I saw Friends recently. From start to finish. Well, it did take weeks, but I did it.For the uninitiated, Friends was a TV phenom. It conquered hearts during the last bit of the last century and the first bit of the new century.
Somehow, I feel it has not aged well. That kind of co-dependency is sick sick. And that’s why they always had to pair up with each other, not once but many times over. If this was called LOVERS instead of Friends, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference.
Discussing and dissecting every little minutia of ones life including potty with the other and taking feedback and acting on it was as though they were the world’s no. 1 duffers selected and brought together in a reality show.
But lets start at the very beginning.
The first four seasons are great. And then begins the fall down down a slippery slope. The jokes were repeating and the new ones were plain bad. Season six is where the rot started getting really smelly.
Remember Ross's musical talent. It was the funniest thing I ever saw on TV. They went and repeated it, with bagpipes. Plus, you can now see the actors just mouthing the dialogs. They seem to have lost all interest in the proceedings and were dead behind the eye. All except Joey. But he is an idiot.
One more glaring omission is that it has No black or Indian actors. Not one. major or minor. All it has in the name of Diversity is Gunther. Representing the yellow-haired people.
I began skipping scenes and jump with joy when I heard anyone apart from the 6 speak.
Do you remember how sweet Ben's birth scene was? Heartwarming funny. Well, take that, change it to irritating and multiply by 100, that's what you get for Ross's second child. Don't forget to add 4 hr of dragging it.
The only thing worth mentioning in the last 3 seasons, kinda MasterCard priceless moment, is the smile Gunther gives when Ross punches a pole.
The last three seasons were unbearable, but I proceeded as a dare, and every time I began watching I felt like gouging out my eyes. More than just plain irritating it feels that the writers were deliberately making it bad to see what the studio does.
You really begin appreciating the entry of Janice and just hope others go away and Janice stays. The show runners pairing Janice with Ross shows what kind of creative bankruptcy they fell into.
I asked myself. who is most irritating? Well, the answer is all of them except Rachel. Despite dealing with the worst of writing towards the end, she has a quiet grace and came out well on screen. But given the fact that every ones post-Friend's career was a big zero, I'd say they were just a bunch of young confident white people passing themselves off as actors.
And then I realize there is one more season the 10th season of this unbearable thing and told myself no I can't. I somehow thought that this series had only 9 seasons. God.
Having said that. This was a big big hit. It has a massive old following and new ones continue joining in droves. This is one tv show that somewhere someone will be watching for all eternity. So, if you come across this piece and don’t agree with me, so be it.
And, yes, they were on a break.
