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Dom Robinson reviews 
Series 4 Episodes 1-8 
Warner Bros.
- Cert:
- Cat.no: D 017600
- Running time: 176 minutes
- Year: 1997
- Pressing: 1999
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 8
- Sound: Dolby Surround (Dolby Digital 2.0)
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: 7 languages available
- Fullscreen: 4:3
- 16:9-Enhanced: No
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 10
- Price: £24.99
- Extras : Scene index, Friends Goes To London, Friends on Location in London, Music Video
Cast:
- Rachel: Jennifer Aniston (Dream For an Insomniac, The Iron Giant, Leprechaun, The Object of my Affection, Office Space, Picture Perfect, She’s The One, TV: Friends)
Monica: Courtney Cox-Arquette (Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Cocoon 2: The Return, Masters of the Universe, Scream 1-3, Silent Victim, TV: Friends, Till We Meet Again)
Phoebe: Lisa Kudrow (Analyse This, Clock Watchers, The Opposite of Sex, Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, TV: Friends)
Joey: Matt Le Blanc (Lookin’ Italian, Lost in Space, Reform School Girl, TV: Friends, Red Shoe Diaries)
Chandler: Matthew Perry (Almost Heroes, Fools Rush In, Three To Tango, The Whole Nine Yards, TV: Friends)
Ross: David Schwimmer (Apt Pupil, Breast Men, The Pallbearer, Six Days Seven Nights, TV: Friends)
Friends is the highly-successful American TV series that has made it’s six stars some of the best-known actors on the small screen, with controversy being courted earlier this year as they were alleged to have demanded $1million per episode each. It sounds a lot of money, but then it’s worth noting that Friends videos account for 34% of all sell-thru TV product in the UK.
This review comprises episodes 1 to 8 of Series 4, which are placed four to a side, although there’s no reason why all of them couldn’t have fitted on one DVD 9. Almost every episode has something going on over the closing credits, which is usually enough to stop TV continuity announcers from chattering away over the top – something that drives me mad – although it didn’t stop them doing it with classic endings like the one with the canoe (episode 4.2) and the series 6 finale as Chandler and Monica shared a tender moment.
Although all of them have become big stars on the small screen as the six best friends from New York who frequent the Central Perk cafe, none of them have yet made a big name for themselves on the silver screen.
Jennifer Aniston, the ditzy long-blonde-haired Rachel who has an on-off relationship with Ross, has mainly appeared in standard romantic comedies such as The Object of my Affection, Picture Perfect and She’s The One, Courtney Cox-Arquette, over-eager Monica and who is now married to Scream co-star David Arquette, has probably done the best out of the six with that film trilogy and also appeared as the girl on-stage with Bruce Springsteen for Dancing in the Dark, while Lisa Kudrow, the completely-hatstand Phoebe, who sings bizarre songs in their cafe and rarely makes sense, has appeared in Analyse This, The Opposite of Sex
and Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion. Phoebe also has a twin sister, Ursula – again played by Lisa Kudrow – who crops up from time to time and has a job working as a waitress in the restaurant frequented by Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt in Mad About You.
Matt Le Blanc, the dopey ladies’ man Joey, made a promising start to the action genre with his wisecracking turn in Lost in Space but has yet to follow it up, Matthew Perry, over-anxious Chandler, has mainly appeared in comedies like Fools Rush In with Salma Hayek, The Whole Nine Yards with Bruce Willis and Three To Tango with Neve Campbell, while David Schwimmer as palaeotologist Ross, hasn’t appeared in any big films apart from a bit-part in Harrison Ford‘s Six Days Seven Nights.
Click on each of the following pictures for a sound-bite from that episode!
The One with the JellyfishFollowing on from the revelation at the end of series three, Ross has had to make a decision between Rachel and Bonnie, the bald girl with a five o’clock shadow on her head. He makes his choice and Rachel gives him a long letter to read about their relationship.
Monica gets stung by a jellyfish on the beach after Joey digs a big hole in the sand. In order to dull the pain he suggests she pees on her foot. Also, Phoebe and the woman who turns out to be her mum (Teri Garr) reconcile their differences.
The One with the CatPhoebe thinks that a cat that turns up out of the blue is the spirit of her real dead mum, Lily, a woman who killed herself a long time ago. There’s tension between Monica and Rachel as the former dates the latter’s old date from the high school prom.
Joey and Chandler plan to sell the home entertainment centre, or perhaps swap it for a canoe. However, thanks to Joey’s sheer stupidity the entire system is stolen.
The One with the Cuffs
Chandler sleeps with Joanna, Rachel’s boss. Upon seeing her walking about in just a towel, Rachel asks what she’s doing there and Joey provides the answer in no uncertain terms. There’s an appearance from half of the magic-comedy act Penn & Teller, Penn Jillette, as an encyclopaedia salesman.
Monica goes to cater for her mum’s dinner party and gets put down at every opportunity by her, especially when she cocks it up and is told that she’s “pulling a Monica”. Later on, Chandler is held captive in Joanna’s office when she handcuffs him to a chair whilst semi-naked. After she leaves, there’s only Rachel who can help him.
