Over the course of 10 seasons, the hit NBC sitcom FRIENDS has offered its audience with few of the most beloved episodes of all time, featuring the stellar cast and their lives set in New York. But while the pop culture show has garnered an overall score of 8.9/10 on IMDb, one particular episode seemed to single-handedly bring down the rating of the entire series.
Yes, we’re talking about Season 4 Episode 21, The One With the Invitation. Apparently, while the episode was set to focus on Ross and Emily’s wedding plan while highlighting Ross’ incomplete love story with Rachel, it ended up becoming a flashback of Ross and Rachel’s relationship. And those old clips from “we were on a break” were indeed too much to take, for repetition.
After a glorious run over almost a decade, FRIENDS became one of the most appreciated sitcoms transcending generations and boundaries. With an overall IMDb score of 8.9/10, the episodes in the show managed to stay between a stable score of 8 to 9 out of 10. But there seems to be only one episode that dropped to the level of 6.9/10 on the online database. It’s Season 4, Episode 21, The One With the Invitation that’s been considered the worst episode of FRIENDS with the lowest rating throughout its 10-season run. Well, the drop in rating was caused by the showrunners’ decision to replay old clips of Ross and Rachel’s relationship. Considering how the duo’s love story was already quite taxing, the decision to replay that ended up being a grave mistake.
While the episode started with Ross (David Schwimmer) and Emily (Helen Baxendale) planning their upcoming wedding, and discussing whether Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) should be put on the guest list, it ended up becoming a long-drawn visual trip down memory lane. Initially beginning with Ross reminiscing about the ups and downs, the episode later showed a fair share of Rachel’s memory about her relationship with Schwimmer’s character.
Therefore, this technique of recycling past moments from Ross and Rachel’s love story turned The One With the Invitation into one of the most hated episodes in the series. Although FRIENDS had previously recycled clips of funny and memorable moments from the series, this particular episode bringing back bickering fights between Ross and Rachel seemingly ruined people’s interest and attention in the show.
The One With the Invitation Ruined the Scope for Jennifer Aniston’s Love Story
Considering how it was a flashback episode for Ross and Rachel’s relationship, it could have focused on the emotional bits from Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer’s onscreen romance. Instead, the showrunners’ decision to focus majorly on the worst parts of their relationship like the infamous “we were on a break” ended up causing a fall in rating. Although the flashbacks were majorly meant to show the downside of their relationship—given that Ross and Rachel were both trying to overcome their love for each other—the episode seemingly overdid it to a point where fans grew frustrated with watching the same old meaningless fights between the duo. So it seems that while S4E21 had ample scope of evoking nostalgia, it ended up rekindling people’s irritation over Ross and Rachel’s on-and-off relationship.
