13. Series 2 Episode 21: The Paradigms of Human Memory
Written by Chris McKenna
FRIENDS Title The One thats a Flashback Show Quote of the Week
Troy - Didn't we decide, at the beginning of the year that, for the good of the group, we wouldn't allow any intimacy between each other or ourselves?
Jeff - Troy, we never said 'ourselves'.
Troy - Okay, now I'm really mad. Why this Episode is so Good This one's another episode that plays around with a well known televisual trope. The flashback episode, yeah an old favorite especially of the FRIENDS writing team who wrote one in when they wanted a week off. This episode takes on the view of the viewer and shows them that they are definitely not alone in disliking the lazy cop-out move. The writers make use of the show's surreal set-up showing the audience events from the characters' past that never happened on screen (maybe never at all). They inject a lot of humor into the episode through playing around with the concept of a flashback too, one instance shows them going into flashbacks through flashbacks through flashbacks (making a surreptitious nod to Inception no doubt). Over all the episode is one huge, well considered joke, definitely worth watching.