Friends: 25 Greatest Episodes

by James Hunt

1. The One With The Embryos (S4E12)

Friends The One With Embryos
NBC

The Episode

Phoebe has the embryos implanted. A game between the rest of the guys and girls escalates into a quiz - created and hosted by Ross - for the apartment.

Why It's Great

This is about as flawlessly entertaining as Friends gets. There is nothing bad about this episode, just pure comedy genius from everyone involved.

Every single character gets at least one brilliant moment: Ross is wonderfully idiosyncratic as the host; Monica's competitiveness is on full display; Rachel's panicked "transpondster"; MISS Chanandler Bong, and so on. It's eminently quotable, inspired its own board game, and the quiz itself is endlessly gripping to watch. It shows off all of the friends' talents, as individuals and more importantly a collective, and reveals a wealth of humorous information about them.

It's so much fun when it's just the friends together - as Matt LeBlanc put it, "you just get right to to the funny" - but crucially it has that moment of blissful happiness too, as Phoebe discovers she's pregnant (the first of the gang to do so). In short, in 22 minutes it encapsulates everything that makes the series so great.

Agree with this list? Which Friends episode do you think is the greatest? Let us know down in the comments.

Advertisement
Contributor
Contributor

NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far. A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.