Ross Geller from ‘Friends’ & Why He’s Not That Bad

One of the most popular television shows in recent years was the hit sitcom, Friends, which was about six young adult friends living in the same apartment complex following them as they face life and love in New York. Now, all these characters have their issues but they all make up for them. One ‘Friend’ in particular that gets the most hate would be Ross Geller, brother of Monica. Just like the rest of the friend’s, Ross is quirky, which makes for good TV. The hate for this character comes from a few places. Addressing the most prominent issues fans & viewers have: "Ross is a bad person," "Ross thinks he’s superior to everyone," & "Ross is too jealous of a person." Of course, Ross has his downfalls, being the most problematic ‘Friend’, no doubt. But fans and just plain viewers of the show crush this character to the point where it’s just too much to handle.

Ross Geller has been said and said again to be a terrible person. But Ross has actually been a good friend to the others just as they have been to each other. Remembering the episode where Ross simply hears that Phoebe didn’t have a bike as a child and decides to buy one for her, just because. “Ever since you told me about that bike I couldn't stop thinking about it,” (Springfield! Springfield!) is how Ross explained it. And Phoebe was absolutely touched. Branching off of Ross buying things for his friends, Ross also bought Joey his porcelain dog back when he’d realized he’d made a mistake in his attitude towards Joey. And it’s not as if buying things magically makes you a good friend, An underrated moment took place just a few episodes after their "We were on a break" breakup. Ross was very excited to be on the Discovery Channel but when an injured Rachel, who doesn’t know about the television chance, asks for help, and without mentioning the opportunity, Ross takes her to the hospital and helps her with her makeup (to the best of his ability). Rachel simply asks “But before you go, could you help me first?” (Springfield! Springfield!) and Ross instinctively said yes.

There is also the argument that Ross thinks he is superior to his friends and other people, which is not always true when looked back on some of his lines. In fact, most of Ross’s jokes are about the really sad things that happened to him in his life. His humor is very self-deprecating. As the show grows, so does Ross, who likes more and more to put himself as the subject of his own joke. There are moments of frustration with Ross’s character and his inability to let things go, a problem his sister Monica also shares. But Ross does put himself in heat with jokes such as “My life is an embarrassment, I should go live under someone’s stairs” (Springfield! Springfield!). The point is, Ross trashes on himself just the same.

Another main issue the viewers have with Ross is his issues with jealousy, which are most definitely his most prominent problem. When Rachel gets her new job at Bloomingdale's, Ross is saddened at the fact that she doesn’t seem to have time for him, which is true. He becomes wary of her co-worker, Mark, and his feelings for Rachel which Mark does admit, he had for her the entire time. Ross doesn’t handle the situation perfectly but it does stem from being burned by his wife having an affair, which the show even addresses when the girls have a conversation about Ross. “In high school, you weren’t jealous at all even though all your girlfriends were cheating on you!”

“All right, all right, so up until ‘92-93 he was very trusting, then ’94 hit, Carol left him and bam! Paranoid city!” (Springfield! Springfield!) to quote Monica and Phoebe. It’s only natural for Ross to be paranoid. Did he handle it very well? No, but it doesn’t make him a bad person to be worried.

Ross has a lot of growth as a character that goes unnoticed as times go on. One of the most important is that he even though he was hurt by Carol, he offers her support to go on with her wedding to Susan despite her parents' unacceptance.

“Do you love her?... Well then, that's it. If George and Adelaide can't accept that, then the hell with them.” (Springfield! Springfield!) And Ross goes from addressing the Carol situation as ‘my wife became a lesbian’ to ‘she is a lesbian.’ Which is a simple thing but says a lot in his coming to realize that Carol was born that way but had yet to realize it.

The purpose here was not to say that Ross is an all around good person, because to face reality, Ross is an asshole sometimes/a lot of the time. But maybe Ross isn’t that bad and the bashing of his character isn’t always necessary. Ross is the most problematic character but all the ‘Friends’ have had their bad moments, where maybe they look bad. The fact of the matter is, Ross has some good qualities about him that go overlooked a lot of the time.

How do you feel about Ross? Who’s your favorite Friend?