Friends: The Complete Second Season

Stunt casting stumbles (Jean-Claude Van Damme, Charlie Sheen) aside, it was a very good year for TV's equivalent of comfort food, which recently won its first Emmy for best comedy. With the bar set so high from the first season, a sophomore slump could be expected, but only "The One After the Super Bowl" raised the question whether success would spoil Friends (this was the episode that convinced some misguided NBC executive that guest star Brooke Shields could carry her own series!). The Ross (David Schwimmer) and Rachel (Emmy-winner Jennifer Aniston) relationship was the narrative engine that drove the season and produced some of the series' best episodes, including "The One with Ross' New Girlfriend," "The One Where Ross Finds Out" (with R & R's first kiss), "The One with the List," "The One with the Prom Video," and "The One Where Ross and Rachel...You Know." But this was not the only significant story arc. Enter--and, in the bittersweet season finale, exit--Tom Selleck as Dr. Richard Burke, the family friend ("He's like a brother to... Dad," notes a disapproving Ross) who becomes Monica's (Courteney Cox Arquette) lover. Joey (Matt LeBlanc) finds success (albeit short-lived) as Dr. Drake Ramoray on "Days of Our Lives" and moves out ("We're not Bert and Ernie," he tells roommate Chandler). Emmy-winner Lisa Kudrow's best season is to come, but, as Phoebe, she makes the most of some memorable subplots, including her shocked discovery of sad movie endings she had been shielded from ("The One Where Old Yeller Dies"), her dispute with Ross over evolution ("The One Where Heckles Dies"), and her channeling of an elderly woman who died on her massage table ("The One with the Lesbian Wedding"). While this boxed set includes producer commentaries on two episodes, as well as the uncut version of "Smelly Cat," the most notable omission (again) is uh, ahem, HEL-LO, commentary from the cast. Still, highly recommended. (K. Lee Benson)