“The One with the Thumb” is not only a strong third episode for Friends – it’s 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 Phoebe 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).
