestibule with a lingerie model; "The One with the Stoned Guy," which is memorable not for Jon Lovitz's guest appearance as the titular character but for Joey teaching Ross how to talk dirty for his date with the curator of insects at the museum; my favorite, "The One with All the Poker," where the girls try to beat the guys at poker and Ross's unrequited feelings for Rachel are the whole subtext; "The One with the Ick Factor," has Monica with dating a minor, Chandler hiring Phoebe as his temporary secretary, Rachel having sex dreams about Chandler, and Ross getting messages for a gay prostitute; and "The One with the Birth," finds Ross and Susan locked in a closet while Carol gives birth.

As is to be expected with the first season of a situation comedy, there are some less than stellar episodes here, such as "The One with Mrs. Bing" where Chandler's mom (Morgan Fairchild) hits on Ross, and "The One with Fake Monica," which at least has the virtue of getting rid of Marcel. I mean, come on: Ross cannot have Carol, he cannot have Rachel, but he can have a monkey? Maybe the goal was to bring Schwimmer, who had the most impressive resume going into the show, back down to the rest of the cast. "Friends: The Complete First Season" is not a great season, but it does provide a solid foundation. Besides, situation comedies that have really great first seasons often have trouble figuring where to go next, and as the final shot of the first season shows us, "Friends" knew exactly where to go next: i.e., how many times can Ross and Rachel pass like emotional ships in the night before they actually get to bang hulls.

Rating:
Summary: So this woman in a bridal gown runs into a coffee shop...
Review: Now that we are getting near the end of all things with the final season of "Friends," it is interesting to go back and start at the beginning and see how we got to where we are from where they started. The pilot episode (written by Marta Kuffman & David Crane, directed by James Burrows), establishes the character types from the start: Rachel is a spoiled little rich girl cast adrift in the big bad world, Monica is an obsessive neat freak, Phoebe is a New Age flake, Joey is a dim witted lothario actor, Chandler is a non-stop jokester, and Ross is depressed because his wife has left him for another woman. Although the entry of Rachel, who has just left her orthodontist husband-to-be Barry at the altar to move in with her old high school pal Monica, is what kick starts the show, adding her as the new person (but old friend) into the mix of the Central Perk gang, it is the story arc of Ross, who learns that his ex-wife Carol is pregnant in the first official episode, that defines the first season. The Ross-Carol-Susan triangle becomes important because it allows the other characters to define themselves in response to the attendant traumas leading to the baby's deliver in the penultimate episode of the season.

The standout performances in the first season of "Friends" are Ross and Chandler. David Schwimmer provides the pathos as Ross looks back on the ruin of his marriage while trying to deal with the impending birth of Ben and the resurgence of his feelings for the totally oblivious Rachel. One of those would be enough of a train wreck for one season, but Ross gets the double dose. Matthew Perry is usually considered the one of the sextet who has the worst career prospects (although this was the judgment before his appearances on "The West Wing"), but he has the hardest task on the cast with the requirement to constantly interject jokes into any and all situations. Plus, they are almost always funny, even when they are forced. Lisa Kudrow, of course, is always in the running, because she is really the one of the Friends with the most accessible heart. Besides, as the one who is the most out there she is the one who gets to speak the great truths, like when she defuses the turmoil over the baby's birth with the observation "Here's this little baby who has, like, three whole parents who care about it so much they're fighting over who gets to love it the most." At this point Courtney Cox and Matt LeBlanc are dealing with characters who are too much one note (she's obsessive and he's dumb) to really break through, and Jennifer Aniston only begins to emerge from the poor little rich girl at the end of the season.

Best episodes of first season: "The One with George Stephanopoulos," or more accurately his pizza, which is delivered to the girl's drunken slumber party; "The One with Butt," where Joey gets his first big movie role as Al Pacino's butt double and sings as the star of the musical "Freud" (and Rachel gets her new "do"); "The One with the Blackout," finds Chandler stuck in an ATM vestibule with a lingerie model; "The One with the Stoned Guy," which is memorable not for Jon Lovitz's guest appearance as the titular character but for Joey teaching Ross how to talk dirty for his date with the curator of insects at the museum; my favorite, "The One with All the Poker," where the girls try to beat the guys at poker and Ross's unrequited feelings for Rachel are the whole subtext; "The One with the Ick Factor," has Monica with dating a minor, Chandler hiring Phoebe as his temporary secretary, Rachel having sex dreams about Chandler, and Ross getting messages for a gay prostitute; and "The One with the Birth," finds Ross and Susan locked in a closet while Carol gives birth.

As is to be expected with the first season of a situation comedy, there are some less than stellar episodes here, such as "The One with Mrs. Bing" where Chandler's mom (Morgan Fairchild) hits on Ross, and "The One with Fake Monica," which at least has the virtue of getting rid of Marcel. I mean, come on: Ross cannot have Carol, he cannot have Rachel, but he can have a monkey? Maybe the goal was to bring Schwimmer, who had the most impressive resume going into the show, back down to the rest of the cast. "Friends: The Complete First Season" is not a great season, but it does provide a solid foundation. Besides, situation comedies that have really great first seasons often have trouble figuring where to go next, and as the final shot of the first season shows us, "Friends" knew exactly where to go next: i.e., how many times can Ross and Rachel pass like emotional ships in the night before they actually get to bang hulls.

Rating:
Summary: The definition of "lol"
Review: The 1st season is amazing!But let me warn you, once you start, you can't stop.I got addicted to it the 1st minute. There has never been such a show like this and I think that everyone should see it.

Rating:
Summary: This is my favorite show
Review: the first season gives you some background to how everyone met and some history about everyone.