MovieChat Forums > Friends (1994) Discussion > Annoying little mistakes in the show.

Annoying little mistakes in the show.

posted 8 years ago by RussianBeauty
29 replies | jump to latest

Anyone else sometimes get annoyed by little mistakes in the show. Sometimes ones that make it clear that the writers didn't research facts very well.

One that comes to my mind is when David and his scientist friend are planning to go to Minsk. The friend snobbily tells her that Minsk is in Russia, which Phoebe replies that she knows where Minsk is.

Minsk is in Belarus not Russia. They could be forgiven for mistaking it for Russia when it was still the USSR. However Belarus declared independence in 1991. A good 3 years before friends started.

Anyone else notice little things like this that annoyed them?

[–] tigerlily_86 8 years ago

The inconsistency of birthdays and ages bugs me, because it just seems like such an easy thing to establish right at the beginning of the series when you're first developing the characters.

[–] PaulWard27 8 years ago

I agree with you, but it doesn't really bother me that much because it doesn't really have that much impact.

[–] tigerlily_86 8 years ago

It doesn't bother me enough to take away from the enjoyment of the show, but it's a "little mistake" that's kind of annoying, as per the title of the thread ;)

[–] JDoe18 8 years ago

All shows do this though. Friends isnt any different. Usually the inconsistencies just very with the first few seasons when they are establishing things. It does get annoying when they forget things from the first season.

[–] blakgard 8 years ago

Your example does, because I'm a Russophile, so I'm a bit persnickety about these things... like nitpicking Trek trivia.

But it's only a comedy, not a documentary. To the general (ignorant) US public, a Belarus is probably some type of bell.

[–] RussianBeauty 8 years ago

True I would have loved it for Phoebe to hit back and say. "Actually it's in Belarus.."

Love and Peace <3

[–] MissOlenska 8 years ago

And funnily enough, some of Lisa Kudrow's ancestry is Belarusian!

[–] RussianBeauty 8 years ago

Really? That's interesting I didn't know that. :-P

[–] pramudyasa 8 years ago

What annoys me? Two words: Rachel's birthday

Self-proclaimed Elite Beat Agent.

[–] louiseculmer 8 years ago

the one i've always found irritating is where they suddenly decided to have a flashback with Monica being attrqcted to Chandler when she was still fat,and him being attracted to rachel, despite the fact that it is made clear in the first episode that rachel has never met Chandler before.

[–] tigerlily_86 8 years ago

Carrying on with your idea that the writers don't research facts very well, I find it funny that one of the biggest lines about Ross and Rachel, "he's her lobster", is based on the "fact" that lobsters fall in love and mate for life ... but lobsters don't actually do that.

[–] RussianBeauty 8 years ago

Really? I didn't know that. Yeah that was bad research considering Phoebe made such a fuss about the lobster idea.

Love and Peace <3

[–] ppllkk 8 years ago

RussianBeauty wrote:

Yeah that was bad research considering Phoebe made such a fuss about the lobster idea.

But it was Phoebe who said it. I thought it was in line with her character to say something ludicrously wrong. I never took her seriously, although I did eventually look it up.Lobsters are serial monogamists. The female has to shed her shell to reproduce and she shacks up with the male until she regrows her shell. Perhaps that is the origin of the term "lobster shack." (At least in the eastern part of the United States, small establishments that serve lobsters are sometimes called "lobster shacks.") I know it's not really funny, but I couldn't resist.Lobsters, of course, are boiled alive before being eaten. Perhaps Phoebe was thinking of something like that.

[–] xMartyMcFlyx 8 years ago

You know what bugs me? When they're all supposedly watching tv but then we switch to a different camera angle and can see that the tv isn't even on. I think the one where Ursela did porn is a good example, they show the group watching the tv then switch to Joey sitting at the table refusing to watch the video. If you look behind him you can see the tv isn't on. It's really fast but if you pay attention you will catch it.

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Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads.

[–] iluvpalmtrees 8 years ago

The birthday thing really annoys me as well, especially since there was an entire episode dedicated to when all of them turned 30. I know that it's not like they say when everyone's b-day's are, but I thought Ross said something about his b-day being in Spring or something but in the first few seasons it was in Oct.

[–] PaulWard27 8 years ago

I think I already said it when the thread first got posted, while the birthday inconsistency is frustrating, it doesn't really impact the plots or storytelling.

Hence why I am more bothered by the inconsistencies surrounding the history of the characters interactions. Mostly Chandler and Rachel, as we all know by now the pilot heavily implies this was the first meeting. Yet flashback episodes show them meeting at a Thanksgiving dinner years before the pilot and later they actually make out at a party. The only real disclaimers/explanations could be they were drunk at the party and forgot or they were both so shallow and self absorbed they forgot who each other were by the time the pilot came around.

