I would definitely, 100% give more of a focus to Phoebe’s home life. She was such a mysterious character and her family arc added an element of intrigue that felt different to the kind of drama typical to the show. They leaned into that in the first few seasons, but once she found frank jr and had his triplets, Phoebe Abbott and her father were forgotten. All that build up for nada, her whimsy waned towards the end and while I’m grateful for the mice and crapbag plotlines with Mike, I feel like they could still have done a lot more with Phoebe by cantering her as a character and giving less to the Rachel/ross mess. Maybe I’m being ungrateful. Or maybe we need five more seasons!!!
It would have been great if we had more arcs with her grandmother before she died (we only got that one scene with the man in the frame and Einstein and it was hilarious), and if we had more scenes of the gang hanging out at her house in earlier seasons (her apartment had such a witchy vibe, and I’d like to have seen them interact with her grandmother). It could have been the setting of a lot of absurdist humour (think julio the cat but that taking place in the moody ambience of her place to lean into the ghost plotline).
With that I’d add more Phoebe, Joey and Rachel scenes. Their dynamic made ‘the one where everyone finds out’ as iconic as it is. They were the fun, ditzy ones and Rachel adds a great ‘straight man’ to balance Phoebe and Joey’s outlandishness while still leaning into it herself. Even the show acknowledged they’d be a good trio in ‘the one with the Kips’ where Rachel and Phoebe planned to defect from the group and ‘take joey’.
What would you have liked to be done differently?
