Friends ‘The One With George Stephanopoulos/The One With the East German Laundry Detergent’: Gimme My Puck

‘The One With George Stephanopoulos’ (originally aired 10/13/1994)

Friends was never known to be a subtle show throughout its run, so ‘The One With GS’ is always an episode that sticks out in my head. Not only is this the first time the group splits up in male/female pairings, but it also quietly pulls at a common thread between Ross and Rachel that’s been on the surface for the first few episodes. It’s not a particularly special episode in any sense, but it’s definitely an example of how different the show was when people gave a shit.

The parallel I’m talking about between Ross and Rachel is their inabilities to let go of their past, stories which smartly play out completely separate from each other. In fact, the only scene the six main cast members is the opening scenes, splitting up the group to dig a little bit deeper into why Ross and Rachel are in such similar emotional states.

For Rachel, it’s the appearance of her old crew, who’ve all managed to get pregnant and married in the three episodes since Rachel moved into the city and started working at Central Perk. Pregnant, engaged, getting promoted… all the successes in life that would’ve been handed to her by Barry or her father are laid right out in front of her, and what does she have to combat it? The Central Perk specials board? Once again, Rachel’s face to face with the biggest decision she ever made in her life, and coming right on the heels of finding out Barry and her maid of honor went on their honeymoon, she’s about ready to drown herself in margaritas.

It puts Rachel in a familiar position to anyone in their mid-20s; can we just count on it all “working out” somehow in the end? By the time we’ve all reached that age, we’ve dealt with enough failure and false visions for ourselves to wonder the same thing. It’s really a moment of Friends at its most existential, a rare example of the show really digging into its characters. They don’t really have anything significant to say about it (Phoebe: “I don’t like this question”) but it gives their half of the episode less of a ‘girls having a fun slumber party talking about sex’ feel that would’ve just felt cliched and pointless.

Now the other half of this episode is a lot more problematic. The idea of Ross getting sappy over the anniversary of when he lost his virginity really just strikes me as an empty idea. I don’t mind him pining over Carol (it’s still a fresh wound, and obviously there’s a lot of comedy to be played out with that), but the one-noted depression he experiences over having sex for the first time with the lone partner he’s had to this date is just stupid. In typical ‘male’ fashion, Chandler and Joey think the way to solve this is to do manly things like go to a hockey game, but that just makes Ross even more selfishly depressed, sighing on every street corner and discussing unnecessary details from his first night with Carol.

I’m not saying I need Ross to be an impenetrable wall of emotion, but the way its done here is so corny and overplayed by Schwimmer (as he does a lot in the first season, like I noted last week), and feels like a complete regression since the end of the pilot (when he grabbed a spoon) all for some “life event” that most of us can’t even remember the date of (much less one our sister knows)? It’s an over the top plot that falls flat on its face, which is disappointing because like I said, this is one of the show’s few examples of drawing parallels between its A and B plots. Ross is struggling with letting go as well, but the way he does it is handled with a lot less subtlety and care than Rachel’s.

Other thoughts/observations:

– Joey, it’s ok to be omnipotent.

– Phoebe is just a set of random dialogue here, with no real center; she worked in a mine, a Dairy Queen, can sleep anywhere, and wears striped pajamas.

– I’d like to see the percentage of people who see this episode on Nick at Nite and say “who the fuck is George Stephanopoulos”?

– Friends is never great at the large-scale physical comedy stunts (not involving Chandler, anyway): the two hockey puck scenes are very goofy, and feel a lot like filler. Why do ER people get such a bad rap? Sheesh.

‘The One With the East German Laundry Detergent’ (originally aired 10/20/1994)

Of the first five episodes of Friends, ‘Detergent’ is easily the weakest of the bunch, burying its funniest story (Phoebe and Chandler) underneath a mess of stories about Rachel trying to be independent and Joey trying to get back an old girlfriend. Of course, many people remember this episode for one scene – the one in the laundromat- but for me, this is one of the more problematic episodes of a show that was sometimes willing to fall back on gender archetypes for no real purpose.

Rachel’s is probably the most disturbing. Her father calls her and offers her a Mercedes to come home and give up this new life. Why we really don’t know, but it gives Rachel the opportunity to make some wild assumptions about adult responsibility and what goes hand in hand with it. Seriously, she tries to equate success or failure in her adult life with her ability to succeed at doing laundry – a completely preposterous position, one you’d think a friend would try and convince you of otherwise.

Of course, she’s paired with a sniveling Ross, who’s got no advice to offer outside of some sheepish comments and poorly-acted “awkwardness.” He’s there to get her interested in him, although he possesses none of the tools to do this, being the kind of guy Rachel is never attracted to. That is, until he busts out some bullshit machismo act on a very oddly-dressed woman at the laundromat, which all of a sudden, garners the attention of Rachel. Not only is she too weak to do anything on her own, but she’s only attracted to the manly men who stand up and fight her battles for her!!! A terrible contrast with the independent-minded woman in the pilot who sounded ready to take on the world and make her own mistakes while she told her father that she didn’t want to be a “shoe.”

On the other side of the gender coin, we’ve got Joey trying to get back Angela, an old girlfriend who apparently learned how to dress well after Joey dumped her. The biggest problem here is that the whole story seems to service nothing but some incest jokes later on, when Joey drags Monica on a fake double date and tells her Angela’s new boyfriend is her brother. Instead of using it as an opportunity to add some texture to Joey’s character, he’s simply the dumb guy who thinks dick-first – which save for one episode this season, and a small plot line in season 2, is never fleshed out beyond that.

However, there is the small joy of seeing Phoebe and Chandler interact, a pairing I always enjoyed in the earlier seasons. They would of course ruin it later on with Monica playing the polar opposite to both of them in later seasons, but the contrast between Phoebe’s bohemian tendencies and Chandler’s uptight inability to do anything with conviction is one of my favorite dynamics early on. It’s all hindered a little by the introduction of Janice (I still cringe in horror every time I hear “Oh my God”) but she’s less of a caricature here in her first appearance as Chandler’s significant other – in fact, she’s kind of funny during their first of many break-ups.

But those funny moments  with the worst break-up ever are relegated to the C-plot, putting a lot of focus on Rachel’s misguided mentality about growth, and a whole lot of ‘awkward Ross’, which is always slightly painful to watch. And without any context as to why Joey wants Angela back (except for one night of sex), the episode’s other story is just fundamentally unappealing, both for the characters and to the audience.

‘The One With George Stephanopoulos’: C+

‘The One with the East German Laundry Detergent’: C-

what did you think of this week’s episode? Have fond memories of Rachel and Ross’s first kiss, or just glad we don’t have to see Ugly Naked Guy lay tile? Feel free to leave your thoughts below, and stop back next week, where Joey gets a crack at show business (literally), and Chandler experiences ‘perfection.’ Thanks for reading!