Despite being much older, I recall walking through a room where a friend’s roommates were watching Friends around 2016. I was stuck by two things:
First, that I’d noticed that a bunch of people seemed to be getting into Friends for the first time. I think it had just come to Netflix, and in addition to folks nostalgia watching, Gen z and younger millennials were discovering it. Which was why it was on.
Second, it was really watchable. I immediately paused to join them, and the jokes were landing. It had been a very long time since I’d watched a show with a laugh track, but it worked. The show was solidly entertaining.
Friends probably holds up better because the Barney character just doesn’t work today. So much of his humour is just cringe. Friends’ PG-quality ironically makes it more suitable since there are no characters reveling in sexual assault.
Yeah Friends is just a better show I’m sure. It definitely had a deeper bench on screen. Lisa Kudro is probably the best ‘dumb blonde’ of the last 30 years and that kind of part isn’t easy. Cortney Cox and Matthew Perry were really good comic actors and David Schwimmer is good actor if not a good comic actor. And Jenn Aniston and Matt LeBlanc sure were good looking.
Put that up against any other cast in any other sitcom and I think you’d have to go back to I Love Lucy to find a better one.
Lisa Kudrow’s Phoebe wasn’t dumb, she was hippy-dippy. She was Jenna Elfman’s Dharma with added daddy issues. Rachel has a certain rich girl naivete to her especially in early seasons, but the outright stupid one is Joey. Phoebe is a functioning adult that holds down a job and pays her bills, Chandler tries to teach Joey how to pay a phone bill.
The show didn’t have ten seasons in it; hell season ten is short, and by season six I swear there are episodes that are almost entirely catch phrases. “Nooooo.” “I know” “WE WERE ON A BREAK!” then Janice walks in and nasals out “OH. MY. GOD.” I bet you could cut together a coherent episode like that, The One With All The Catchphrases.
Weirdly, though, Friends seems to hold up better.
Despite being much older, I recall walking through a room where a friend’s roommates were watching Friends around 2016. I was stuck by two things:
First, that I’d noticed that a bunch of people seemed to be getting into Friends for the first time. I think it had just come to Netflix, and in addition to folks nostalgia watching, Gen z and younger millennials were discovering it. Which was why it was on.
Second, it was really watchable. I immediately paused to join them, and the jokes were landing. It had been a very long time since I’d watched a show with a laugh track, but it worked. The show was solidly entertaining.
Friends probably holds up better because the Barney character just doesn’t work today. So much of his humour is just cringe. Friends’ PG-quality ironically makes it more suitable since there are no characters reveling in sexual assault.
Yeah Friends is just a better show I’m sure. It definitely had a deeper bench on screen. Lisa Kudro is probably the best ‘dumb blonde’ of the last 30 years and that kind of part isn’t easy. Cortney Cox and Matthew Perry were really good comic actors and David Schwimmer is good actor if not a good comic actor. And Jenn Aniston and Matt LeBlanc sure were good looking.
Put that up against any other cast in any other sitcom and I think you’d have to go back to I Love Lucy to find a better one.
Lisa Kudrow’s Phoebe wasn’t dumb, she was hippy-dippy. She was Jenna Elfman’s Dharma with added daddy issues. Rachel has a certain rich girl naivete to her especially in early seasons, but the outright stupid one is Joey. Phoebe is a functioning adult that holds down a job and pays her bills, Chandler tries to teach Joey how to pay a phone bill.
The show didn’t have ten seasons in it; hell season ten is short, and by season six I swear there are episodes that are almost entirely catch phrases. “Nooooo.” “I know” “WE WERE ON A BREAK!” then Janice walks in and nasals out “OH. MY. GOD.” I bet you could cut together a coherent episode like that, The One With All The Catchphrases.