Like any other TV show, Friends had its highs and lows, and not every episode was well received – and the worst rated episode is one full of flashbacks of Ross and Rachel’s relationship. Created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, Friends made its debut on NBC in 1994, and came to an end in 2004 after ten successful seasons. After all these years, Friends continues to be quite popular, and its fan base has grown thanks to its time at Netflix.
Friends focused on a group of young adults living in New York City and doing their best to juggle all aspects of their lives while also dealing with everything adulthood threw their way. Though the series explored the lives of Phoebe, Monica, Rachel, Joey, Chandler, and Ross beyond their friendship, one of its main focuses was the relationship between Rachel and Ross, which was the driving force of the show for a long time. However, that doesn’t mean that every episode about their on/off relationship was well received by fans.
Ross and Rachel’s relationship was teased from the very beginning, with the pilot episode establishing that there were feelings between them and a romantic relationship was possible in the near future. Of course, the pair went through many ups and downs and they saw other people before ending up together (for good this time), and viewers weren’t really into reminiscing their relationship.
Friends: Why “The One With The Invitation” Is The Worst Episode
Season 4 of Friends saw Ross getting ready for his wedding with Emily, the niece of Rachel’s boss. The Ross and Emily relationship was not the best, but they moved forward with the wedding anyway. In episode 21, “The One With The Invitation”, Ross and Emily mailed out their wedding invitations, and Emily was surprised to learn Rachel was invited, causing Ross to reminisce his relationship with Rachel – and when she got the invitation and had to make a decision about whether to go or not, she reminisced about it too. This episode was the series’ first clip show, and fans weren’t into it.
“The One With The Invitation” is the worst rated Friends episode, as it didn’t offer anything new to the series except Rachel choosing not to attend Ross’ wedding – which she ended up doing anyway a couple of episodes later. The episode is full of flashbacks to Ross and Rachel’s relationship from the first seasons, which turned out to be quite boring for some. Friends could have moved forward with the story without this particular episode, which might also be a reason why it’s not among fans’ favorites. Of course, this wasn’t the first and only clip show Friends had, and while others weren’t well received either (“The One With The Vows” ranks as second worst rated), none of them got as much criticism as the Ross and Rachel clip show.