The hit sitcom friends is a staple show for most families worldwide. Throughout the ten seasons there’s been countless moments that defined how popular the show is in present day.
In my opinion and in no particular order, here are the best episodes of Friends:
The One With Ross’ Sandwich (Season 5, Episode 9)
The main focus of this episode is Ross slowly having a mental breakdown about his annual Thanksgiving leftover sandwich going missing at his work. We eventually find out that his boss ate only half of the sandwich and threw the rest away leaving Ross in a fit of rage. Also in this episode, Monica and Chandler convince Joey to keep their relationship a secret which leads to a series of unfortunate events that result in the friends believing that Monica and Joey were together.
The One With The Football (Season 3, Episode 9)
Being one of the most memorable seasonal Thanksgiving episodes in the entire show, this episode truly shows the deep rooted sibling rivalry between Ross and Monica when challenged to a game of football in which the prize is the ‘Geller Cup’. Throughout the episode it showed the lengths they will go to win (even if that means cheating). There’s also a side-plot which sees some competition between Joey and Chandler trying to win over a Dutch girl which adds to the sense of comedic tension throughout the episode.
The One With Unagi (Season 6, Episode 17)
In this episode we see Phoebe and Rachel take a self-defence class. Upon telling Ross this, he claims that the class is useless if they haven’t mastered the martial arts technique called Unagi which he describes as “a state of total awareness”. Ironically this backfires on Ross as Phoebe and Rachel prove to him brutally that he is lacking in Unagi. Another plot line in the episode involves Monica and Chandler in a rush to make each other their Valentines Day gifts that they forgot about. Chandler’s last minute gift is a mix tape which is revealed that Janice, his ex girlfriend gifted Chandler the mix tape when they used to date.
The One With The Embryos (Season 4, Episode 12)
The title of this episode is fairly misleading as the story line of Phoebe’s embryo implantation is out shined by the friends competing in a quiz to see how well they truly know each other which ultimately leads to Joey and Chandler winning Monica’s apartment. This is also the origin of many iconic quotes such as “Miss Chanandler Bong” and one of the best lines of the episode by Ross “What is Chandler Bing’s job?” which is followed by an awkward silence.
The One With the Thumb (Season 1, Episode 3)
Monica is quite reluctant to introduce her new boyfriend Alan to the friends as they’ve been judgemental of her previous partners. To her surprise the friends all love Alan but Monica breaks the bad news that she wants to stop her relationship with him. The friends reaction to this news brings a comedic aspect to the episode as they seem to be grieving more than Monica herself. The irony of this is that Alan never really liked the friends all along which is revealed at the end of the episode. We also see Phoebe become agitated when she accumulates over one thousand dollars so she gives the money to a homeless woman who buys her a can of soda as a sign of gratitude, however when she opens the can she finds a thumb floating inside of it. She receives compensation of seven thousand dollars whom she ends up giving to Chandler as a bribe to get him to quit smoking.
The One Where Chandler Crosses The Line (Season 4, Episode 7)
This episode places the viewer in a difficult position, part of them is secretly rooting for Chandler and Cathy to get together meanwhile the other part is feeling guilt towards an oblivious Joey. Throughout the episode we see Chandler and Cathy’s relationship blossom from innocent flirting to the betrayal of Joey when they finally kiss. The other story line that lightens the mood from relationship troubles is Ross going back to his past where he expresses his love for music and performs his ‘sound’ for the friends. Phoebe is the only one of the friends to appreciate Ross’ bizarre composition of layered sounds from dog barks to helicopter noises.
