I’ve never watched an episode of “Friends.” I know this is borderline blasphemy to admit, especially for a TV critic. Obviously, the iconic NBC sitcom is such a cultural juggernaut that I know all the main characters, love triangles, and beats of the show. For example, we’re told that Ross (David Schwimmer) and Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) will end up together. Cole Sprouse played Ross’ son Ben. There was a huge discussion about the “breakdown” of the relationship and cheating.
Still, I’ve gone out of my way to ignore my “friends.” If there was something on the TV, I would run away from the room, or if I saw a rerun, I would immediately change the channel. But with the news that the last eight unaired episodes of “Joey,” the short-lived spinoff of the popular show, were now available to stream on YouTube’s “Friends” channel, I dove into the world of “Friends” for the first time by binge-watching the missing “Joey” episodes.
Twenty years too late and without any context, I started working on “Joey” with the first of eight unaired episodes, Season 2 Episode 15 (“Joey and Dad”). I was able to pick up speed right away. After leaving the Big Apple and settling on the West Coast, Joey did well in Los Angeles and gained some traction in his acting career. He is close to his family, including his sassy older sister Gina (Drea de Matteo) and his nerdy adult nephew Michael (Paulo Costanzo).
And for the purposes of this episode, we see that Joey continues his womanizing ways as well. In “Joey and Dad,” he goes on a hot date with Carmen Electra (played by herself), but is jealous of her sexy, attention-grabbing figure. I was happy to see Jennifer Coolidge appear in her first scene as Joey’s creepy and absurd agent, Bobby. Unfortunately, she’s criminally underutilized in the episodes I watched, and I often forgot about the character until she reappeared.
From what I know about “Friends,” Joey was an effeminate guy who did his best job as a likable sidekick to the other five. After screening these final episodes of “Joey,” it seems like he should have stayed put. LeBlanc is affable in the role, but he’s surrounded by a dull cast of characters, all doing their best to obfuscate a script full of misogyny and hackneyed plots, which is surprising even in the early 2000s.
The 2 hour and 40 minute sitcom I screened was full of horrible one-liners. At one point, Gina’s fiancé Jimmy (Adam Goldberg) “jokingly” calls her a bitch and says he will kill her. In another episode, Gina yells at Michael’s Indian roommate for speaking Hindi at home. It was like a weird “Twilight Zone” (although perhaps accurate to today’s America).
In Season 2, Episode 16, “Joey and Alex’s Party,” Joey discovers that he has a crush on his friend and landlord, Alex (Andrea Anders), and ends up ruining her 30th birthday party. Afterwards, and for the rest of the series, he tries to convince her that he is finally ready for an honest, long-term, committed relationship, despite his rather sordid romantic past.
The final episode is no surprise. Gina and Jimmy yell at each other, but eventually get married in the series finale, “Joey and the Wedding.” Michael learns that Jimmy is his biological father. However, he is unable to find a real group of friends or a love interest of his own. And in the end, Joey and Alex become a couple, but given Joey’s track record in the episodes I’ve seen, I doubt they would have made it past the third season. The ending seems to have been as unscrupulous as the other unaired episodes, and “Joey” became another spin-off that should have been left as an idea. But that’s just my opinion as someone who has spent the past 30 years actively avoiding “friends” with a determined and unwavering force.
So why did I, a 30-something black woman from the South Side of Chicago who has lived in New York City for half my life, avoid Phoebe, Rachel, Monica, and the rest?To be honest, I found Friends very difficult to relate to. I grew up watching Living Single and Moesha, so there was nothing appealing or innovative about Friends. I had already seen all of these themes and tropes, but it featured characters who actually looked like me and boasted a cultural affinity that I could touch on. My friends living in Manhattan and their beloved Central Park always seemed ordinary and uninspiring, and never really grabbed me like similar shows like “Will & Grace” or “Sex and the City.” It was the same reason I stopped watching “Girls” after season 1 in my early 20s. Nothing about it felt authentic or related to my personal experience.
“Friends” may have more to offer than “Joey,” but I’ll probably never know. We do know that the LA-based series was canceled before the entire second season aired due to plummeting ratings. From what I can see now, NBC executives at the time made the right choice.