Back to the birthday thing though, while it doesn't really bother me much for the reasons stated, I do feel it would have been fairly simple for the creators and writers to have a character profile that had a date of birth for each of the 6 lead characters, for reference purposes. I suppose they may have deliberately kept dates a bit vague so they could drop an event/party/thing into a storyline at any given time to suit the writing.

[–] MarblesLove 8 years ago

Mine have already been mentioned. For me it's mostly the inconsistency with their birthdays/ages and with Rachel and Chandler's first meeting.

Once upon a time there was a magical place where it never rained. The end.

[–] Jerique 8 years ago

Yeah, the ages, particularly Ross being 29 years old for three seasons straight.

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"But my job's fun too - I mean, tomorrow I don't have to wear a tie." - Chandler

[–] PaulWard27 8 years ago

Ages don't really make a difference to the stories or the humour, so I don't really get too bogged down by the mistakes.

As I said already though, it seems to me like something that could easily be avoided, surely someone would have created profiles with dates of birth so that ages and birthdays would always remain consistent.

[–] MarblesLove 8 years ago

I think that's mostly why it bugs me though. It would have been so easy to just decide on birthdays for all of them and then just stick with it. It's not that hard. I do agree that generally it doesn't affect the humor though.

Once upon a time there was a magical place where it never rained. The end.

[–] myszowatek 8 years ago

To me it was always two things.

First one in TOW Ross's Inappropriate Song...

Chandler: Yeah, oh, but I just keep picturing you rolling around with him
with your cowboy boots in the air...

Monica: Cowboy boots? I've never worn cowboy boots in my whole life!

When clearly in Flashback when girls visiting boys in college Monika is wearing proper cowboy boots.

Second it's about one date. It's just bugging me so much like no other inconsistencies in this show...Rachel became pregnant in May (right before M&Ch's wedding...15.05) Pregnancy lasts 9 months so she should give a birth around February. Yet right before labour she is in summer cloths and stating that is 100 degrees outside. As far as I know winter in NYC could be quite cold and frosty. There you go, I got this of my chest now:) Cheers

"I have a major announcement to make" **Victoria Chase**

[–] PaulWard27 8 years ago

You can't assume the wedding was in May though, because the wedding episodes spanned over the finale of one season and the start of the next. By the same token, Rachel gave birth at the end of one season and was still in the hospital at the start of the next.

So just because the episodes aired months apart, it is obvious from the timeframes in the stories that time doesn't match reality so it seems fruitless trying to make sense of it.

[–] Redhawkof2008 8 years ago

You can't assume the wedding was in May though

FWIW, Monica says that the wedding is May 15th in TOW the Cheap Wedding Dress.

Maybe that bloody dagger will lead us to the murder weapon.

[–] ppllkk 8 years ago

myszowatek wrote:

Pregnancy lasts 9 months so she should give a birth around February.

Ah, but you see that whereas the normal human gestation period is around nine months, in this sitcom it is one season, and I believe they are consistent about that.That makes a certain amount of sense to me.You cannot tell a priori how much time there is between episodes, including the last episode of one season and the first episode of the next season.We do know that the calendar advances one year with each new season because all of the series have a Thanksgiving episode, and all except the last have a Christmas or New Years episode.

[–] Petals121 8 years ago

No Rachel's pregnancy is still messed up. She gets pregnant right before Monica marries (she got married in may) and yet there was this episode where Rachel is past her due date and it's apparently very warm outside. That doesn't make any sense. If she got pregnant is e.g. March her due date should have been in December. Not exactly heatwave month.

"I will not be strong armed by threats against my laundry"

[–] Moonlighty 8 years ago

Yeah the pregnancy timeline is messed up. Yes, they wanted to do a wedding and pregnancy as the season finales. They also wanted to be airing episodes around real times (like holidays). But does this REALLY bother anyone? Yeah the end of one season is Monder's wedding and the beginning of another it's still the wedding and it's not a 3 month wedding but shows don't typically air through summer, so hopefully we as an audience can cut some slack for practicality.

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Consider the daffodil. And while you're doing that I'll be over here looking through your stuff.

[–] Wildstyle26 8 years ago

Couldn't it have been Indian Summer? Or would that not happen in their area?

I don't know much about it. Only heard it mentioned a couple of times.
__________
If you're gonna pretend to cut her hair, at least put some scissors in your hand!

[–] Painbow 8 years ago

It was always suspiciously sunny in the Friends version of New York (almost as if it were filmed somewhere very hot).