Friends Guide: 1x03

The One with the Thumb

One of the weaker aspects of the show, especially in the early seasons, is when the writers turn to the tired 'date of the week' plot.  Maybe it was a fresh idea when the show started, there really weren't too many sitcoms about young people and dating, but the generic date plots get old fast, and this one isn't anything to speak much about. 

Monica finds begins dating a guy named Alan, and the rest of the friends all love him.  Why? I'm not entirely sure as he only gets about ten seconds of screen time, and a majority of this plot is spent with Monica complaining to her coworker at first about her friends never liking her dates and the second about her friends liking Alan more than she does.  The whole big twist is in the last scene where Monica has to "break up" with her friends when she decides to no longer date Alan.  Sure, I can see the pitch for this episode---what if you dated a guy you didn't like and your friends did.  But the comedy of the last scene is so over acted it has me rolling my eyes more than anything.  The other twist at the end is that Alan didn't mind Monica but in turn hated all of her friends.  I suppose the irony is funny? But there's little here to make it work.  We just don't see enough of Alan to get any kind of feel for him, nor do we know the friends well enough to know why they have such issues with Monica's dating life.  

Meanwhile, Chandler picks up smoking again.  It's a strange plot line, which feels more like PSA anti-smoking ad than an actual plot line.  (Thankfully, Friends doesn't do these kinds of things too often.)  And most of the jokes involving Chandler trying to sneak a drag while everyone else isn't looking just isn't that entertaining.  The one bright moment within this plot line is when Chandler lists off everyone else's flaws--including Ross's over enunciation of words (which, god, is irritating), Joey's cracking of knuckles (which seems random because it isn't something we ever see him do), and Monica's snort laugh.  All of this leads the Friends arguing among each other about their faults, which is mildly amusing.  

The episode's C-plot revolves around Phoebe and the fact that this week she keeps getting handed free things, first an extra 500 dollars in her bank account, and every time she tries to give back the charity bestowed on her she gets something bigger, like $7000 for finding a thumb in soda.  It's not the best mini plot the show does, but it's bizarre nature is at least watchable compared to the rest of the episode's borefest.  And in a nice twist at the end, the writers actually being pretty good at tying things together, Phoebe gives Chandler the money to stop smoking. 

1/4 stars: The biggest problem with this episode is that it tries too hard to get laughs and pretty much fails at doing that with all of it's plots.  I can see exactly what the writers were going for when they set this episode up, but nothing really comes off as funny as the show wants you to think it is.  On top of that, the acting is still not quite there, but part of that is because the script is asking the actors to ham it up a little too much.  This episode is pretty much entirely skipable.