Friends' Biggest Plot Hole Makes Perfect Sense If You Think About It
Character age inconsistency is the bane of any long-running series, including Friends, but Ross staying 29 for three years straight makes actual sense, we swear.
Often, sitcom writers get confused and mixed up about their characters' ages, so they just make up the approximate number on the fly. Unlike writers, viewers actually care about this kind of stuff, so one too many shows have already been called out on such inconsistencies — including Friends, of course.
While in most other cases, age inconsistencies can only be addressed back to the writer's room, in Friends, they make sense. At least, they make sense when applied to one of the main characters — Ross Geller, who kept claiming that he was 29 for three seasons (years) straight. This looks like any other case but…
Guess what? It makes perfect sense if you take a closer look at Ross!
Ross is a pathological compulsive liar, and he could never fight back his urge to tell sudden and unnecessary lies even if he was aware that the person he was speaking to already knew the truth. While this behavior from him was an ongoing theme throughout the entire duration of Friends, there are more obvious instances.
Take a look at his relationships with women, for example… You know what, we don't even need to spread ourselves so thin: take a look at his relationship with one particular Rachel. It kept falling apart just because Ross couldn't stop lying about everything and anything: the pros and cons list, the copy girl, the letter, the break…
The most important thing her is that even though Ross knew that Rachel knew the truth, he kept blatantly lying to her face about anything. He considered himself a terribly misunderstood angel that deserved all the best, and lying to the people closest to him and most trusting to him didn't click anything in his head.
With how much drama was involved when anyone from Friends was turning 30, it would only suit Ross's character if he kept lying about being 29 for three years straight. So while age inconsistencies with a different character would've raised quite a few questions, we're actually OK with this whole Ross situation.
Even though we know that in reality, the writers just messed up a bit.