I say Rachel and to a lesser extent Ross. Almost all the other characters changed drastically.
shareJoey. He was basically the same guy throughout. Which is not a bad thing necessarily.
shareIn order, I'd say...
Phoebe - season one, she's a bit spacey, kooky, and quirky, and very much a weird hippy. Season ten, she's a bit spacey, kooky, and quirky, and more or less a weird hippy, but she got married.
Rachel & Chandler - interestingly, I think both do a lot of maturing over the series. Rachel goes from somebody who has no life skills to a career woman. Chandler is a commitment-phobic manchild who turns into a loving husband/father. While their personalities stay similar, they grow and change as people.
Joey - a charming ladies' man with a bit of an edge, sporting leather jackets and a love-'em-and-leave-'em mentality turns into a lovable teddy bear with rented brain cells.
Monica - she was always Type-A, but at first she was neurotic and quirky; by the end of the show she is borderline obsessive-compulsive and a crazy neat-freak.
Ross - people dislike Ross, I think, because of his later seasons and the changes made to his character. In the first few seasons, he's probably the most mature of the bunch, and by the end he's the least mature. Season one Ross has wit and is a bit of a hapless romantic. Season ten Ross is a petty dork.
Ace_Spade, if this forum had a "Like" button, I'd have just clicked that. I think you've nailed it -- though I haven't seen the entire series all that recently, and am just at the end of season 1 on this rewatch, so I reserve the right to change my mind.
One point of disagreement, though -- I like Ross for who he was in the first few seasons, and hated it when they ruined him over a sandwich.
Season 5 when he had his breakdown was Schwimmers idea he thought the character was boring and wanted to be funnier. I agree actually i hate early Ross i prefer the later unhinged version
shareInteresting. I think most people dislike Ross generally, but specifically in the later seasons. I don't mind him either way, I guess, although I prefer him a bit more "grown-up" in the early seasons.
Now, with that said, if having a more even-keel Ross would mean that we'd all lose "PIVOT!" then I will take Red Ross any day.
Thank you for saying so.
Yes, you're right, it wasn't just a few episodes. I was trying to say that his start and end were radically dissimilar; I should have maybe made mention that he was reasonable for a few seasons.
I didn't mind the plot of him getting overly stressed and freaking out by itself, but it would've been nice if they had treated it as a plot about the kinds of pressures Ross was under, not as a, "Oh, Ross is just crazy," change of direction.
I'm thinking about an early (1st season?) plot where Monica is short on cash and Ross just loans her the money - "Pay it back whenever," kind of thing - and how it's just a lovely moment between a brother and a sister. The later seasons wouldn't have had that. It would've been some petty thing where Ross was obsessing over it and Monica was obsessing right back. Why? Why not let them be adults?
Yeah i disliked Ross as well generally throughout but i still think once he had his split in S5 he slowly became the funniest one in the show.
Friends for me had a Simpsons moment in S5 where after Chandler and Monica got together while that was funny and was a good storyline for that series long term i think it affected Chandler and he lost a lot of his charm for me.
Chandler was the most endearing early on, Ross was a bit wet and joey was funny but one note. The show peaked around 3/4 and Chandler was at his absolute best in 4.
Six onwards was when it started to get a bit silly and characters would do things just to fit the episode kind of like Homer in Simpsons. But one of the saving factors was Ross i thought, he kind of turned into a David Brent and things like him trying it on with his cousin was some of the best moments.
He did still have a lot of cringy crappy episodes like the Unagi stuff but by then the writing was lazy and they just needed to wrap it all up.
But one of the saving factors was Ross i thought, he kind of turned into a David Brent and things like him trying it on with his cousin was some of the best moments.