harsh realities about Friends do include some outdated jokes and unhealthy behavior in the main relationships.

The plot of Friends is dominated by the on-again-off-again romance between David Schwimmer's Ross and Jennifer Aniston's Rachel, with the surprise love story between Matthew Perry's Chandler and Courtney Cox's Monica entering the scene later and providing a refreshing change of pace. The relationships reflect the main themes of the show, of life being messy and the group sticking together through it all, even when certain couples are broken up. However, the lowest-rated episode of the groundbreaking series points out how this started to become a disadvantage with the main example.

"The One With The Invitation" Is The Lowest-Rated Episode Of Friends

Rachel Deciding To Reject An Invitation (Why Didn't Ross Just Talk To Her In Person?)

Friends occasionally delivered a montage episode, consisting of a series of flashbacks related to one anchor point in the story, as the friends reflected on the progression of a relationship or a career. These episodes were never the most clever or the most popular, as they are inherently unoriginal, utilizing old footage to avoid having to write something original. However, they can have a kind of charm by taking old jokes out of context and presenting them in sequence. Yet the one that looks back on the first few seasons of Ross and Rachel is the worst.

Season 4, Episode 21, "The One with the Invitation," is the lowest-rated episode of Friends on IMDb. The cast looking back on Ross and Rachel’s relationship up until that point has less humor to it when we also have to relive the most petty and painful moments before the get together and after their breakup. In the present day, as Ross and Emily (Helen Baxendale) prepare for their wedding, Rachel spends an entire episode staring at the invitation before rejecting it. It all serves to highlight how overly dramatic the storyline had become.

"The One With The Invitation" Summarized How Messy Ross & Rachel's Story Had Become

Showing All Of Ross & Rachel's Worst Moments (With Some Still In The Future) At Once Was A Bad Idea

An episode of "Ross and Rachel's biggest hits" was really a bad idea when it was a recipe to show, back to back, all the times that their egos ruined the relationship. It also just generally shows the messiness and immaturity of it all. They both seem to live under the assumption that at some point they will be "on again," suggesting that they are committed to each other, but neither is enough of an adult to work through these issues or make a clean break and move on. And this was before they got married in Vegas and accidentally got pregnant.

Friends Dragging Ross & Rachel's Story Out Made The Later Seasons Hard To Watch

Ross & Rachel Probably Should Have Gotten Over It Two Seasons Earlier

By the time we got to the last two or three seasons of Friends, Ross and Rachel were unbearably old. Again, it seems as though both are aware of the importance of the other in their life, but neither takes that step to resolve the matter once and for all until they have to because the show is ending. Emma's birth seems like it should have been the push for them to get back together, but the story drags it out for the sake of more drama. The ill-advised relationship between Rachel and Joey (Matt LeBlanc) is just another wrinkle along the road.

Meanwhile, Ross' manipulation of Rachel's career and the sudden reappearance of Mark (Steven Eckholdt) show that most of the things that broke them up never went away. The show, at this point, was essentially replaying the old track over and over, hoping that audiences would continue to enjoy the storyline they had before. However, with this repetition, the flaws of the story itself become more obvious, especially concerning Ross' jealousy and controlling actions. Friends thrived despite all this, but it is a good thing that this show ended when it did.

Source: IMDb