The highpoints in Season Seven are the very funny cameos by Winona Ryder...and Denise Richards...
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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. "Friends": The Complete Seventh 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 Monica´s Thunder", "...Rachel´s Book", "...Phoebe´s Cookies", "...Rachel´s Assistant", "...the Engagement Picture", "...the Nap Partners".
Disc 2: "...Ross´s Library Book", "The One Where Chandler Doesn´t Like Dogs", "...All the Candy", "...the Holiday Armadillo", "...All the Cheesecakes", "The One Where They´re Up All Night".
Disc 3: "The One Where Rosita Dies", "The One Where They All Turn Thirty", "...Joey´s New Brain", "...the Truth About London", "the Cheap Wedding Dress", "...Joey´s Award".
Disc 4: "...Ross and Monica´s Cousin", "...Rachel´s Big Kiss", "...the Vows", "...Chandler´s Dad", "...Monica and Chandler´s Wedding Parts 1 and 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 seventh season deals with Monica and Chandler´s engagement/wedding, and basically, the series shows signs of fatigue. There are only so many wedding jokes that can be made before people stop laughing, and that´s what basically happened after the first six or so episodes of Year Seven. The writing also seems a bit haphazard, with Chandler getting cold feet and getting over his cold feet in a matter of minutes, with Ross´s son showing up only to be dropped out of the picture after one episode, with Rachel´s new boyfriend (her assistant at work) coming and going based on something as whimsical as her turning-30 crisis, etc.
The highpoints in Season Seven are the very funny cameos by Winona Ryder (as Rachel´s college buddy) and Denise Richards (as Ross and Monica´s cousin, who´s the object of everyone´s lust). Kathleen Turner and Morgan Fairchild are pretty funny, too, as Chandler´s parents.
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.
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