Episode 15 - TOW The Mugging
20 January 2009
Synopsis: Chandler becomes an advertising intern, Joey has an audition with a famous actor (Jeff Goldblum) and Ross learns that Phoebe used to mug people. The Good: It is shocking that in the midst of how poor Friends had become that they could produce an episode this good. While not near the very best episodes, this does shine amongst its contemporaries because of the logic of storytelling and some good jokes. Although the Ross and Phoebe and Chandler plots aren’t that funny they are both good character stories. It makes sense that Phoebe did bad things to survive and it is nice to see Chandler doing well now that he has found a career more to his liking. Then there is the Joey story. Not often in the later seasons did the show get so much out of a guest star as they get here with Jeff Goldblum. The Joey plot is so simple but Goldblum is perfect in the roll of the fine actor who thinks Joey’s need-a-pee acting is good. It is rare and difficult to make the last line of an episode the comedic high point that ends the story perfectly but here it is superb. The Bad: In the first two seasons Phoebe came across as a very gentle, moral woman. I suppose you can overlook that for the purpose of assuming she had to be a mugger to survive. The writers still resort to the characters mocking each other pathetically to get laughs. Best Line: (P) “Please forgive me, I don’t know what to say.”
(Ro) “There’s nothing you can say, that was the most humiliating thing that ever happened to me.”
(Ph) “Even more humiliating than...”
(Ro) “Let’s not do this!” Best Friend: Joey
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