For the most part, “The One With The Sonogram” is a textbook example of a comedy’s second episode: everything from the pilot is reinforced to further establish the main cast of characters – a difficult task for a show with six equal leads, all with their own personality quirks and story lines. ‘Sonogram’ manages to juggle most of these pretty well, although Friends‘s second episode does feel more like its concerned with filling out backstories and origins rather than moving forward and developing its characters.
There are a number of important character traits revealed here, jokes that would eventually become go-to plot lines when the writers had nothing original to fall back on in later seasons. The best of these are those involving Monica and Ross together, in my opinion. This episode really establishes the sibling rivalry burning inside Ross and Monica in hilarious fashion – much better than say…. the painful episode with the millenium party, or the flashbacks to college days in the last two seasons. But little touches like Ross being the favorite, or Monica being an obsessive cleaner because she thinks it will make her parents love her more, are the little nuggets of character I mentioned I enjoyed in the Friends pilot – plus it brings us into the Gellar family, with Jack’s inappropriate comments and Judy’s snide, upper-class Jewish-snob stereotypes, which were quite fun in the earlier seasons (“I’m not going to tell you what that wedding cost, but $40,000 is a lot of money!)
Rachel is the other character receiving a lot of back story here, putting a face to Barry Farber – a character who would pop in every now and then when Friends needed a familiar face for some quick laughs or wacky stories. I always thought putting a face to Barry and giving him a story with Rachel’s best friends was one of the show’s early missteps: I didn’t need the uncomfortable scene where Barry admits he ran off to Aruba with her maid of honor. It’s a story that’s all too forgiving to Rachel, who’s given a free pass for walking out on Barry and leaving him in front of a crew of embarrassed family members because of her immaturity. We don’t really know much about her at this point, and the emotion we’re supposed to feel with Barry’s revelation feels empty, and unearned for her after less than two episodes.
Joey, Chandler and Phoebe are mostly left out of the episode, except for the Central Perk scenes – as well as the first Friends-watching-TV moment, a running gag that doesn’t age well, considering how well shows like 30 Rock have mastered that kind of joke in the time since. There is mention of Ursula (Kudrow’s character on Mad About You, who is Phoebe’s twin in this universe, and also a waitress) and lots of Joey being a simpleton and weird Chandler voice inflections. Overall, it felt much like an extension of the pilot, except with more lesbians and a sonogram, reminding us that our late 20’s tend to have a lot more surprises than we’d like them to.
Observations:
- this is the only appearance of Anita Barone as Carol, so…. there’s that. Also the first non-appearance of Ugly Naked Guy, who becomes a fixture for the first few seasons of the show.
- the ‘strong handshake’ by Ross regarding Susan sticks out as something Ross would neither say, nor the writers want to write. Weird little moment.
- there is a long shot of the Central Perk logo that screams James Burrows. It’s one of the few non-static shots in this episode, after a few more in the pilot.
- each episode tends to have an awkward Rachel/Ross scene, and this time, its Ross and Rachel finding common ground on their spousal issues. Also a mention of falling in love in high school, so Ross can make googly-eyes. But we’ll learn all about that as the season progresses.
- Up next: Friends delivers an early highlight with “The One with the Thumb”.