Episode 6 - TOW The Male Nanny
25 March 2012
Synopsis: Friends 200th episode gets a full 30 minutes. Rachel and Ross hire a male nanny (Freddie Prince Jr) who makes Ross uncomfortable. Phoebe and Mike exchange keys only for David to appear for a few days. At Monica’s new job she meets the funniest guy she’s ever met and it makes Chandler insecure.
The Good: The added time really helps flesh each of these stories out. The Ross nanny plot has surprising depth to it. It is one of those interesting dilemmas where someone’s feeling about gender roles causes conflict. Despite playing the scene out for laughs the confrontation between Ross and Sandy is really well done and manages to add depth to Ross’ character, making him seem more sympathetic. Freddie Prince Jr does a decent job in his role and both Rachel and Joey play off him well. The Phoebe story works out well but mainly because David (Hank Azaria) is so good. He is a relic from when Friends wrote genuinely funny supporting characters and here he manages to show how important Phoebe’s relationship with Mike has become. Even the Chandler and Monica plot throws up some nice moments as the friends try to convince Chandler that he is funny.
The Bad: However the Chandler plot is based on a misconception by the writers. In the real world Chandler is thought of as the funny one, the joke maker. This plot is written on the assumption that the Chandler in the show bases his self-esteem on the fact that people find him funny. That is not entirely true as he spends the first three seasons establishing that he uses his humour as a defence mechanism. In other words he makes jokes to keep people at a distance, not to make them like him. Obviously as time goes on it becomes clear that being funny is part of who Chandler is but he is funny by reacting to others with sarcasm. Here when he wants to prove to Monica he is funny he starts telling Jerry Seinfeld type stand-up jokes. However that has never been what his humour is about. It is typical of the writers of the show that they miss these details. The plot is not that bad though. Neither are the others but I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t comment on Joey being reduced to childlike status again and Phoebe and Mike having no chemistry together. Still this is a much better episode than many of its contemporaries.
Best Line: (Ro) “Rachel and I hired a male nanny.”
(J) “Really? Guys do that? That’s weird.”
(Ro) “Thank you!”
(J) “Yeah it’s like a woman wanting to be a...”
(Ro) “A what, what, what’s the end of that sentence?”
(M) “Yes, what is the end of that sentence?”
(J) “Um…a penis model.”
Best Friend: Ross
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