One Main Friends Character Changed More Than The Others During The Show’s 10-Season Run

Almost all the six main characters at the center of Friends underwent some sort of development over the course of the show’s run, but one of them changed more than the others. Revolving around the personal and professional lives of a group of twenty-somethings in Manhattan, Friends originally aired between 1994 and 2004. Across the ten seasons of Friends, each of the main characters – Ross, Rachel, Joey, Phoebe, Monica, and Chandler – encountered many life experiences that molded them as people. One Friends character, however, developed more than the rest.

Though the Friends characters’ ages fluctuated slightly throughout, at the start of the series, all the main characters were in their mid-twenties during the Friends pilot episode. This means that, by the final episode of Friends, the characters were all well into their thirties. Along the way, they experienced relationships, break-ups, marriages, divorces, births, and deaths, all of which affected them in various ways. One of them, however, undergoes a larger transformation from season 1 to season 10 than any of the other Friends characters.

Rachel Experienced The Most Character Development Of Friends’ Main Group

Jennifer Aniston’s Character Underwent A Dramatic Change From The First Season To The Last

No other Friends character developed quite as much as Rachel Green. Played by Jennifer Aniston, Rachel was introduced in the show’s pilot as Monica’s former school friend who had just left her husband at the altar. When she first appeared, Rachel was a slightly ditzy and naive “daddy’s girl” whose dependence on her father’s finances made her unworldly and lacking in street smarts. The Rachel of the early Friends seasons was also highly materialistic. However, her friendship with Monica and the rest of the gang, as well as her on-again-off-again relationship with Ross, shaped her into a different person.

Eventually, every career Rachel had in Friends helped her to become a far more independent person. Following a stint working as a waitress at Central Perk, she got a job in fashion before eventually working her way up to an executive position at Ralph Lauren. By the Friends‘ final season, Rachel had grown into a mature and responsible businessperson and single mother who was not reliant on anyone else. The character’s growth was further emphasized with guest appearances in later seasons by Rachel’s sisters, Jill and Amy, who both represented the kind of person Rachel used to be.

This doesn’t mean that the other main characters on Friends didn’t develop at all. Chandler started out as a man afraid of commitment and ended the show as a married man with two kids, while Phoebe learned to balance her kooky nature with a more traditional lifestyle. Joey, meanwhile, became more respectful towards women, thanks to his short-lived relationship with Rachel, and Monica was a control freak who mellowed over time. Interestingly, Ross was the only Friends character who didn’t change during the show’s run. Rachel, on the other hand, underwent a dramatic yet realistic transformation.

Rachel’s Character Arc Shows What Made Friends So Successful

The Sitcom Is Still One Of The Most Popular TV Shows Of All Time

Rachel’s character arc was the most effective because her story best represented what Friends was all about. The show centered on a group of friends who must learn to grow up while facing the challenges that come with being in one’s twenties. None of the other characters personified this idea better than Rachel, who started off as helpless, naive, and unsure of her place in life and became headstrong, independent, and sure of herself. Essentially, Rachel of the early seasons was a character people could relate to, while Rachel of the later years was someone many aspired to be like.

It’s Rachel’s relatability that not only helped Friends to become one of the most popular TV shows during its original run but also ensures the series is still beloved by twenty-somethings to this day. Friendship, for obvious reasons, was one of the show’s biggest themes, and Rachel’s story arc illustrated the impact that the right friends can have on a person. Without her friendship with the other five characters, it’s unlikely Rachel would’ve ever grown much as a person (her sisters are proof of this) and, therefore, wouldn’t be the Friends character who changed the most.