Theseries narrative follows six friends living and working in New York City: Rachel Green, Monica Geller, Phoebe Buffay, Joey Tribbiani, Chandler Bing, and Ross Geller played by Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer respectively. All episodes were filmed at Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank in front of a live studio audience, except the fourth season finale, "The One with Ross's Wedding", that was filmed on location in London in front of a British studio audience.[1]
Monica finds out that someone has stolen her credit card and has been using it. When she receives the credit card statement she realises that the thief is doing all the things in life that she wishes she could do, including taking tap dancing lessons.
Chandler hires a maid to help Monica, but she soon suspects the maid is stealing her clothes. After getting Chandler to inspect a pair of jeans she is wearing that she thinks are hers, Rachel returns Monica's borrowed clothes. The maid quits, believing Chandler is a pervert.
Phoebe's husband Mike is disgusted to find a rat in her apartment. He sets up traps all over the place, managing to kill Phobe's pet rat 'Bob'. Phoebe finds out that Bob, actually a female rat, has had babies
Joey lands the role of Dr. Drake Ramoray, a neurosurgeon on Days of Our Lives after refusing to sleep with the casting lady for a smaller role; she then offers him the bigger role of Ramoray, which he does sleep with her for.
Though [surprisingly] ranked quite low on our list, our super-Friends call out this episode for being interesting as it revealed fascinating facts about the groupd: Joey starred in a porn film and Chandler has a third nipple. Ross seeks relationship advice from Rachel after revealing that he and Julie have not slept together yet. Rachel, wanting to keep them apart, advises they abstain, while Joey gives Ross the opposite advice.
On Christmas, Monica, strapped for cash looks for tips from people using home-baked cookies, receiving mixed reactions. Phoebe discovers that the framed picture of her father that her grandmother (Audra Lindley) keeps in her apartment is actually the photo model.
I just finished watching the six-part A Spy Among Friends on ITVX and cannot wait to share my episode reviews with you! Since, unlike Billions that releases one episode per week, ITVX has dropped all episodes together. So my plan is to share one episode recap per week. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do putting them together.
The story unfolds in three interrogations in parallel; namely Elliott and Philby in Beirut, Thomas and Elliott at the SIS offices in London, and Philby and his handler Sergei in Moscow, with constant flashbacks as both Nick Elliott and Kim Philby reflect on their past and more importantly, their friendship. And this is key to the mini-series because A Spy Among Friends is not your typical spy thriller where the goal is to show the viewers the mechanics of spy craft. It rather examines love, betrayal, and deceit in a long-term relationship. No wonder the mini-series opens with the following quote from E.M. Forster:
Lily Thomas (an invented character unlike most other characters in the mini-series) arrives at the SIS offices in London. We are definitely in Mad Men era that is not kind to women who look for opportunities outside home: men dominate the workplace, talk cricket, make sexist jokes, and smoke all the time.
Thanks to the tapes, we go back to Day 1 of Elliott interrogating Philby. Philby, caught off guard, pretends he was expecting to see Elliott when his longtime colleague and friend opens the door of the SIS safe house in Beirut:
Did Philby know that Elliott had recently lost his best friend Basil Fisher in the war (Fisher was shot down in a dogfight during the Battle of Britain) and decided to make a calculated move to be friends with this SIS man?
Since there is real footage of the press conference available, the press conference in the mini-series looks very authentic. And OMG it turns out that Elliott is not only supporting Philby but coaching him for the press conference.
Lily wants to know why Nick got into intelligence. Well, he wanted to do his bit in the war. But also, even as an 8 year old kid in boarding school, he sometimes climbed the roof when other boys were asleep and made plans of eliminating his enemies via surveillance, disinformation, and sabotage. He thinks being a spy is intoxicating. And it seems he was born to do it ?
Also, a public school boy himself, Damian responded to an audience question about whether the boys who go to expensive public schools would make better spies at the Damian Lewis: Spy Wars Special Screening and Q&A a few years ago.
The funny thing is that the balcony gives Nick Elliott a headache as well. Lily believes Elliott obtained some important piece of information from Philby. Maybe even an operation for Philby to run at the KGB. And when her superiors at the MI5 say there cannot be any such operation, Lily points out that Elliott may have even done it on his discretion without telling SIS.
