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The best (and the worst) seasons of Friends, according to critics and fans

By Natalie Zamora

UNDATED PHOTO: Actors Jennifer Aniston (L) and David Schwimmer are shown in a scene from the NBC series "Friends". The series received 11 Emmy nominations, including outstanding comedy series, by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences July 18, 2002 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Warner Bros. Television/Getty Images)
UNDATED PHOTO: Actors Jennifer Aniston (L) and David Schwimmer are shown in a scene from the NBC series "Friends". The series received 11 Emmy nominations, including outstanding comedy series, by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences July 18, 2002 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Warner Bros. Television/Getty Images) /
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We all have our favorite episode, favorite moment, favorite romance, and favorite season of the popular sitcom Friends. And even the biggest fans have their least favorite parts. People’s opinions are all over the place when it comes to this show, as evidenced when we looked up reviews from various websites. What do people think is the best season of Friends, and how about the worst?

Based on trustworthy review publications, it looks like the best and worst seasons are really up for debate. Each of the three major rating websites rates the Friends installments differently. Rotten Tomatoes critics say seasons 3, 6, and 8 are the best, while fans on IMDb vote for seasons 1 and 10 as their favorites. Metacritic determines season 4 is the best season.

As for the worst seasons of Friends, Rotten Tomatoes critics give season 9 a measly 20%! That’s pretty bad. Fans on IMDb say season 7 is the worst, and Metacritic users believe seasons 1, seasons 9, and seasons 10 are the worst — but to be fair, all of the Friends seasons score very high on the site. It’s so interesting to see how different the reviews are on every ratings site. Check out the breakdowns below.

Rotten Tomatoes is known for giving harsh reviews sometimes, and one season of Friends certainly got a terrible rating from them. Though critics don’t have a score for every season, the fans do! See them below:

Friends rating on Rotten Tomatoes

  • Friends season 1: 71% from critics, 90% from fans
  • Friends season 2: N/A from critics, 96% from fans
  • Friends season 3: 100% from critics, 96% from fans
  • Friends season 4: N/A from critics, 96% from fans
  • Friends season 5: N/A from critics, N/A from fans
  • Friends season 6: 100% from critics, 96% from fans
  • Friends season 7: N/A from critics, 95% from fans
  • Friends season 8: 100% from critics, 94% from fans
  • Friends season 9: 20% from critics, 87% from fans
  • Friends season 10: 83% from critics, 95% from fans

TV and movie site IMDb

lets anyone with an account review titles, meaning we can’t differentiate between professional critics and casual fans. With that said, we’ll just consider all the ratings as fans. Check them out by season below:

Friends rating on IMDb from fans

Per Screen Rant, here’s how people scored each season on IMDb:

  • Friends season 1: 8.62/10
  • Friends season 2: 8.42/10
  • Friends season 3: 8.38/10
  • Friends season 4: 8.47/10
  • Friends season 5: 8.60/10
  • Friends season 6: 8.48/10
  • Friends season 7: 8.04/10
  • Friends season 8: 8.42/10
  • Friends season 9: 8.28/10
  • Friends season 10: 8.62/10

While popular rating site Metacritic gives Friends as a whole a 65/100, they don’t have a critics breakdown of each season — except for season 1, which they give a 59/100. They do, however, list scores per season from fans, which you can see below:

Friends rating on Metacritic from fans

  • Friends season 1: 8.6/10
  • Friends season 2: 9.1/10
  • Friends season 3: 9.1/10
  • Friends season 4: 9.2/10
  • Friends season 5: 8.9/10
  • Friends season 6: 8.8/10
  • Friends season 7: 8.9/10
  • Friends season 8: 8.8/10
  • Friends season 9: 8.6/10
  • Friends season 10: 8.6/10

What is your favorite and least favorite season of Friends? Be sure to let us know! You can stream all 10 seasons of the beloved comedy right now on HBO Max.

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