My favorite bit involves Chandler and Joey debating how to make a whipping noise (Chandler’s “Wah pah!” versus Joey’s “Wuh tish!”).
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At its best, the situation comedy "Friends" captures the Zeitgeist of the 1990s with startling accuracy. That it is funny without resorting to cruel ironies only solidifies the cheery, optimistic outlook of the show´s creators. Sure, some of its sarcastic jokes hit a little close to home, but the characters seem to care genuinely for one another and about being good people (unlike the tools in "Seinfeld").
Warner Bros.´s first "Friends" DVDs consisted of "Best of ´Friends´" collections. Those releases were a hodge-podge of episodes from various seasons. Thankfully, the studio has come to its senses and is now releasing "Friends" season by season. Following Fox ("The X-Files") and Paramount´s ("Star Trek: The Next Generation") leads, Warner Bros. is using a digipak-gatefold-design approach to the "Friends" box sets rather than packaging each disc in a separate keepcase/snapper case. "Friends": The Complete Fourth Season Box Set includes twenty-three episodes on four DVDs. Each episode contains footage not seen during its original broadcast. Mostly, these are mere seconds that were cut here and there in order to fit in a couple of extra commercials on the air.
Disc 1: "The One With the Jellyfish", "...With the Cat", "...With the Cuffs", "...With the Ballroom Dancing", "...With Joey´s New Girlfriend", "...With the Dirty Girl".
Disc 2: "...Where Chandler Crosses the Line", "...Chandler in a Box", "...Where They´re Going to Party", "...With the Girl From Poughkeepsie", "...With Phoebe´s Uterus", "...With the Embryos".
Disc 3: "...With Rachel´s Crush", "...With Joey´s Dirty Day", "...With All the Rugby", "...With the Fake Party", "...With the Free Porn", "...With Rachel´s New Dress".
Disc 4: "...With All the Haste", "...With All the Wedding Dresses", "...With the Invitation", "...With the Worst Best Man Ever", "...With Ross´s Wedding" (Parts 1 & 2).
During the show´s run, Jennifer Aniston (Rachel), Courteney Cox Arquette (Monica), Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe), Matt LeBlanc (Joey), Matthew Perry (Chandler), and David Schwimmer (Ross) have become highly-paid stars. Their chemistry makes the show, for they simply look like people who wouldn´t mind hanging out with one another 24/7. I also like how the show reaches back into the characters´ pasts to provide a sense of where the six friends will be in the future. That respect for how the sextet came to be gives the characters a solid base for their growth as fully-realized personas.
The main story arcs in Season Four involve Phoebe agreeing to carry her half-brother and his wife´s child and Ross becoming involved with a British girl named Emily. However, the most important thing for you to know about this year is that the writers were able to bounce back from the relative blah of the latter half of Season Three. The jokes keep on coming at you without mercy, and I was often clutching my stomach from laughing pains. There are so many great jokes that I also often used the rewind button on my DVD remote in order to re-watch the best of them. For example, I´ll never forget Giovanni Ribisi, with his arms raised triumphantly, screaming, "My sister´s having my baby!", as if he had just defeated someone in armed combat. My favorite bit involves Chandler and Joey debating how to make a whipping noise (Chandler´s "Wah pah!" versus Joey´s "Wuh tish!").
I really enjoy the performances by the cast members, but I also detest Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe). I like wacky stuff that humanizes a fictional creation, but Kudrow´s character is wacky for the sake of being wacky. The other five characters often act with chagrin when they realize that they´ve done something silly, but Phoebe is so oblivious to reality that she elicits groans rather than laughs from me. I know that there´s little chance of getting rid of her for the show´s tenth(!) season, but miracles do happen, right?
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[release]10930[/release]