Friends: The Complete Second Season

Enter--and, in the bittersweet season finale, exit--Tom Selleck as Dr. Richard Burke, the family friend ("He's like a brother to... Dad," notes a disapproving Ross) who becomes Monica's (Courtney Cox) lover. Joey (Matt LeBlanc) finds success (albeit short-lived) as Dr. Drake Ramoray on "Days of Our Lives" and moves out ("We're not Bert and Ernie," he tells roommate Chandler). Future Emmy winner Lisa Kudrow's best season is to come, but, as Phoebe, she makes the most of some memorable subplots, including her shocked discovery of sad movie endings she had been shielded from ("The One Where Old Yeller Dies"), her dispute with Ross over evolution ("The One Where Heckles Dies"), and her channeling of an elderly woman who died on her massage table ("The One with the Lesbian Wedding"). Praise is due unsung hero Lauren Tom, so charming and sweet in the thankless role as Julie, the Girl Who Comes Between Ross and Rachel. Adam Goldberg also makes an indelible impression in his three-episode stint as Chandler's new "psycho" roommate. Notable omissions from this set include chapter stops for each episode, and uh, ahem, hel-LOH, how about commentary from the cast? --Donald Liebenson

Season 1 great but not really funny 8/10
Season 2 very good a lot fun 9/10
Season 3 very good but some episodes are bad 7/10
Season 4 good with a great deal of funny moments 9/10
Season 5 the first half is funny 8/10
Season 6 very funny and emotional 9/10
Season 7 diffrent funny still great 9/10
Season 8 truly amazing 10/10
Season 9 episode 1-8 and some are very good 8/10
Season 10 just plain boring a dead end THE END... 1/10

The sad part is that the ending of the series is truly awful.


...and that my friend is what they call CLOSURE   May 30, 2004
People can say whatever they want about Friends, but it will always be one of the best sitcoms and this will always be one of the best seasons. Most of the big storylines in this season are about ross and rachel, of course, but this was before the storyline got dragged out into a big dramatic soap opera. The prom video episode alone gives the season 5 Stars in my book [esp. pheeb's lobster comparison!]. But the other characters are still hilarious; Monica's relationship with her father's friend brings laughs, Joey's Days of our Lives stint, meeting Phoebe's husband and learning about the Old Yeller incident, and Chandler being Chandler. GREAT!