The One with the Ballroom Dancing
Rachel learns to take out the trash for the first time. Joey steps in and infuriates the trashman, to the point where they’re all on the border of getting thrown out of their apartment. His only reprieve will come if he teaches the guy how to ballroom-dance…
Chandler tries to quit a gym that he never uses but for which he still pays $50 a month and he takes Ross along for moral support. Phoebe falls for a client in her massage parlour and ends up biting him on the bum! Needless to say, one thing leads to another and she’s back in the dole queue.
The One with the Joey’s New Girlfriend
Joey and Chandler fall for the same girl, Kathy. However, Joey saw her first and feels Chandler is being nasty to her because he’s trying to keep his lustful feelings to himself. Phoebe has a cold and develops “sexy phlegm” giving her a singing voice to die for. As she starts to lose her cold, Monica catches it and Phoebe demands it back!
Rachel and Ross try to embarrass each other in front of their new beaus and Rachel’s, Josh, is one of the best footballers in college. Listen to one of the soundbite to hear one of Rachel’s snide remarks.
The One with the Dirty GirlMonica and Phoebe cater for a funeral, but has trouble getting paid for it. There’s also a hilarious scene when Rachel finally completes a crossword puzzle all by herself and she needs someone to hug. Chandler buys Kathy a thoughtful gift for her birthday, but how will it look if all Joey can get for her is an orange or a token for a free hour of “Joey love” ?
Ross pulls the hottest blonde from his workplace but her flat is the biggest mess in the world. She’s also a paeleotologist, but Rachel scoffs… (listen to the clip)
The One where Chandler Crosses the Line
Chandler gets a shock when he walks in the bathroom and sees Kathy naked. Couple this with the revelation that Joey is dating two girls at the same time, so is there a chance that Joey will dump Kathy and make her available to Chandler?
An undiscovered talent is found in Ross as he digs out the Bontempi keyboard from years gone by. It may not be the most musical thing you’ll hear all year but it’s got to be better than Phoebe’s tuneless mutterings.
The One with Chandler in a Box
Monica gets some ice in her eye during the Thanksgiving preparations and has to see her eye doctor, but as Richard Burks (Tom Selleck) is out of town, she’ll have to make an appointment with the on-call doctor, Richard’s son. When they share a passionate kiss, there’s trouble as it reminds Monica of kissing Richard.
Each of the six agree to buy a thanksgiving present for just one of the others, so as to cut down on spending, but no-one wants to buy for Rachel as she just takes everything that’s bought for her back to the store for credit.
Joey is all set to leave the apartment he shares with Chandler, but decides to stick around after Chandler ends up spending the same six hours stuck in a big box that Joey spent in the entertainment centre when they were robbed in episode 2.
Presented in a 4:3 ratio and free of artifacts, the picture looks a bit on the blurry and hazy side thanks to the NTSC-PAL standards conversion. However, if you’re used to watching it on TV, it looks just the same as on here. The average bitrate hovers around 5.5Mb/s per episode.
The sound, presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Surround), comes across as clear as a bell. Obviously, being a TV show free of special FX it isn’t going to be one to test your speakers to the limit, but it’s spot on for what it needs to do.
Extras :
Chapters : Warner can usually be relied upon to supply a wealth of chapters but here they’re severely lacking. In fact there’s basically none, or you could say there’s one per entire episode given the episode selection menu. Quite a shame really.
Languages and Subtitles : All the episodes are in English, as you’d expect, with subtitles in seven languages: English (and hearing impaired), French, Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Finnish and Swedish.
And there’s more… : But it’s the same set of features on each Friends DVD for series four and five. A six-minute featurette Friends Goes To London about the end-of-season 4 finale with chat from all six “Friends”, plus Helen Baxendale, Sarah Ferguson and others. It’s more a PR piece than anything in-depth. Friends on Location in London is more of the same and only lasts two minutes so could have been tagged onto the first bit.
Finally, the Music Video is the now-defunct The Rembrandts‘ who did the theme tune for the show, I’ll Be There For You, which made No.3 in Sept 1995 and was re-released two years later, this time reaching No.11 in May 1997. However, I’ll remember the band best for the excellent, but flopped, 1991 single, That’s Just The Way It Is Baby. The video features all six main members of the cast and lasts a little over three minutes.
Menu : Static and silent with a picture of the six Friends and basic options to play all the episodes from start to finish (well, four at a time), select an episode or the languages, or watch the extras.
Overall, for a series that’s been a runaway success on TV and video, it’s bound to repeat that performance on DVD at a competitive price too, given that many online retailers will sell each disc for £19.99 apiece.
Sometimes the episodes go off the boil a little, but they usually bounce right back and the best lines always seem to come from the three male leads.
As I write I haven’t seen what extras are available on the first three series of Friends on DVD, but I hope there’s more to them than is on here. And of course, there’s still the sixth series to await on DVD.
Now some homework – try to work out how six people can afford to run the places in which they live when hardly any of them have a full-time job.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL Visit the official website at : Friends.com
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.