Friends ‘The One With The Sonogram at the End/The One With the Thumb’: That Curry Taste

‘The One With The Sonogram at the End’ (originally aired 9/29/94)

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 the 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 last week’s review – 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.

‘The One With the Thumb’ (originally aired 10/6/94)

This is one of my favorite episodes of the first season, simply because its one of the only ones that’s not tugging at the Ross/Rachel story strings, which – while its endearing and fun for the first two seasons – single-handedly kills the show in its later years. So it’s no wonder that an episode about Phoebe’s bank and Chandler’s smoking habit is near the top of my list for the highlights of the first season.

The biggest thing I noticed about this episode with a fresh re-watching is how it brings Chandler and Pheobe out of the background (where they’ve been for the first two episodes, existing as punchlines for certain jokes). Sure, their story lines aren’t poignant are particularly fascinating, but they give Matthew Perry some physical bits – something he was always great at on the show, with the many twitches and nuances of Chandler Bing – like the short scene of him smoking a cigarette in the office. Chandler’s always bound to repeat the biggest mistakes of his life (i.e. Janice), and smoking is but one of them, and not the last still we’ll see him running back to it through the show’s run.

Phoebe of course, is dealing with a very mis-managed, but generous bank who keeps giving her money that she can’t find ways to return. It’s a throw away story, sure, but it gives us a better understanding of the Phoebe’s bohemian tendencies, and her everlasting compassion that always manages to supercede her sometimes air-headed nature. Phoebe is a character I can never really get a finger on in the show’s eleven seasons – outside of her aloofness, her rampant sexuality and ability to be nice, and this plot feels like a microcosm of her in the series: she says a lot of funny things, gets confused, and then laughs everything off at the end (or sings, but we haven’t seen her with a guitar yet). But it’s still fun to see her trying to give away her money to a homeless person, only to find a finger in the soda said homeless buys her, which turns into an even larger sum of money (and to connect it all, that money would end up being Chandler’s to quit smoking).

‘Thumb’ feels a lot more like what Friends would’ve been had it not become so self-indulgent in later years, feeling much closer to director James Burrows other big show (Cheers) and less like the monster it would quickly turn itself into by the middle seasons. There’s lot of funny ideas executed well – Monica’s boyfriend situation in particular, which is a funny take on the ‘bringing a boyfriend/girlfriend into the crew’ story we’ve all dealt with at some point in our lives. ‘The One With the Thumb’  is a great example of a 1990s “hanging out, talking ’bout life and sex” comedy, and would turn to be an example for a lot of shows to imitate later on (whether it’s bank stories, new boyfriends, or Chandler rattling off the annoying habits the rest of the group never paid attention to).

‘The One With the Sonogram at the End’: C+

‘The One With the Thumb’: B+

what did you think of those episodes/our review of them? Feel free to leave your thoughts and comments below, and stop back next week, when Ross reminisces about Carol, and Chandler meets Janice.