The Middle Series (Friends - Complete Series 5 (DVD))

Member Name: Whizz11

Product:	Friends - Complete Series 5 (DVD)
Date:	02/11/09 (63 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Monica and Chandler

Disadvantages: None

We have now reached the half way point in the Friends story with Season 5 and this is where the characters and their storylines have become very established and we feel like we really know them and that they are our actual friends. We feel their pain, laugh at their character stereotypes which we know so well and cry at their misfortunes.

This DVD box set was released in 2004 and amazingly you can now buy it from Amazon for a very low £5.98, probably because it is over 5 years old and because the re-runs are on the television all the time that people really no longer need to buy the DVD but I think it's nice to have the full set so you can watch your favourite episodes whenever you want to.
Just to recap the friends in question are:

Monica - she's a chef and works in a restaurant. She is extremely tidy and likes everything in her apartment to be just so and god help you if you make a mess in there. She's very controlling but also very loyal. Brother is Ross.

Ross - he is a palaeontologist (a dinosaur man) which he gets take the mickey out of quite a lot. He also has no luck with women. His first wife turns out to be a lesbian who is raising her son with her partner Susan. Ross goes on to have a few more divorces in the series but eventually ends up with his true love.

Rachel - a spoilt little rich girl who lives of her daddy until she moves in with Monica and decides to live by her own means. She gets a job working in the coffee house that they frequent (Central Perk) and eventually ends up working in fashion. She's very loveable but still keeps some of her spoilt tendencies.

Chandler - Chandler lives in the apartment across the hall from Monica and Rachel. He has a job that no one really understands what he does apart from inputting numbers into a computer. He is the funny one and is known for his jokes.


Joey - Joey lives with Chandler and is a stud. He has amazing luck with women because of his charm and due to the fact that he is an actor on a soap opera. He is a love them and leave them kind of guy though and a bit dim so not someone that is really ever going to settle down.

Phoebe - Phoebe is the ditzy one who has had a lot of trouble in her past, mother killed herself, father left, she lived on the streets. She is very kooky and weird but in a funny way. She plays guitar at the Central Perk and has some very weird and wonderful songs and also works as a masseuse too.

Series 5 like the other series' do, starts where we left off with Season 4. I like how Friends do this. They set you up with a big cliffhanger from the season before and then keep you hanging until the new season starts. I think this makes you want to watch the next episodes ever more and keeps you excited about what is going to happen. Ross has just said Rachel's name instead of Emily (his financee.), gosh, shock, horror and Emily runs off. Ross returns to New York, not before letting Rachel go on his honeymoon to Greece alone and then the rest of the season sees Ross trying to repair his shaky marriage with not much success.

Monica and Chandler for me are the funniest characters in this season. They have just started their relationship and are trying to keep it from all of their friends. Anyone who has ever done this knows how hard that is and some of the lengths they go to to conceal their relationship are really funny. What's ever funny is when certain people start to find out but have to keep it a secret from others and it becomes a case of no one being able to talk to anyone else without the fear of revealing the secret.

My favourite episodes are:
The One in Vegas Part One and
The One in Vegas Part Two

We all know what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas and when all the friends are there it lends itself to a very funny time. Joey though his big break was about to happen but he ends up working in one of the casinos. The others follow him there and cue lots of drunken nights with perhaps a visit to a wedding chapel for two certain friends.

The Box Set consists of 3 DVD's which run for 506 minutes.

Summary: Friends - Season 5