[from TV Guide, 11/01]

By Matt Roush

The same week that Ross and Rachel went to the videotape to settle who came on to whom the night she got pregnant — one of many pricelessly funny moments in a splendidly enjoyable season of Friends — I had the weird experience of watching this same couple five seasons ago (in a syndicated repeat from 1997) split up after taking a fateful break from each other.

It was powerful material then, and the aftershocks still resonate. Such is our history with these friends. We care so much because we know them so well.

Always best as a sparkling romantic comedy, Friends is funnier, sharper, sweeter and more satisfying than at any time since the early stages of Monica (Courteney Cox Arquette) and Chandler's (Matthew Perry) once-secret courtship.

Unquestionably, the revelation that Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) is pregnant by Ross (David Schwimmer) — an unexpected twist in a rocky relationship Ross recently described as "one heck of a see-saw" — has brought renewed comic vigor and heart to a show that a year ago was looking awfully worn out.

Of course, when a long-running series brings a baby on board, it's difficult to know if it will be seen as a blessed event or as the beginning of the end. In the case of Friends, maybe it's a little of both.

Clearly the show is enjoying a creative rebirth. The emotional enormity of the storyline has allowed Schwimmer to drop many of Ross's irritating dweeb mannerisms and relocate the wounded-puppy romantic at his character's core. The incomparable Aniston, also liberated by this life-changing situation, is delivering the season's finest comedy performance.

There have been many memorable moments: Joey (Matt LeBlanc) goofily yet honorably proposing to Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) when he thought she was pregnant, then repeating the gesture to Rachel; Ross's slack-jawed response to Rachel's news; and the wonderful scene in which Rachel and Ross viewed her first sonogram, a tender moment made hilarious by her inability to see her baby on the screen.

The only element of Friends that's less than first-rate these days is the dynamic between newlyweds Monica and Chandler. She has become annoyingly brittle and shrill, and Chandler is acting more scared than smitten.

If marriage is a hurdle for this show's silly yet adorable characters, imagine how quickly the grind of parenthood could kill the good mood — which leaves me hoping the season and the show will conclude in May with the baby's birth, letting the show go out on a triumphant high. Even one's best friends know when to leave the party.