It has been 20 years since the series finale of Friends, and the conclusion to one of the biggest sitcoms of all time looks a little different now. Although the two-part finale, “The Last One,” is often regarded as one of the best episodes of Friends, the payoff of the ending does a lot to rescue an uneven episode. There are a few things which could be improved in the finale, but this is usually ignored.
The Friends finale does a few things very well. It ties up the show’s biggest storylines, including Ross and Rachel’s relationship and Monica and Chandler starting a family, and it also provides a memorable final scene as the characters all say goodbye to the apartment which became a symbol of the show. It left audiences satisfied back in 2004, but the intervening years have allowed fans to reassess the finale in a new light.
Friends was already on a downward slope by the time the series finale came around, and it probably could have come a little sooner. There are still some great moments as the show starts to wrap things up, but the best seasons of Friends came much earlier, around the middle of its run. After about eight seasons, the characters lose some of their depth and the jokes don’t quite have the same consistency.
Friends could have ended with Ross and Rachel having their baby, but the show resisted this happy ending just as much as Ross tried to pull away from the obvious conclusion that he and Rachel had found the perfect time to be together. Despite the enduring popularity of the series finale, it could have been better if it had happened a few seasons earlier, while Friends was still in its best years.
The series finale of Friends aired 20 years ago, so it’s only natural that some of the jokes aren’t as funny when viewed through a more modern lens. They were widely considered to be acceptable at the time, and it would be overly harsh to judge an old show by modern standards, but some of the dated humor means that the finale is a little less enjoyable to rewatch today. Fortunately, none of these jokes affect the plot, so they can be easily ignored.
In general, Friends has a few moments that are questionable by today’s standards, as does almost any show from so long ago. The series finale is no exception. Phoebe makes a comment about Ben, Ross’ son, throwing like a girl, and there are a couple of other jokes which reinforce harmful gender stereotypes. There’s nothing so problematic or offensive that it truly damages the legacy of the episode, but it’s worth acknowledging it was written at a time with slightly different attitudes.
The finale focuses on two main storylines: the birth of Chandler and Monica’s twins, and the climax of Ross and Rachel’s love story. This means that the episode treats Phoebe and Joey as an afterthought, which sums up how their characters developed in the final few seasons of Friends. With the rest of the friendship group pairing off into romantic relationships, Phoebe and Joey are the awkward leftovers, and the writers don’t always know what to do with them.
Phoebe and Joey are one of the best pairings on Friends, but the finale doesn’t give them anything interesting to do. Joey’s biggest issue is that the new chick and duck get stuck in the foosball table, which doesn’t compare to what everyone else is going through. Phoebe’s role is arguably even worse, as she has to drive Ross to the airport to chase after Rachel. She’s a secondary character in his story, while she should really be the main character in her own story.
The ending to Joey’s story is so disappointing because it highlights how little he has developed as a character. Other characters become more mature and figure out what they want from life over the course of the 10 seasons of Friends, but Joey is left behind. If anything, he regresses, as his character seems to become less intelligent and more of a punch line by the time the show wraps up.
Unlike Monica, Chandler, Rachel and Ross, Joey ends up alone in Friends. He ends the show in much the same way he started it. His career has had a few more victories and his roommate has moved out, but he’s left with the chick and the duck in an act of mercy from Chandler, who realizes that Joey is the odd man out. The underwhelming Friends spinoff series, Joey, also didn’t do much to give his character the proper send-off he deserved.
The one big development in Phoebe’s story in the Friends series finale is that Mike and her agree to have kids after seeing Monica and Chandler’s twins for the first time. This is a huge life decision, but the show brushes over it so quickly that it is easy to forget about. This could be a big resolution to Phoebe’s arc, but the show quickly moves on to deal with its bigger concerns.
This brief conversation is also the only time in the finale that Mike Hannigan makes an appearance. He walks in, says he wants to have babies, and leaves. This is not a fitting end for a character who helped revitalize the show in its later seasons, and it’s also a huge waste of Paul Rudd’s potential. Mike became known as the seventh member of the friend group, but moments like this make it seem as though he was just a plot device to tie up Phoebe’s story without too much trouble.
Mike isn’t the only side character who doesn’t get enough screen time in the series finale. The episode focuses on the core group so much that there is no time for other fan-favorite characters to get in on the action. On one hand, this makes sense, because Friends can attribute so much of its success to the six main actors and the brilliant chemistry they developed over the years, but there are also plenty of less important characters who help make the show what it is.
Friends’ best side characters are mostly forgotten in the series finale. Some of them have their stories resolved in earlier episodes, like Janice and Estelle, but others, like Jack and Judy Geller, could have made an appearance. Gunther makes one big contribution to the finale as he professes his love for Rachel in Central Perk, and it’s one of the episode’s best moments. Sadly, other characters weren’t given a chance.
The Friends finale is split into two parts, and this odd format creates an off episode. The big problem is that Friends is so concerned with tying up its major plot lines neatly that it doesn’t have a natural flow to its finale. It almost seems as though the entire episode was written in reverse, with some plot points shoehorned in just to keep things moving toward the ending, even if they aren’t necessarily the natural beats that make sense to the characters.
Friends is usually able to strike the right balance between humor and emotional storytelling, without ever having one overpower the other. The finale is a little off kilter by comparison, and jokes are dropped into moments that don’t really require them. When these jokes don’t quite land, it derails the narrative. There are also a few scenes which end without any kind of punch line. This wouldn’t be an issue in most shows, but it feels strange in Friends.
Although some sitcoms weave complex plots that combine the main story with the B-plot of an episode, Friends usually keeps things relatively simple. One of the show’s biggest strengths is that it has six main characters who fans want to see, so each episode can tell two or three unrelated stories without any of it feeling like filler. However, this formula becomes a problem in the finale, as the disconnected plots don’t feel like a big finish for the show.
Friends often deviated from its formula for the show’s biggest moments. For example, when everyone goes to Las Vegas, their stories intertwine and play off of each other. The finale was the show’s chance to bring all six characters together, but they spend most of the episode broken off into pairs or threes. Rachel and Monica hardly spend any time together, despite the importance of their friendship, and the three male characters also don’t get any scenes with one another.
Rachel eventually had to get off the plane for Friends to get its happy ending, but this major plot point makes very little sense. After Phoebe inadvertently causes the passengers to walk off the plane, it’s unlikely that Rachel then would have been allowed to get off the plane after boarding for the second time, whether or not this even makes sense as a character move for her.
The Friends finale is allowed to get away with a few logical leaps, because the audience desires a happy ending. This also means that Monica and Chandler can be surprised by the fact that they are having two babies instead of one. Erica’s character is just empty-headed enough for this plot point to make sense, but it’s another moment which wouldn’t work with a less forgiving audience.
