Friends

Mike says that Friends was a large part of my high school years. Ross and Rachel were a topic of constant lunch discussion, and taped episodes were passed in the halls with the sacredness of test notes.

Watching it now, several years later, I understand the show a little differently: the joy of hanging out with a balanced group of friends, the support they can lend, and the natural pitfalls of life. Friends was a smartly written and well conceived show. I was also surprised that something I always thought cropped up by accident, the Ross/Rachel saga of drama, was actually something written into the show and implied from the first episode. Although, I don't think even the writers knew what a tangled mess THAT would become.

I had also forgotten just how funny the show could be. The clever side comments, the spot on men/women differences, and the interactions of the characters. Several times I found myself laughing out loud, which honestly is something I don't do often while watching TV.

While Friends did have its ups and downs, I think it's fair to say that it deserves its popularity and place in pop culture history. This is a show that, for better or worse, defined and influenced a generation. Sadly, that place has been eagerly filled by Reality TV these days, making me cringe for the future.


Kate says rewatching Friends reminds me that this show deserves it success.

It isn't my favorite sitcom, and I stopped watching it around Season . . . oh, the one when Chandler and Monica got married. And it isn't the sort of thing I would ever purchase or rent although I will check it out free from the library.

But it is smartly constructed and well-written.

The first thing that strikes me is that the writers lit on the perfect balance of unique-yet-still-can-be-friends characters. And they managed to do it without being too obvious about it. Sitcoms run on typing--the anxious friend, the quiet friend, the manic friend, the friend who steals the show--and the audience knows this, but when it gets too obvious ("I know! We'll make one of the friends a bisexual cop with Yiddish parents!"), it gets a trifle obnoxious.

The Friends friends are all believable types who would believably associate.

I think the other reason the show works is that unlike far too many dramas and sitcoms, the characters' jobs are a huge part of their lives. In many shows, the job IS the sitcom/drama, or the characters have an awesome (as in, I wish I had that much!) amount of free-time to spend at home. But the characters on Friends worry about their jobs and get fired from their jobs and get raises, etc. etc. etc. These real-life troubles make the show relatable even when it isn't so much.

The downside: in retrospect--that is, watching the show now, knowing where it ended up--scenes with Chandler and Monica (even before they became a couple) are just cute.

Watching Ross and Rachel, on the other hand, makes me want to put a fist through something.

Part of this is the writing, but I think part of it is the way the characters convey their troubles. (I don't want to blame the actors who are both reasonably talented since I think, to a degree, the parts were supposed to be played the way they were played. The whole "constant reconciliations followed by constant breakups" motif is palatable to a certain viewing audience. Ewww.)

Here's what I mean:

When Chandler apologizes to Joey for making fun of his "Buddy" bracelet (or to Monica later for, oh, anything), you feel like he really means it. He objectively assesses what he did wrong; he makes up to Joey by taking actual action (he buys another bracelet) and although he retains his Chandleresque irony about the whole event, he does sincerely mean to do better.

And Monica is just as cool. At the beginning of the Chandler/Monica relationship, they have a tiff, and Chandler is convinced the relationship is over. "Oh, honey," Monica said, "that was just a spat. Welcome to a grown-up relationship."

Indeed.

On the other hand, whenever Ross and Rachel apologize to each other, there's always this undertone of "But you just don't understand me enough" or "But I really didn't do anything wrong" or "You should be over being mad" or "But really you're worse than me" stuff going on behind the apologies, and it makes my skin crawl.

I don't give that fictional marriage two seconds. Shoot, they won't even make it to the altar.

But I give Monica and Chandler (and Joey in their garage) a long-term bill of health.

Consequently, I find the non-Ross and Rachel episodes downright delightful, a nice walk down the 90's highway of remembrance (boy, doesn't George Clooney look young!). But this isn't a show I would ever pull Stargate off my shelves to make room for.