The Top Moments Friends May Have Jumped The Shark
Friends is a cultural icon, but even its most ardent fans can agree that along with all of the great moments, the show has also had some duds. The term “jump the shark” comes from a “Happy Days” episode where Fonzie water skis over a shark, which many fans and critics feel was a big moment of decline in the show’s quality – a sign of desperation to maintain viewer interest. Jumping the shark is what happens when a show sacrifices quality, believability, and story for an attention-grabbing moment. There’s no definitive fan consensus on when (or even if) Friends truly ever pulled that stunt, but here are a few of the biggest contenders for storylines that were arguably potential “jump the shark” moments for Friends:
Joey and Rachel’s Romance: Joey and Rachel hooking up is often cited as one of the worst decisions the show made, and definitely qualifies as a possible “jumping the shark” situation. This plot, which started to develop in Season 8 and continued into Season 10, was controversial among fans, with many feeling it was forced and out of character for both Joey and Rachel. The pair had been great platonic friends for the show’s entire run, and given that they had no romantic chemistry, the pairing felt inauthentic to many. In the beginning, the characters themselves can’t even really believe it’s happening and the pairing never really had the romantic chemistry that other pairings on the show did. It felt to many viewers that the writers had just run out of ideas after eight seasons and were throwing anything at the wall and hoping it stuck. The coupling also threw a wrench into the friend group’s dynamic, which was the real heart of the show. Thankfully, eventually everyone realized that this pairing just wasn’t meant to be.
Ross Gets Divorced Three Times: Ross always had romantic problems, but the fact that he managed to get married and divorced three times in the span of time that it took most characters to just find one person to marry strained believability for some fans. His third divorce is thus sometimes pointed to as a “jumping the shark” moment by fans. Ross’s infamous line during his wedding to Emily - “I ross - Take Thee Emily - Take thee Rachel” signified a comical but forced plot twist that felt unrealistic and pushed the character into a caricature of repeated failed marriages. Then after Ross drunkenly marries Rachel and puts off getting an annulment, the repetitive lament of “three divorces” in subsequent episodes became a running joke that, for some viewers, undermined the character’s potential for emotional growth.
The Ross- Mona Pairing: Ross’s relationship with Mona in Season 8 often felt shoehorned in and at times hard to believe as a real pairing. It often felt so clear that the writers were just using Mona as yet another obstacle for Ross and Rachel. Mona is introduced at Monica and Chandler’s wedding, and Ross quickly becomes involved with her. However, their relationship is riddled with contrivances that seem designed to add unnecessary drama, to the point that Ross even fails to inform Mona that he’s having a baby with his ex-girlfriend, Rachel. Ross also goes to comedic extremes to keep Mona from finding out that he and Rachel are living together, turning their relationship into a series of farcical situations rather than a meaningful plotline.
Chandler and Monica Shift The Show: This is definitely one of the more contentious “jumping the shark” moment options because so many of us actually love this pairing. And Monica and Chandler do work well together as a couple – their idiosyncrasies complement each other, and their friends-to-lovers arc truly feels genuine. So then… how could it be a “jump the shark” moment? It seems the problem some people have isn’t with Monica and Chandler as a couple, but with the fact that they worked so well together that their pairing signaled the show changing from one about friends to one about couples. Prior to Monica and Chandler becoming an item, the show was one focused on the group’s friend dynamics (with the occasional exception of Ross and Rachel trying to make their relationship work every few episodes.) Once Monica and Chandler were together, it was also clear that the show had decided that Ross and Rachel were end game, so that left only two of the six not destined to be with someone else from the group. For most viewers, this isn’t a sign of desperation or lack of quality in the way a “jumping the shark” moment is, just a signal of change coming to the show.
That Love Triangle: Charlie, a sophisticated paleontologist, is introduced in season nine. She initially seems like she’s going to be a great match for Ross, but he fumbles after learning that she’s previously dated two Nobel Prize winners. Joey instead swoops in and then goes on to date Charlie for four episodes, leading to an awkward love triangle. Joey and Charlie eventually realize they don’t actually have anything in common, and she leaves him for Ross. While this love triangle did lead to one of Ross’ last hilarious meltdowns, overall, the arc just felt convoluted and poorly thought out. Letting Ross have a normal relationship with someone who actually shares his interests could have been an interesting change of pace for the show, but again she just seems to be there as a plot contrivance instead of as an actual character with a story and purpose.
