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Lifetime Total
1,000+
Lifetime Name
50+
Lifetime Filmo
500+
Lifetime Plot
10+
Lifetime Bio
10+
Lifetime Trivia
50+
Lifetime Title
25+
Lifetime Image
75+
IMDb Member
20 years
Reviews
Joey (2004)
Joey should never have been made
Defining myself through the lens of Friends (a favorite pastime of my generation), I'm a Chandler man. A lot of guys in the 18-35 demographic feel the same way: we like to think of ourselves as the funny, witty, awkward, and sweet one in our little tribes.
I don't know anybody who identifies with Joey Tribbiani, the good-looking dope with a bottomless stomach, heart of gold, and Chamberlain-style notched belt. Yeah, we all like pizza, and we're not always that bright, but we just don't get laid that much.
To fall in love with a character, you've got to see at least some of yourself in him, and up to this point, we just haven't been cool enough to love Joey.
With Joey, NBC hoped, once again, to catch lightning in a bottle. In order for "Must See TV" to compete with 2004's Thursday competition (led by Fox's The OC, smelling blood and moving in from Wednesdays), the network needs Joey to follow in Frasier's post-Cheers footsteps.
That's a tall order for anyone, but Joey/LeBlanc didn't even stand out on Friends. Even in the last two seasons, when writers amped up his role by including him in the Ross and Rachel plot line, Joey wasn't a focal point, there was Ross and Rachel, then there was Chandler and Monica, then Phoebe and Mike (Paul Rudd, upon whom I conferred the "Seventh Friend" status that Tom Selleck and Michael Rappaport never achieved).
When the focus shifted back again to the two central couples, Phoebe all but disappeared whenever she wasn't playing Oracle for someone's love life. And Joey remained ancillary, peppering scripts with "How you doin'?"s and gags about his not sharing food.
No one ever truly liked a Joey-Episode, and I could honestly have seen the Series being more successfully, and more enjoyable without him. He near ruined the work the others were doing, becoming Characters we cared about, and willed to succeed across 10 Seasons.
Joey was the least likely Character to spurn his own Series, Monica & Chandler and in the Suburbs with their Babies, Ross & Rachel in the City with theirs, Phoebe in any situation, but not Joey.
Weak points in the show are the supporting Cast; none of whom have any comic timing at all, shamed by the memory of Aniston. Now, it could be because they are young, or maybe because the writers are concentrating on writing jokes for LeBlanc, so they are just not writing funny jokes for the supporting cast at all.
It was a hopeless battle from the inception, Joey isn't a strong enough, or interesting enough Character to Lead his own Show. He was the weakest Character on Friends, and that's been made blatant, despite the money and attention thrown into the mix.
Not nearly enough thought or effort has been put into the Setting, the Family or the Friends. With the Show's Ratings now dropping, it really is only a matter of time before NBC is forced to make the decision to pull a Series it never should have aired. It's a real shame, and I hope it doesn't tarnish the memory of the Series Joey was derived from.
I don't know anybody who identifies with Joey Tribbiani, the good-looking dope with a bottomless stomach, heart of gold, and Chamberlain-style notched belt. Yeah, we all like pizza, and we're not always that bright, but we just don't get laid that much.
To fall in love with a character, you've got to see at least some of yourself in him, and up to this point, we just haven't been cool enough to love Joey.
With Joey, NBC hoped, once again, to catch lightning in a bottle. In order for "Must See TV" to compete with 2004's Thursday competition (led by Fox's The OC, smelling blood and moving in from Wednesdays), the network needs Joey to follow in Frasier's post-Cheers footsteps.
That's a tall order for anyone, but Joey/LeBlanc didn't even stand out on Friends. Even in the last two seasons, when writers amped up his role by including him in the Ross and Rachel plot line, Joey wasn't a focal point, there was Ross and Rachel, then there was Chandler and Monica, then Phoebe and Mike (Paul Rudd, upon whom I conferred the "Seventh Friend" status that Tom Selleck and Michael Rappaport never achieved).
When the focus shifted back again to the two central couples, Phoebe all but disappeared whenever she wasn't playing Oracle for someone's love life. And Joey remained ancillary, peppering scripts with "How you doin'?"s and gags about his not sharing food.
