“Comedy and classic”- the makers of Friends surely gave the words ‘classic’ and ‘comedy’ a new name. Started about two decades ago, the show was ahead of its time and thus continues to be a timeless sitcom and continues to define what we call “comedy”. It wont be wrong to call friends the ‘BEST COMEDY SHOW OF THE DECADE’- 1994 TO 2004.
2) Friendship: all the six character in the show (we all must be aware of their names -if not, GO WATCH FRIENDS NOW) are in their own way epitome of true friendship. In particular the bond shared between Joey and chandler and Rachel and Monica makes you want to go buy an apartment and start living with your best friend.
3) Admiral portrayal of love in the sitcom: love between friends, love between lovers and love stories of friends who become lovers (chandler and Monica), you can find everything here. The fact that love sees no age or gender is beautifully brought out. Through the relationship between Alice(36 years) and Frank(18 years) it is made very clear that age is no bar in love, both of them get married and well have triplets (phoebe being the surrogate mother). The sitcom boldly encouraged homosexuality in the times when people carried rigid orthodox opinions regarding the same. The love interest of Carol (first wife of Ross) is a woman named Susan, both of them get married and take care of Ross’s and Carol’s son Ben.
4) Joey: each character in the show makes you fall in love with them. Joey’s how you’re doing? and Joey’s special: 2 pizzas undoubtedly make you admire him. Joey’s love for food, his smooth talking, and his inadequate knowledge on subjects, 7 sisters, everything as a whole makes the audience admire Matt Le Blanc for his stellar performance throughout the 10 seasons.
5) Chandler: who doesn’t want to be with someone like chandler?
Every girl looks for a guy with a good sense of humour; well ‘chandler’ has definitely set a bar for the rest of the guys out there. Till date, I don’t think any other character of a sitcom that I know of, has a better timing, sarcastic comments or wit other than our own ‘friend’ Mathew Perry.
6) Phoebe: if there’s one thing you should learn from the character Phoebe played by Liza Kudrow, it should be to follow your heart. Phoebe presents so many examples for the same
a) she loves singing and playing the guitar so she does that in Central Perk even though we know she’s not good at it,
b) she becomes a surrogate mother for her brother and freaks people out by saying, yes I am having my brother’s babies,
c) She wears eccentric clothes,
d) follows her own rules and norms,
this makes her and idol for many young people out there.
7) Gunther: a worker in Central Park is apparently in love with Rachel but fails to confess his feelings for her, moreover his dialogue delivery limited to a few seconds in various episodes in commendable. The crazy part is Ross’s mom seems to have a huge crush on him. The audience tends to show pity to Gunther but then he manages to get us all to like him.
8) Presence of celebrities like Brad Pitt, Denise Richard Paul Rudd: all these three great actors appear in the show in different seasons and give an outstanding performance. They convincingly play the roles assigned to them
a) Paul Rudd: plays phoebes husband
b) Brad Pitt : plays Ross’s and Rachel’s school mate
c) Denise Richards: plays Ross’s and Monica’s cousin
9) Ross and his 3 failed marriages: one with the lesbian, one where he says wrong name at his wedding and a one is a mistake made when he’s drunk. One ought to laugh at Ross’s failed marriage in a way that you also sympathise with him. All these scenes are hell of a comic ride.
10) Janice’s laugh: how annoying that particular laugh gets we all know it, but then don’t we just love it?
We all must have used this famous laugh one time or the other in our lives to annoy friends or people around us.
11) How we hoped phoebe and Joey could end up together: I don’t know about you guys but throughout the 10 seasons I prayed that like the rest 4 of them fell in love, even Joey and Phoebe would, but that doesn’t happen. My hopes built up when both of them share a kiss and Phoebe continues to defend Joey at numerous occasions. Though this doesn’t happen Phoebe finds her perfect match and is happily married to Mike (Paul Rudd).
12) Teaches us to be proud of who you are: one lesson that the show teaches us is that never be afraid to show who you are and never give in,
a) Phoebe like I mentioned above sings and plays though she literally sucks at it.
b) Rachel is passionate about working in Fashion, after a lot of struggle she manages to work under huge brands.
c) Joey struggles as an actor throughout the show but never ever gives up.
13) Even after 10 years since it ended, we all still love Friends and can watch it anywhere and anytime. Nothing can replace this classic, not even How I Met Your Mother which I believe has in a way copied friends in various aspects. Our love for ‘friends’ fails to fade away even today.
