Greg Rucka is really back.

its period so well that it’ll be interesting to take of note what themes they play with and how they use them in the series. Ross is a terrible and terribly broken man and he might be my most favorite character in this. until next time.

unforgivably gay! like a lot of that happens and it comes across more intolerant than not. in any case, all that’s over now. i won’t lie, im almost excited to revisit it again in a few years because i plan to note my thoughts about it even more thoroughly. it captures the attitudes of sitcoms in—

did an outstanding job himself, so replacing him would’ve been understandably tough. it’s all weird, but it’s one of the better showcases of toxic masculinity in the show. often times there’s a regression. like oh Joey went too far wearing women’s panties because he enjoys it and that makes him—

and while i get it might be because it’d mean paying FPJ consistently to show up in episodes, their folly was in deciding it was gonna be a one and done at all. had they cast an actor whom they could afford to pay to return, it would’ve made for a stronger episode in concept. however, FPJ—

it’s something i actually relate to, even if i’m fortunate that i have a father that never mocked me for my interest in comics and superheroes or whatever (though my mother sometimes did). it’s a great moment of progress in the episode… except they never hire this exceptional nanny back…

his childhood. how his father would condescend to him about his playing with dinosaurs instead of going out during the summer. a great moment about how a lot of that intolerance comes from that masculine reinforcement from our family and our views are made a certain way because of it—

fire him. they go so hard into how unaccepting he is of the man’s job that it came across visceral. in the end though, when he confronted the “manny”, Prinze’s character accepts the firing, but turns it back around to Ross. why *was* he that uncomfortable around him? and he explains its roots in—

of masculinity themes, and i have to say, the results are mostly pretty positive, but there’s one big drawback. Ross does not want a sensitive, male nanny taking care of his child because he thinks that it’s not a man’s job and that a man being sensitive is “weird”, and has been pushing Rachel to—

there were a couple of notes i’d wanted to make way earlier, but i’d neglected to do it so i shall do a version of it now. one of the more interesting episodes to me is when they bring over Freddie Prinze Jr. as one of the babies’ nannies, and that whole thing’s one of the show’s last displays—

stands out nonetheless. Joey’s probably one of the worst ever people in that show, but the constant infantilization of the character endears us to him because he can’t help being the way he is and is ridiculously dumb…

a lot of this show, like i said earlier, delves into the maturity aspect by placing its cast in the most morally challenging situations. you have themes like masculinity playing into it, the whole age gap stuff, and it all repeats itself up until a certain point. it can be tiring… but the comedy—

which i liked in how it reflects his character’s maturity. Cox… i really couldn’t stand her character, honestly. even though she’s had great comedic moments. the whole insistence of how bizarre she is just to me made her seem more like a caricature of what she might’ve been.

the babies, and resolution to the will they won’t they of Ross and Rachel… the latter i felt reaaally came from nowhere even if there were some attempts to set it up to begin with, but it doesn’t feel completely natural. didn’t shoutout Perry because he was way more laidback in these final seasons—

ramp up her “growth”, but early 2000s Paul Rudd is boyishly hot, and it makes sense to fall in love with him. some more development would’ve been better tho. by the final season, since it was cut into an 18 episode season, everything was rushed into place! the marriage, the house buying—

but you also have Anniston and Kurdrow who have impeccable comedic timing. Anniston i took note of the most this time and appreciated that urgency to Rachel that really amused me. sadly, there wasn’t enough Buffay in the show, and it was really noticeable in the final seasons where they had to—

it was easy to follow, i’d already seen it so i didn’t have to pay that much more attention to it in this viewing, and ultimately, it’s often really damn funny. the physical performances of the actors i found to be really impressive, especially that of Schwimmer and LeBlanc.