Entertainment

The biggest mistake in Friends that we only notice now

By Wieke Veenboer | #!31Tue, 30 May 2023 16:30:27 +0200+02:002731#31Tue, 30 May 2023 16:30:27 +0200+02:00-4Europe\/Amsterdam3131Europe\/Amsterdam202331 30pm31pm-31Tue, 30 May 2023 16:30:27 +0200+02:004Europe\/Amsterdam3131Europe\/Amsterdam2023312023Tue, 30 May 2023 16:30:27 +0200304305pmTuesday=9#!31Tue, 30 May 2023 16:30:27 +0200+02:00Europe\/Amsterdam5#05-30-2023#!31Tue, 30 May 2023 16:30:27 +0200+02:002731#\/31Tue, 30 May 2023 16:30:27 +0200+02:00-4Europe\/Amsterdam3131Europe\/Amsterdam202331#!31Tue, 30 May 2023 16:30:27 +0200+02:00Europe\/Amsterdam5#

Apparently, you can watch a whole season countless times and still discover new things each time. At least, that's the case with Friends. It's definitely a series I can keep watching, whether I'm paying attention or it's in the background: Friends is always good. Of course, in 2023 we know that not every storyline is still okay (actually quite a few storylines aren't), but I think many people also forget that Friends has been off the air for over twenty years. Yeah, that makes you feel a bit old, huh? And secretly, they were quite progressive for that time: Monica was, for example, the first person to say ‘on her period’ on national TV. That was a big deal back then.

But anyway, after all these years, we still watch Friends en masse and I'm one of them. And now, after watching it for the four hundredth time, I've noticed something. A so-called plot hole, and now that I know this, I can't imagine how I missed it before. I'm very curious if you already knew this or if you're going to be just as surprised as I am.

We need to talk about Paolo, Rachel's ex-boyfriend. Ross was incredibly jealous back then because he was, of course, head over heels in love with Rachel, and since Paolo and Rachel couldn't really communicate, it was mostly physical. Paolo was Italian and couldn't speak English, so conversations were tricky.

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It would have been handy if there was someone in Rachel's friend group who was Italian and could translate. Uh, what? Joey is, of course, Italian. Now, he's not the smartest, but we know he can speak Italian because when his grandma came over who didn't speak English (a bit like Paolo, you could say), Joey was constantly translating what she said to the rest.

So what's going on here? Did Joey just suddenly choose not to speak Italian anymore, or did he find it funny that Paolo couldn't talk to anyone and decided to play dumb? Or... Did the writers just forget this when they came up with the storyline for Joey's grandma? I guess the latter.