Friends-Series 6-Volume 3-Episodes 17-24 (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	DVD-ROM Extras-Web Links
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	188:54 (Case: 176)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Sided	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Gary Halvorson Ben Weiss Kevin S. Bright Michael Lembeck
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Jennifer Aniston Courtney Cox-Arquette Lisa Kudrow Matt LeBlanc Matthew Perry David Schwimmer Bruce Willis
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$29.95	Music	Michael Skloff

    Friends is an American sitcom revolving around the lives of 6 close mates. It centres on the quirky habits of each character and is primarily filmed within the confines of their three apartments. Please see Michael's earlier review of Friends Series 1 - Volume 1 if you would like to read some background information on the main characters of the show.

The episodes present on Side A of the disc are;

The One With Unagi (20:55) - Chandler and Monica decide to give each other home-made anniversary gifts. He presents Monica with a gift that was made by Janet. Meanwhile, Joey hires a look-a-like fellow actor to pose as his identical twin so that he can participate in a medical experiment and get $2,000 cash.

The One Where Ross Dates A Student (20:55) - Ross begins playing around with one of his attractive students. After a fire partially burns their apartment, Rachel asks for Joey's help to prove to Phoebe that it was not started by her curling iron.

The One With Joey's Fridge (20:40) - When Rachel needs a date for a fashionable charity event, Monica and Phoebe compete to see who can find the most eligible escort for her. Ross obsesses over his new girlfriend's plans to spend spring break with her college buddies on a Florida beach and Joey tries to con the Friends into buying him a new fridge.

The One With Mac and Cheese (21:02) - Joey is very excited when he finds out that he is short-listed to star in a TV series as a detective who solves crime with the help of his robot partner. Chandler forgets to write down a message about the new audition time and Joey might lose the part as a result. This sparks off many memorable flashbacks.

The episodes present on Side B of the disc are;

The One Where Ross Meets Elisabeth's Dad (21:09) - Ross dreads meeting Paul (Bruce Willis), the disapproving father of his college girlfriend so he asks the gang along to "talk him up". Elsewhere, Joey's enthusiasm about his TV role proves disastrous.

The One Where Paul's The Man (21:05) - Despite Paul's threats of having Ross fired for dating his student daughter, Ross and Elizabeth secretly head off to her family's log cabin. Unfortunately, Paul and Rachel have the same idea which makes for some funny and tense moments. Chandler freaks when he finds out that Monica has booked a museum for the wedding.

The One With The Ring (21:09) - After finally deciding that he wants to spend the rest of his life with Monica, Chandler asks Phoebe to help him choose a ring. Elsewhere, Rachel regrets having delved deep into Paul's past, prompting him to gush with tortured memories.

The One That Could Have Been (21:01 & 20:58) Special double-length finale - The big event has arrived and Chandler arranges to take Monica to her favourite restaurant. Just before he pops the question, Richard (Tom Selleck) shows up and spoils the plans. The next day, Richard tells Monica that he still loves her. What will Monica do?

Video

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and is therefore not 16x9 enhanced.

    Although this transfer is not of reference quality, there has been a gradual improvement since Series 4. Nonetheless, there is still room for further enhancement to be done with future episodes.

    The transfer is as clear as you would expect to see from a TV show. Shadow detail is acceptable but most scenes are in bright lighting conditions making any possible problems less apparent. There is no detectable low level noise.

    The colours were bright and clear at all times throughout all episodes. One good example of the rich colour can be seen at 3:55 in The One With Unagi. There were no irregularities with the colour rendition of this transfer, either.

    There were minor MPEG artefacts and as with the previous Series it is most apparent on the hallway and apartment walls than in any other areas. Phoebe's shirt in The One That Could Have Been (Part 2) did contain what looked like aliasing around the collar edge and along her hand from 4:30 to 5:30. In other areas, the aliasing when it does occur is quite subtle and less noticeable than in previous episodes - an example can be seen at 3:44 in The One Where Ross Dates A Student. This disc contains fewer film artefacts and for a change there are no sections that really stood out as exceptionally bad, or good for that matter.

    As usual for Friends, there is a good collection of subtitles to choose from, and the English subtitles that I checked appeared close to the spoken word but were not exact. The font size is quite small, most likely to fit some of the long lines on screen at the same time.

    This DVD is presented as a double-sided single-layered DVD and therefore there is no layer change. Instead, you have to leave your chair for a moment and flip the disc manually to see the other four episodes. Yet again, this disc continues the tradition of poor Friends disc labelling. I would like to see the Side A/B information printed more clearly on the disc.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Previously, English Dolby Digital 2.0 was the only available soundtrack. Even though the packaging makes no mention of additional soundtracks, a French Dolby Digital 2.0 dub is also included in this collection of episodes. This was also true for the previous two discs in the series.

    The dialogue was clear and easy to understand at all times and I detected no hiss during any of the episodes. The first 9 episodes from this Series had different sound levels on Side A versus Side B. This set of episodes did not have the same problem and both sides seemed even in playback sound levels.

    The theme and background score was provided by Michael Skloff. The short little sound ditties played between scenes match the show well.

    The rears were used for the laughter and were merely a reproduction of the sound from the front speakers at a slightly lesser volume level.

    The subwoofer was not used by the soundtrack at all.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu has had an overhaul since Series 5. Like the show, it is in Full Screen. It is easy to navigate. If you manually select a particular episode from the menu you are returned back to the menu after it has finished playing. If on the other hand you select the "Play" option on the menu then all 4 episodes are played on each side.

DVD-ROM

    When the disc is loaded into a DVD-ROM, DVD Friendly is loaded. Two extra menus are available that link to the "Friends Website" and the "Friends Events" site which is really the main Warner Brothers Events site for all of their products.

    I could not find any reference to an equivalent Region 1 version of this DVD. The only ones that I saw reference to were "Best Of" collection discs.

    As always, these episodes of Friends contain quite a few good laughs and make for some nice, light entertainment. Bruce Willis was excellent as Elizabeth's dad and had Ross on the run on more than the odd occasion.

    As I have said numerous times before, I personally like watching Friends on DVD where it is not interrupted by commercials - I think you get more laughs that way.

    The audio as good as can be expected for Dolby Digital 2.0.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall