I recently read online that twelve episodes of my favourite ’90s sitcom ‘Friends’ have been picked to be shown on the big screen in cinemas all over the US.
These fan-favourites have been selected to be screened over three nights and include some cracking episodes such as ‘The One With The Blackout’ and ‘The One With The Prom Video’. It sounds like a cool event for those lucky enough to live close to the cinemas. I’m like 98 per cent happy, maybe 2 per cent jealous. And what’s 2 per cent? That’s nothing.
Anyway, I thought as a ‘Friends’ fan who doesn’t live in the US and won’t be able to go to any screenings I’d make my own list of the twelve episodes I’d pick to be shown in cinemas. I mean, I could just watch them at home for the millionth time, but where’s the fun in that?!
1. The One With The Jellyfish
Although Ross and Rachel are really the stars of this episode with the break-up scene providing so many quotable lines, let’s not forget the iconic recounting of the jellyfish story by Monica, Joey and Chandler.
2. The One With Chandler In A Box
Monica absolutely slays everyone in this episode when they judge her for dating Richard’s son (which is kinda weird, I have to admit). But still, she’s brutal and I love it.
3. The One With Ross’s Wedding
Okay, there are three big reasons that this is one of my favourite episodes.
1) It’s in London, baby!
2) The guest stars are awesome. Jennifer Saunders, Fergie, Richard Branson…
3) It’s a huge milestone in the Ross and Rachel story, not to mention it’s the start of Chandler and Monica!
4. The One Where Everybody Finds Out
They don’t know we know they know we know.. it gets confusing, right? I also love watching Phoebe and Chandler essentially play nervous with each other like a couple of school kids at a house party.
5. The One With The Ride Along
I’m sorry, but between Joey risking his life to save his sandwich and Ross being over-dramatic enough to think that a car backfiring is a near-death experience, this episode is an absolute classic in my eyes.
6. The One Where Ross Got High
What’s not to like about this episode?! Custard? Good. Jam? Good. Beef? Good!
7. The One That Could Have Been
I love these flashback-style episodes, and this one in particular because it gives us a totally different narrative for the characters we’ve become so familiar with by season six. Monica’s a 30 year old virgin, Phoebe’s a high-pressure business woman and Rachel’s fan-girling over Joey Tribbiani.
8. The One With Monica’s Thunder
I’ve always identified with Monica, but perhaps never more so than in this episode when she calls off her entire engagement party because she thinks Rachel is stealing her thunder by kissing Ross. I don’t blame her, my petty ass would be mad too!
9. The One With The Videotape
The Europe story is genius, but probably best not to use it on the best friend of the guy who invented it…
10. The One With The Rumour
There are some very, very special guest stars that appear in many episodes of ‘Friends’, going right back to the first season. However, I think Jennifer Aniston’s then-husband Brad Pitt playing Will, Monica’s formerly fat friend and member of the I Hate Rachel Greene Club, has got to be my all time favourite.
11. The One Where The Stripper Cries
I don’t know what I love about this episode more, Danny Devito performing his stripper routine to ‘You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)’ or Monica, Chandler and Ross revealing their most embarrassing secrets about each other.
12. The Last One
Okay, okay, I know this might seem like a bit of a cop-out, but the last ‘Friends’ episode really is one of my favourites! I remember we were out the night that the final episode originally aired on TV so my mum videotaped it (yes, I am that old..) and I watched the VHS of that one episode over and over as a kid, years before I got the DVD boxset and definitely before it was all on Netflix! I knew all the lines from this one before any other episode, so it will always have a place in my heart.
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