Ross was bad to sleep with another woman, but Rachel needs to stop toying with him.

Rachel is a horrible bitch.

Rachel was clearly in the wrong on that one, IMO.

A break's a break, and Ross wasn't wrong about Mark.

I still love Rachel as a character though, and kinda think Jen Aniston's performance is underrated.

She "did the most w/ the least" insofar as her character type didn't automatically lend itself to comedy.

But they were on a break
Rachek took that one too wrong

The odd thing is the other characters are legit so nice and all R&R do is bitch and whine about each other.

You're in a weird place in the series. Ross and Rachel are very on, off throughout the entire series, but their relationship becomes much less bitter and more intimate as the show goes on.

Neither were wrong, in my opinion, which is why the "we were on a break" line works so well. Rachel is pissed because he seemingly dropped his adoration for her so quickly, and Ross is pissed because they agreed to take a break and Rachel still wanted to control him. I like both characters. Rachel is not a bad person. Ross isn't either. I tend to side with Ross because I'm a male, but that's really all it is.

This is correct. They wrote their breakup in such a way that you could see it from both of their sides.

Whatever, all the drama is worth it for when they get back together for one episode in "The One with the Jellyfish." 18 PAGES...FRONT *AND* BACK!

Haha, yeah, that is a great line "FRONT AND BACK!". Also one of my favourite lines is when Ross storms out of the flat and says something like "Don't worry about my trouble in getting to sleep, I still have YOUR LETTERRRR!". Cracks me up every time. I've seen each episode so many times. Never gets old.

I'm on the same side as Libs/Algren.

Same. I didn't hate either of them and thought the show did a good job of presenting both sides of the scenario.

I've started re-watching this show again, such classic gold, it hasn't aged in 20-25 years and it's still great.

On S04E02 now.




That was such a strong start to the 4th Season, great episode, great show, there's just no two ways about it.

I watched the show last fall after not seeing it in years. I have no idea how anyone wanted these two characters together. The Ross character would never fly on a show now. He is a manipulative and misogynistic douche bag. He really didn't deserve Rachel. Hate him so much.

I haven't seen the whole series, but the case against Ross is significant

Ross is fine, Rachel did just as many bad things and doesn’t get the same hate because everyone is biased in favor of women when it comes to TV/movie relationships.

What makes Ross worse than any of the Friends?



How so, exactly? You make it sound like he and Dennis from Always Sunny would be best buds

Ross is way shittier than Rachel. Rachel was just a spoiled brat.

Ross is just bitter.

Here are some good examples of Ross being awful: https://www.eightieskids.com/ross-is-the-worst

He pissed me off many times, but lying to her about them being married was terrible. I was also pissed at him for not telling her the guy from the bar called. Then there's all of his hang-ups about masculinity. Nobody on the show came off as sleazy and gross as Ross.

He’s a total hypocrite
He’s got serious hang-ups around masculinity
He takes those hang-ups out on his son
He lies to the people he loves…
…Even in situations where that’s a serious violation
He’s hugely manipulative
He’s ungrateful
He takes pranks way too far
He’s inappropriate
He’s ultra jealous – despite having it all
He’s super needy
He always thinks he’s right, even though he isn’t
He makes everything about him
He’s super childish
He’s cruel
He has a superiority complex
He doesn’t seem to understand – or sometimes even like – Rachel
He’s a martyr
He’s not a great parent
He’s controlling

That's the list over at that link and c'mon--this is weak. First, just about all those things apply to the other Friends, too. Needy? Ungrateful? Inappropriate? Hypocrite? Liar? Childish? Jealous? Hang-ups about masculinity? I could have just been describing Chandler. Many of these are also purely an opinion or base something from one episode that other characters participated in equally as somehow a flaw unique to Ross alone.



Joey often lied about every aspect of his life to many women (up to and including a fake name) to trick them into sleeping with him before he'd disappear forever. According to the changing views of the last few years that's no so fun and innocent anymore, but closer to a sex crime. So, Ross' petty character faults surpass being a sexual predator?

I'm not going to go Friend by Friend, or anything, but if someone did the same kind of article for each the other five they'd all look awful. They're characters from a sitcom 20 years ago so I guarantee they all did things many would find objectionable. Have you guys watched The Office, lately? Dwight's an especially horrible person viewed from 2020 with his problematic views on women/minorities/just about everything.



I'm just not sure what makes Ross so awful, even moreso after reading that ridiculous clickbait list. If Ross dating Elizabeth is such a massive character blow, what about Phoebe's slow brother marrying his teacher and starting a family fresh out of high school? The show (and the characters themselves) approved of that pairing to the point Phoebe helped them procreate. Why is Ross dating a 20 year old (which Joey, in particular, thoroughly endorsed) for a little while such a big knock against him, again?

Anyway, I'm not trying to tell you you're wrong for not liking him--I just think presenting Ross as the Friend Too Edgy For TV!! is limp and baseless. They're all in the same boat.

I do think you could have articles against any of them. But when watching it he's the one who comes off worse. At least he did for me. I think he does some of the worst things of any of the characters. I've never liked David Schwimmer because of this character. But it's only recently on re-watch that I realized how problematic his character is. It's understandable that it was a different time but it's certainly harder to watch now. Monica is my favorite character but she had at least 2-3 homophobic remarks that bugged me.

I don't think the show disapproved of Ross dating Elizabeth either. I also don't think that's a big deal personally. I don't think that makes him a bad person. But some take that more seriously. And I'm sure those people also had a big issue with Phoebe's brother and his teacher being together.

The show is full of sexist and homophobic humor. It’s not just Ross.

And? Lmao

And you only come out of hibernation to make fun and have fun

I always found the the whole "break" extremely forced and out of character for Ross. He absurd jealously was an unnecessary add to the series for the sake of TV Drama that was unnecessary. It's not like any of their significant others until the end were any better and we got extremely awful Joey/Rachel romance.

I wish they stuck with Ross and Emily. She was actually quite a lot of fun until they made her insane after the wedding, and Monica/Chandler became a thing because of it, and is the much better relationship on the show.