(Editor’s note: Seasons 1 and 2 were reviewed under an earlier editorial standard and format. They’ll be revisited in the Second Look Remastered series, running January – June 2027. Subscribe to Processed Media (it’s free!) so you don’t miss the updates.)
For this particular Friends episode, let’s remove all the jokes and look at the main story of “The One with Russ” (not the titular one… we’ll get to that), exploring the relationship between Fun Bobby and Monica. We’ve heard Fun Bobby’s name before (I don’t think we met him in season one – or if so, briefly), and when we meet him, he’s all buddy-buddy with everybody in the Central Perk crew. He understands these people, they love him – and most importantly, he makes Monica happy with his vivacious ways.
So what’s the problem? Well, Fun Bobby is a drunk, and when Monica tries to deal with the situation, Bobby’s surprisingly open to the idea, making light of his situation (“I’d make it Belgian but those damn waffles won’t fit in the flask”, he tells Monica) but ultimately realizing it’s what he needs to do to make Monica happy. So he stops drinking – and in the process, goes from being Fun Bobby to the most dull person on earth.
This story really, really unsettles me to this day. Originally, I thought it was because the episode equated drinking with being fun – but that’s not really true (these people just have sex with someone whenever they drink), and is a very broad approach to the topic. Upon rewatching it, I think I’ve nailed what bothers me so damn much in the episode: Monica.
Why Monica? Her big arc this season doesn’t come until the second half, spending most of her time this season losing her job and apparently having no struggles whatsoever with being unemployed (save for the Mockolate incident back in “The One with the List”). I completely understand the point of the Fun Bobby episode: to establish that Monica’s still dating people, coming so close to finding the right guy every time until that one trope-ridden quirk comes flying out in the final few minutes (like in “The Pilot”). For Bobby, it’s that he becomes dull when he doesn’t drink – which Monica promptly dumps him for, after realizing she can’t just get drunk all the time around him.
Making Bobby boring after he stops drinking? That’s ok, I suppose – but Monica’s initial interference into his drinking habits, then dumping him mere weeks after he stops drinking is just not a healthy thing to do. Yes, if something’s not going to work, why force it – but does Monica give it much of a chance? Does she realize – or even consider – that maybe Bobby’s going through serious withdrawals or a bout of depression (two VERY common things for people who just quit drinking to deal with)? Recovering from alcoholism is not something that can be done easily alone – and when the girl you quit drinking for dumps you a week later, in real life, Fun Bobby’s ‘boring’ demeanor would very likely lead him back to drinking, and probably worse than before.
What I’m saying is that the writers make Monica very selfish and insensitive, sending someone she was trying to ‘fix’ back into the world broken, simply because she wasn’t as entertained by him when he was sober. Well, no shit: the guy was probably dealing with severe withdrawals which would make any capital-F Fun person mellow out quite a bit. To me, Sober Bobby is not a funny character at all (nor is Monica’s response to him) – he’s a disturbingly unstable one, caused by Monica and then tossed to the wind when she wasn’t entertained anymore.
It’s very off-putting – and it doesn’t help that nothing funny happens around them for the whole episode (the only amusing moments are when we meet Estelle and her no-bullshit ways, sitting in her office with her cigarette Rolodex-like contraption and spewing hammy dialogue for two minutes). The whole Ross/Russ thing is vapid in every sense of the word: first, Rachel’s too dumb to realize who she is dating; and second, there’s never anything established between them (or Russ and Ross) except LOOK HOW SIMILAR THEY ARE – ISN’T THAT FUNNY! The best joke is probably Russ’s speaking rhythms, which is essentially the same joke the show’s done before (with both Ross and Chandler) shown through the surrogate of Russ. It all feels like an excuse to use the technology they utilized when Ursula appears in the first season – and more disturbingly, once she finds out he’s like Ross, she says “Ew!” and runs away. Hardly a sign that she’s still interested in Ross anyway, right? Oh, right, I forgot: she’s “not anything at him anymore”, because her feelings are gone for some inexplicable reason we never really get to find out.
It’s frustrating – for the second episode in a row, there is a ton of potential in the stories of the episode, even Joey trying to deal with sleeping with someone to get an acting gig on Days of our Lives (a subplot that takes up all of three scenes, and shows us that Joey makes spaghetti sauce when stressed – something he’d never, ever do again). But the humor of the episode is so utterly superficial and undermines the plots in such a disturbing way, “The One with Russ” is easily one of my least favorite episodes in the entire series, right up there with some of the more painful, regressive entries of later seasons.
Other thoughts/observations:
- no theater critic would ever write the phrase “brilliant new levels of sucking.” I’m just sayin’.
- Joey’s inability to say ‘have sex’ can be amusing sometimes: “I had to send the little general in.” See, Joey’s dick was once was a major, but earned a promotion after recent conquests. Misogyny at its finest, ladies and gentlemen!
- I don’t care what you say; there’s nothing better than an Irish coffee on Flag Day.
- six people drank two bottles of wine between them, but Bobby drank three to himself – and not only did nobody notice until he left, he managed to leave the apartment looking and acting completely sober!
- Up next: Friends makes history in “The One with the Lesbian Wedding”.