10 Terrible Friends Storylines That Should Have Been Cut

2. The Pros And Cons List

Joey And Rachel Friends
NBC

Back in season two, when Rachel and Ross first get together, the showrunners go and throw a major spanner in the works with the pros and cons list.

In the episode, 'The One With The List', Ross is torn between choosing Rachel and his current girlfriend Julie. He knows in his heart its Rachel, but rather than just going ahead with starting a relationship with her, he's convinced by Chandler and Joey to write a pros and cons list of both females (mainly for their own amusement).

Rachel finds out though, and it's pretty upsetting to see her become objectified by Ross (and rightly so). What should have been a happy love story becomes the first example of Ross coming across as a manipulative narcissist and the whole thing seems out of place with what should have happened. This was what fans had been waiting for for two seasons, but the execution becomes an unforgivable car crash.

To make things worse, the whole thing turns out to be a tease just to prolong the 'will they, won't they' question for longer. The pair end up getting together episodes later after they watch Rachel's prom video - one of the most touching moments on the show.

Couldn't they have just gone with that in the first place?

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Jamie is a freelance broadcast journalist and writer, with a particular obsession for sci-fi, theatre and politics. In his spare time he enjoys amateur dramatics and making homemade curries.