No one ever truly liked a Joey-Episode, and I could honestly have seen the Series being more successfully, and more enjoyable without him. He near ruined the work the others were doing, becoming Characters we cared about, and willed to succeed across 10 Seasons.
Joey was the least likely Character to spurn his own Series, Monica & Chandler and in the Suburbs with their Babies, Ross & Rachel in the City with theirs, Phoebe in any situation, but not Joey.
Weak points in the show are the supporting Cast; none of whom have any comic timing at all, shamed by the memory of Aniston. Now, it could be because they are young, or maybe because the writers are concentrating on writing jokes for LeBlanc, so they are just not writing funny jokes for the supporting cast at all.
It was a hopeless battle from the inception, Joey isn't a strong enough, or interesting enough Character to Lead his own Show. He was the weakest Character on Friends, and that's been made blatant, despite the money and attention thrown into the mix.
Not nearly enough thought or effort has been put into the Setting, the Family or the Friends. With the Show's Ratings now dropping, it really is only a matter of time before NBC is forced to make the decision to pull a Series it never should have aired. It's a real shame, and I hope it doesn't tarnish the memory of the Series Joey was derived from.
Birds of a Feather (1989)
A sensationally hilarious series!!!
Words don't do 'Birds Of A Feather' justice...
It was, and still is, one of the BBC's most successfully series for a reason...
This series; originally started in 1989 and ran for nearly 10 years, saw wealthy housewife Tracey's seemingly legit husband Daryl sentenced to 12 years in prison for armed robbery along with her brother-in-law Chris...
Tracey's council-estate sister Sharon Theodopolopoudos, (she married a Greek) moves into Tracey's million pound Chigwell home, seemingly to keep her sister company through the transition.Nothing to do with getting away from her Edmonton Tower Block of course.
Birds Of A Feather is a sharply written, superbly acted, laugh-out-loud comedy, telling the story of these sisters' daily struggle to make-ends-meet and still be able to afford a night out on the razz.
Life however is never dull in Chigwell, especially not with the addition of their nosy, snobby, sex-mad man-eater neighbour Dorien Green.
Dorien constantly riles the girls' working-class background, never missing an opportunity to make an affectionate dig at their 'C&A' clothes and cockney accents.Even though these course prisoners wives are the best friends she's ever had.
Over the course of the series' run, we see these characters not only become household names, but the actors, Pauline Quirke, Lesley Joseph and Linda Robson become stronger in their performances and abilities than you would ever have believed possible, leading them on to such remarkable performances as the terrifying 'The Sculptress' in which Pauline Quirke plays multiple serial killer Olive Martin.
This series is truly in a league of its own.Words don't do it justice and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
You'll laugh with them, and cry with them.With Shal, Trace and Dor; you'll enjoy the ride.
It was, and still is, one of the BBC's most successfully series for a reason...
This series; originally started in 1989 and ran for nearly 10 years, saw wealthy housewife Tracey's seemingly legit husband Daryl sentenced to 12 years in prison for armed robbery along with her brother-in-law Chris...
Tracey's council-estate sister Sharon Theodopolopoudos, (she married a Greek) moves into Tracey's million pound Chigwell home, seemingly to keep her sister company through the transition.Nothing to do with getting away from her Edmonton Tower Block of course.
Birds Of A Feather is a sharply written, superbly acted, laugh-out-loud comedy, telling the story of these sisters' daily struggle to make-ends-meet and still be able to afford a night out on the razz.
Life however is never dull in Chigwell, especially not with the addition of their nosy, snobby, sex-mad man-eater neighbour Dorien Green.
Dorien constantly riles the girls' working-class background, never missing an opportunity to make an affectionate dig at their 'C&A' clothes and cockney accents.Even though these course prisoners wives are the best friends she's ever had.
Over the course of the series' run, we see these characters not only become household names, but the actors, Pauline Quirke, Lesley Joseph and Linda Robson become stronger in their performances and abilities than you would ever have believed possible, leading them on to such remarkable performances as the terrifying 'The Sculptress' in which Pauline Quirke plays multiple serial killer Olive Martin.
This series is truly in a league of its own.Words don't do it justice and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
You'll laugh with them, and cry with them.With Shal, Trace and Dor; you'll enjoy the ride.