Friends is an American television sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons. With an ensemble cast starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer, the show revolves around six friends in their 20s and 30s who live in Manhattan, New York City. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television. The original executive producers were Kevin S. Bright, Kauffman, and Crane.
The show tells about six friends on how they deal with the problems that people also encounter in real life but in a comedic way. It shows the tight-knit relationship of six friends despite being completely different from one another,
"It's about sex, love, relationships, careers, a time in your life when everything's possible. And it's about friendship because when you're single and in the city, your friends are your family."
We have Monica (Courteney Cox), the OCD cook who deals with some weight and parental problem from her teenage year. Ross (David Schwimmer), the paleontologist who has a rough history with his failed marriages including another character Rachel and is also Monica's brother. Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), Monica's trust-fund baby best friend that will eventually learn how to be independent while dealing with issues with her family and her rough history with Ross. Chandler (Matthew Perry), the sarcastic friend of the group that dealt a traumatizing past with his parents' divorce which made him hate Thanksgiving. Then, we have Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow), she has dealt with a lot of traumatizing memories from her childhood, having her mother commit suicide, her father leaving her and her twin-sister Ursula which made her live the rest of her life on the streets, and does not have a stable and consistent career. Lastly, Joey (Matt Leblanc), the classic "player" of the group who dates and sleeps around with different women while having a complicated career of being an actor. Despite being different from one another, the show presents the great bond, love, and care they have for each other. They show how they help and lean towards one another when one encounters a problem of their own whether it would be a problem from their work, love life, sex life, or just basic life problems. The relationship between the group grows fonder and stronger as they grow older but eventually moves on with their lives after spending 10 years together.
After 10 years of broadcasting on tv from 1994 to 2001 with 10 seasons, the show became a mega-hit even after 25 years after the last episode broadcasted. Until now, it is still one of the most watched American tv-show on Netflix. The characters and plot speak to the general public so well that even after 25 years, they still binge and re-watch it on the platforms that it's available on.
The show regardless of being a major hit, also has a lot of flaws of its own. As a sitcom, the story circles around comedy which would contain jokes. However, there are a lot of episodes of the sitcom that is considered offensive and insensitive. An example of this is the fat-shaming jokes targeted towards younger Monica who was dealing with some weight issues, the homophobic jokes towards Ross' ex-wife Susan, about being a lesbian and is always joked around in a very sexual way, and transphobic jokes towards Chandler's father, who transitioned to become a woman after divorcing Chandler's mother. They also drag most of these insensitive jokes to the newer seasons and still continue to show it in a majorly offensive way.
The show deals with relationships of the individual characters most of the time, which could also mean that they deal with different relationship issues but some of the issues were and still are controversial till this day. Normalizing infidelity in relationships by showing that some of the characters can act on this by making the temporary love interest unintresting minor or major. As a show that had been broadcasting for 10 years on television, it completely baffles me why they still continue to let these flaws slide. Majority of what I'm saying is, there are a lot of things wrong about this tv show and how poor they deliver it. It's understandable why it's a major-hit sitcom but sometimes I can't just let the insensitivity on some episodes go unnoticed.
Comments