Friends (TV Series) The One That Could Have Been: Part 1 (2000) User Reviews

The One That Could Have Been: Part 1

[ComedyFan2010 · 8/10 · 18 August 2011]

This is a pretty interesting idea. They are showing us what would have happened if everyone of the friends went a different way during a major life decision

Most of them have the same personality, I only saw a real difference in Phoebe and Monica. And I must say I prefer the real Phoebe while I would always take the fat Monica over the one we got.

I love Ross's story. How he does karate to end his sexual frustrations. And his conversation with Carol where he suggests all the sex things they can do

I also liked the story of Joey and Chandler, and the fact that they did get along at the end.

It was also funny that Monicastill had her "flower" and that Rachel was so into Joey

Seems like people had hard time understanding

[ametallicaman1989 · 9/10 · 21 July 2021]

The start of this is not necessarily going back in time to beginning of when the show started. Thats why Ben is born. It was they never got a divorce not that she wasn't a lesbian. All Ross said was if i never got divorced the first time. Ben would still be there. Its just they're still married.. It was that Monica never lost weight not going back in time to when she was fat. So Rachel and Barry getting married has nothing to do with when Monica wasn't fat anymore. The point is she was still fat.

The One That Could Have Been

[fayezkw-90687 · 9/10 · 2 November 2020]

It's the alternate-universe episode! What would happen if Rachel never left Barry, Ross never got divorced from Carol, Monica was still fat, Joey never was never fired from Days of Our Lives, Chandler quit his job to write comics, and Phoebe took a job at as a stock broker at Merrill Lynch? In this two-part episode, we learn that the gang, for the most part, end up in the exact same place their present-day counterparts: Monica and Chandler find their way back to each other; Ross and Rachel's first marriages both fall apart (presumably so they can find each other, too), the revised opening credits sequence depicting the alt version of the Friends is still pretty amusing. Alison Weinflash

One of the funniest

[donserry · 10/10 · 21 January 2022]

I know during lockdown friends got a lot of younger people watching it (born within the last 20 years). This episode is about if they didn't make the choices that they did. Something in the early 2000's we laughed when watched it (still do to this day). As being an avid friends fan as I remember watching it for the first time it aired on terrestrial tv. This show is about one of the best. It will make you laugh, cry and scream with excitement all at the same time. So the bad reviews in this channel are of ones who were babies or not born yet when friends was massive on tv. If you were already born before 80's/90's you found Seinfeld funny. This was a time before social media was invented and internet in everyone's homes (dial up). So wee ones give it a break. Calm down and talk to people in person, you never know they could be your best friends for life one day. That is what the show is about how friends from different paths become a family. Give it a try 😀

Confused

[terryrobson · 10/10 · 8 November 2019]

When they are reminiscing about Ross and Carol and are discussing "spicing up the marriage" ben comes running in. This is supposed to be when carol and susan first got together, Ben was not yet born

How the Friends would be in other situations?

[Lady_Targaryen · 7/10 · 8 June 2009]

Barry and Mindy are going to divorce. Mindy discovered that Barry had affairs with other person while they were married. Rachel stays happy to know that and starts to imagine how her life would be if she was married to Barry. The entire episode shows how the Friends ' life would be if different things happened:

Ross still is married to Carol, doing Karate and extremely tense without any sex life; Rachel still would be a rich spoiled woman, married to Barry and wanting Joey, since she loves Soap Operas; Joey would be a celebrity, very rich, going out with a lots of women and working in the Soap Opera as one of the main stars; Monica would be a fat, virgin woman, who dates only annoying guys; Phoebe would work with actions and would be stressed,serious and a heavily smoker (eventually having a heart attack); and Chandler would be a poor comedian writer, without any money and asking Joey to help him with his bills.

Mid

[tangeranium · 5/10 · 22 June 2023]

Super mid episode. Interesting concept, but the execution was way off. Phoebe is a chain smoking a**hole who gets a heart attack. Monica is fat again and we have to endure more painfully cringe one-note fat jokes. Chandler seems to have ZERO confidence and his jokes just don't hit at all, it's missing something.

I guess what I'm trying to say is in this alternate universe they're all the worst versions of themselves, and it just makes them so unlikable. And I get it, it's an alternate universe episode it's fun to imagine how they would be if all the events that kicked off the start of the show didn't happen. But not like this. Unfunny, unimaginative, and in my watch of the entire series so far, one of my least favorite episodes.

Discusting

[toranshadow · 1/10 · 23 July 2021]

Discusting episode with full of fatphobia. As it has nothing common with whole story, should be deleted and adandoned pernamently.

A nice idea that doesn't hold up to two parts.

[studioAT · 3/10 · 18 November 2019]

Not since its 3rd series had the show really done an episode that pushed itself out from the normal form, and there are some interesting 'what if's?' here.

Some work better than others though. I didn't find Phoebe's at all funny, perhaps they were a bit stuck as to what to do with her.

We do get a bit of a prelude to what it would be like if Joey was successful (as he would later be in the spin-off) and if Matthew Perry played a writer (which he would do in the film 'Numb' and in 'Studio 60').

Other than that though this is a one joke idea stretched across two parts.

Boring

[samui-986-870453 · 5/10 · 27 June 2020]

Kinda lame episode, not funny and it just didn't work

Questions I have.

[mgersten63 · 3/10 · 10 August 2020]

1. Why would Monica be fat? She wasn't fat when Rachel and Barry got married.

The One That Could Have Been

[vivianla · 21 December 2020]

The gang wonders what it would be like if they had made different choices back then. Would they still be all friends?

What if Joey continued to be on television as Dr. Drake Ramoray? Ross's wife did not realize her sexuality? Rachel got married to Barry? Monica stayed fat? Phoebe became a stock broker? Chandler quit his job?

Ross says him and his wife have been on a dry spell for 2 months. He tries to tell his wife about their sex life when his son comes in. He uses Phoebe's advice and gives examples of spicing up their sex life.

Phoebe smokes and has a heart attack from all the stress over the numbers.

Rachel is attracted to Joey who is famous and has sex with lots of women. Monica is a 30-year-old virgin.

Chandler is Joey's personal assistant. He gets a story in for Archie Comics, where Archie needs money for his jalopy and becomes Reggie's assistant to pay for it.

Lame and full of plot holes

[NatashaJAmos2015 · 3/10 · 2 August 2020]

Season six is so boring and this two parter didn't make it any better.

I'm so confused ! If Ross was still with Carol then Ben wouldn't have even been born yet and Carol would have met Susan.

I hate Phoebe in later seasons most of the times and I hate her in these episodes.