“We were on a break!”: Rachel and Ross’ on again-off again relationship is one of the central threads of Friends, but some fans felt that their ‘on a break vs broken up’ drama, which started in season 3, dragged on a little too long. The initial incident kind of just felt like a ploy by the writers to keep their end-game couple from being ‘together forever’ too soon into the show’s run – with Rachel and Ross deciding to take a break from their relationship and Ross immediately running out and sleeping with someone else, only to be surprised that Rachel was unhappy about it. “We were on a break!” even becomes a running gag on the show – which would have been funnier if Ross and Rachel didn’t continue to have the same repetitive relationship problems over and over until the very end. Looking back, some fans see this incident as a “jumping the shark” moment, if not for the show, at least for Rachel and Ross’ possibility of having a genuine relationship.
Joey Getting Flanderized: As we’ve discussed, Flanderization is when a once mostly normal character is oversimplified over time to the point that things that were once just quirks become their entire personality. Over the course of the show, Joey somehow goes from a himbo that’s not terribly bright but certainly able to function as an adult to…“Un, Deux, Trois, Quatre, Cinq” “Enh blue blah floo flak.” In earlier seasons, his simple-mindedness, womanizing tendencies, and love for food were facets of a more well-rounded character. However, as the series wore on, these traits became his defining features. Joey’s other traits were sanded away until he seemed to be completely unable to grow or mature in any meaningful way. Arguably, the increasing exaggeration of Joey’s goofier character traits, particularly his supposed stupidity, were a signal of the show’s larger shift in quality for the worse.
Everyone Else Gets Flanderized: While Joey’s Flanderization is notable, he certainly isn’t the only character whose complexities got sanded away for the sake of some easy jokes – in fact, it pretty much happened to everyone. Take Ross, for example. Early seasons portrayed Ross as a somewhat neurotic but compassionate paleontologist dealing with heartbreak. However, as the series progressed, his character became increasingly desperate and cartoonish. This led to plenty of comedic moments but it also made Ross feel like a real person. In the later seasons, it sometimes felt like the writers were more interested in putting the characters in situations that would allow them to make callbacks to the better, earlier seasons instead of just creating new interesting narratives for them. Over time, these exaggerated character traits and the frequent use of catchphrases came at the expense of relatable and believable situations, contributing to the feeling that the series had begun to “jump the shark.”
The Verdict Is In…
So can any of these really be classed as the “jumping the shark” moment on Friends? While there’s definitely a general consensus that the quality of the show started to falter in the later seasons, there’s definitely no one single event that sparked it. The truth is that despite the show’s less inspired or well-thought-out plotlines, Friends still managed to deliver standout episodes and water cooler events until the very end.
Ron Howard, who got his start starring on Happy Days but you might know best as a director or the narrator on Arrested Development, has opened up about the behind-the-scenes issues during the creation of the “jumping the shark” episode. But he has also pointed out the important fact that while the episode is remembered as a dud, it definitely wasn’t the end of the show’s success.
Likewise, Friends remained a huge success, with its final episode in 2004 drawing in a whopping 52.5 million viewers – clearly, regardless of any bad story choices or weird narrative contrivances, audiences remained engaged with the show until the very end. And even if the later seasons weren’t as great as the earlier ones, they definitely still had bright moments. Rachel navigating motherhood and her career in season 10 gave her character some great moments of growth. Phoebe working hard to carve out the family life she’s always wanted is a heartwarming plotline for a character who had gone through so many struggles in life. These more engaging, deeply felt storylines remind us that even as “Friends” evolved and experimented with different plotlines, the show retained its ability to create meaningful, humorous, and touching moments until the end.
Sources
Di Leo, Savannah. “Friends: How It Changed From Season 1 To 10 (For Better Or Worse)” Screenrant, 24 Sep 2020, https://screenrant.com/friends-changed-season-one-ten-better-worse/#:~:text=At%20the%20same%20time%20that,later%20episodes%20are%20infamous%20for.
Mason, Courtney. “Friends: Why Joey Is So Much Dumber In Later Seasons” Screenrant, 25 Jun 2022 https://screenrant.com/friends-show-seasons-joey-tribbiani-dumb-reason/#:~:text=The%20reason%20for%20this%20devolution,rest%20of%20the%20first%20season.
Dodds, Emma. “Friends boss reveals how Ross and Rachel were REALLY supposed to end up” heatworld, 28 Sep 2018 https://heatworld.com/entertainment/tv-movies/friends-ross-rachel-break/
Pelley, Rich. “Friends without benefits: how Joey and Rachel’s fling killed off the sitcom” The Guardian, 22 Apr 2019 https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/apr/22/friends-without-benefits-how-joey-and-rachel-fling-killed-off-the-sitcom