Friends: Complete Season 7 - New Edition [DVD] [1995]

The first episode of this season "TOW Monica's Thunder" is a very funny and well-written episode focussing very well on the characters and interactions and is a very classic episode. However some of the "Friends" do not seem to be trying as hard to be their character, but people who are trying to play as their character, this happens a lot in the first part of the Season, mainly with Chandler. Ross is not as well written any more and doesn't really feature in any storyline.

The worst of these episodes are in the first half, and the quality of the writing and characterisation improves possibly on the seventh episode of this season, "The One With Ross's Library Book". Sometimes this season focusses almost too much on Monica and Chandler and not enougho n the other characters. The delivery of the actor's lines aren't as good and give you moments of thinking "Uh... anyway" when the joke is delivered badly.

The best episodes of this season are:
"The One Where they're Up All Night"- this episode is very funny and different from any other Friends episode.
"The One With the Truth About London" is very well written and the characters all seem to be in form. It's good to see a story refering to something that happened in the past.
"The One With Ross and Monica's Cousin" is excellent and brings back some of the more classic humour style from season 5 and 6.
"The One With Chandler's Dad" is probably the second best written episode, and the season seems to have improved a lot by this episode (the 2nd last one"
"The One With Chandler and Monica's Cousin" is the best episode this season, first of all it's one hour long. Secondly the humour and jokes are impeccably and well delivered by all the characters who act very well, and the story is very good. Obviously they spent longer riting and filming this episode than the others, but it's a shame that a season with such a good end started off so poorly.

Thankfully, for these few excellent episodes the season is given four starts, and when you think of the other seasons, it doesn't quite compare. Seasons 8 and 9 are a much bigger improvement to this season and the Friends are much more on form, especially in season 8 which probably features one of the best Friends episodes "The One With the Rumour".

Take my advice, as someone who has enough sense of humour to love this enoguh to buy all seasons, but buy the other seasons first before yyou buy this one, and you'll see what I mean.

A list of the best seasons (best to worst)

Season 5 (10/10)
Season 2 (10/10)
Season 3 (10/10)
Season 8 (9/10)
Season 4 (9/10)
Season 6 (9/10)
Season 9 (8/10)
Season 1 (8/10)
Season 10 (7/10)
Season 7 (6/10)

So why is season 7 so under par? Well, for starters it contains two of the worst Friends episodes ever written. The first being "The One With The Holiday Armadillo", which borders on the ridiculous. The sight of Ross in an Armadillo costume for the best part of an episode is not very funny, and Joey's appearance at the end in a Superman outfit just seems stupidly random. Moreover, Monica has absolutely no purpose in this episode and her inclusion just feels pointless. The other main downer of this series is "The One With All The Cheesecakes", which centres around Chandler and Rachel stuffing their faces with a cheesecake they find in the apartment building. It's unentertaining, and recycles old jokes, such as the fact that two of the Friends bunch have been to a restaurant without paying. Also disappointing are the episodes with Chandler's transfestite mother, yet another joke that has been dragged out far too much. One can't help but think in this case, the writers were running out of ideas.

However, for all the bad episodes, there are a least the same amount of very funny ones. Take for example "The One With Monica's Thunder", which bears some parallels with the classic "The One When No-One's Ready" (Series 3), with some classic one-liners from Ross and Monica, while at the same time the episode re-opening some old storylines. Also, "The One With Joey's Award" contains some memorable moments, such as Joey's undignified response to missing out on a "Soapie" award, and a very funny stab at the poor quality of American TV soaps.

All in all, Series 7 is a bit of letdown. To warrant its purchase, you should either be a hardcore fan of the TV show, or particularly fond of particular episodes from this season. In conclusion, very average, and a bit disappointing.