The sharp contrast Lily Thomas draws between the two intelligence agencies is evident in the personal lives of Elliott and Thomas herself. The only thing the two may have in common is the kisses they get from their loving spouses. Otherwise, their lives cannot be more different. Elliott and his wife live in a beautiful house in the heart of Westminster. Their upper class taste is there in everything from their furniture to their clothes. They sit at premium seats at the theatre and eat at fancy restaurants. On the other hand, Lily and her immigrant husband, a doctor, live in a cramped house outside central London. Their working class background is there in what they wear and what they eat. I suspect they may have a tight budget, too, because otherwise why would Lily take the sugar cubes in the office home citing there is no time to go to the shops?
One thing that Elliott has not shared with anyone is that someone is having Elliott followed. A man follows him to a cemetery where Elliott hands a Russian newspaper to some man. This man then sits at a cafe, then goes into a church, and disappears before the tail can catch up with him.
It seems that when he realized something fishy was going on, Elliott ran a little operation himself (proving Lily Thomas right that he can do things on his discretion!) to understand who is following him.
Re-watching the episode now, as an adult, is an entirely new experience. No matter which side of the milestone you're on, the big 3-0 has now probably taken on a different meaning for you. For example, if you had asked me where you thought I'd be at 30 back when the episode aired in 2001, the answer would have included a house in the suburbs and two or three happy kids. Stay-at-home mom? Maybe. Minivan? Definitely.
My girlfriend was watching an episode of Friends today and I noticed Jeremy McGrath in the background as an extra. I found a youtube video of the episode. The video is a little fuzzy but I saw him clearly in HD when it was on tv. He is most visible from 2 to 3 min into the video.
That is Jeremy for sure. He and Matt became friends some time before thisepisode was filmed. Matt is an avid motorcyclists and I recall a story on him once showing him out riding with some buddies. He rides pretty well, and at the time had a really tricked out DR-Z 400.
I wasn't exactly sure that was him either but after reading a lot of your posts I'm starting to be convinced. Talk about looking like JM, did anybody see the fan at I think it was A1 live that they kept panning to before and after commercials? He looked identical to JM. I'll have to see if I can post it tonight off of my DVR. I later decided it must not have been him cause when they did show JM he had a white pull-over on and this fan had a black pull-over on. That is the only way I could differentiate the 2
Matt LeBlac brought his girlfriend out to the Honda Rider Ed. Center in Colton several years ago to have her take an intro to dirt bike class. I was in the shop prepping my bike for a desert race and he hung out and talked offroad. My mom was there and she asked him if he was the reason behind all the moto-related stickers and drawings that used to show up on the whiteboard in his character's apartment on different episodes. He said that several of the crew members were also into moto and they would all try to find ways to sneak that stuff onto the set.
I have a 2001 Suzuki Route Sheet mag with an article by Mike Webb. The article was about Steve Hatch's adventure tour in Sedona Az. Steve, Mike and Matt went on a two day ride and Mike said Matt could really ride and wasn't a poser.
Yun-ha rolls up next to her and gently calls her name. He holds her hand as she continues to cry as she leans against his legs while he strokes her hair. Are those tears of relief? Grief? Someone tell me something!
Wan patiently explains that Hee-ja just visited Nan-hee a few days ago along with all the other aunties. But Hee-ja yells that Wan is just making things up, trying to use her dementia to convince her of something that never happened.
Min-ho steps in just then to take the phone from her and then guides her into the bedroom where his wife and newborn baby sleep. The baby is physical proof that time has passed, and Hee-ja meekly asks if she did actually visit Nan-hee in the hospital.
She knows that she still relies on Wan, which is why the plane ticket is only for a one-week trip. But after the next round of chemo, it will be for a month. And then, eventually, Wan should get married and leave her for good.
Suddenly overcome with an idea, Choong-nam looks over at her collection of priceless artwork. She knows where she get a lot of money, fast, and begins to pack a bag. She thinks that all the aunties (along with Suk-gyun and Seung-jae) should go on a trip together.
Wan bursts into the room just then, much to their surprise. Later, as the aunties and uncles settle into bed, Wan watches as they all sleep in the same room together. She originally thought they were joking about going on a road trip or just making idle plans, but since that day, they were nearly always on the road.
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