The One with Phoebe's Dad

Not the best episode "Friends" ever produced but more than watchable.

Plot In A Paragraph: it's Christmas and Ross is desperate for Rachel to forgive him, without much success, so he tells her to make a cons list about him, hoping it will make her feel a bit better about the list he made about her. Meanwhile Pheobe decides she wants to meet her birth father and Joey and Chandler go with her. Elsewhere Monica an Rachel's birthday party turns into a sauna when the heating breaks.

All the cast do an OK job, but this episode was more about keeping things moving a long, Rachel is still mad at Ross who is keen to make amends and prove her wrong, and the Phoebe storyline deals with her accepting she has been told lies all her life about who her father really was. It has its moments, but it's not one of the seasons best.

So, the past 3 episodes have been mostly centered on Ross and Rachel's relationship. This one starts out with the gang at Rachel and Monica's place, which includes Ross and Rachel talking to each other freely with out any unhappy emotion. The next scene takes place at the coffee shop and as soon as Ross walks in Rachel turns sour and refuses to talk to him. But weren't they just talking to each other the scene before and she wasn't mad at all but now at the first sight she hates him. I can't help but wonder if there was a writing error or maybe an editing problem. Then the whole episode centers on Ross and Rachel and turns the title of the episode into a subplot. Pheobe isn't my favorite character in the show (probably my least favorite), but I was really interested in her story. But her story felt... sidelined, by the Ross and Rachel flip-flop story line. These past 2 episodes have felt the same because of the same annoying plot line. So, I give this episode a C+, based on the fact that I liked Pheobe's story-line, but the uninteresting, cliché main plot is getting old (trust me, I know the whole series is full of it). Thanks for reading!

Such a beautiful episode! I love this show and can't expect anything less from their holiday specials, so warm, cozy & Christmas-y, definitely a 10/10!

I shouldn't be too critical of friends. It's not as bad as party of five