If you're honest with yourself, you've always thought that Phoebe is the worst Friends character: she gets the worst storylines (aside from Mike and David), she's not really funny at all, and she's the most out of place in the group. But what is worse is Lisa Kudrow's performance as her. Whenever Phoebe is given a good, funny storyline throughout the first six or so seasons - and that includes the whole Monica/Chandler secret affair - Kudrow spends most of her time failing badly to hide the fact that she's laughing along at her own performance, which most of the time nobody other than the canned audience were enjoying with as much mirth. It all fits in with the suggestion by fired writer Alex Bernstein that Kudrow - and indeed Jennifer Aniston - really weren't very nice people, and that they'd continually approach writers with their own ideas, which were "idiotic". There's a sort of horribly distracting self-awareness to her performance that derails the authenticity of it. She's the only one who seems to be playing a character, rather than living it, and though she got considerably better as the show progressed, it's hard not to focus on all of the off-putting quirks and tics that threaten to pull you out of the show in the early seasons. These are the reasons you should hate Friends, but you don't, and there's a very good chance you never will. It is an institution that thrives despite every ruinous revelation, and which will continue to attract rumours of a reunion show or film until the actors are too old for anyone to be really interested in them any more. And frankly, that's bloody admirable.
