# Am I the Only One Who Thinks the TV Show “Friends” Is Very Overrated? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [May 4, 2021, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-thinks-the-tv-show-friends-is-very-overrated/941343 "2021-05-04T01:37:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Esprise\_Me](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprise_me/32/2947_2.png) [@Esprise\_Me](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprise_Me)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-thinks-the-tv-show-friends-is-very-overrated/941343/61 "2021-05-05T05:15:57Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > > [@Mijin](#): > > > > Yep. And I guess what I was trying to say was: it’s a happy place. It felt very upbeat. We liked feel good stuff, this was the era of star trek TNG (I think). > > > > > We’re a bit too cynical now to just enjoy going to a happy place. > > Honestly, I think this is why Michael Schur’s shows (Parks and Rec, The Good Place, Brooklyn 99) have succeeded recently. They’re bright points of optimism in a sea of cynicism. C’mon, _The Good Place_ doesn’t belong in this discussion. Sure it’s uplifting, but it’s not feel-good brain candy. Its brilliance is surely more relevant to its popularity. > [@ZosterSandstorm](#): > > Jennifer Aniston was tremendously funny in _Office Space_ and probably could have been a great comic actress in more substantial material than what she’s been given, but she was ruined on that front by trying to be a “star” or a sex symbol. The rest of the cast was good enough to carry the good enough material they were given. That comparison is the first thing that came to my mind, too. _Friends_ never appealed to me but _Office Space_ holds up, and she was great in it. What do you mean about her being ruined by trying to be a star or sex symbol? Not trying to argue, just don’t know enough to understand. Explain it to me like I’ve only half-watched a half-dozen episodes, only because it was on every TV at the gym for a while, if you wouldn’t mind. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-thinks-the-tv-show-friends-is-very-overrated/941343/62 "2021-05-05T14:46:19Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > But I think the show rewarded observant watchers. I knew “whodunnit” from the start. There is a huge clue in the first episode - but you have to be paying _extremely_ close attention. I knew whodunnit, too, though not from the beginning. (Unless you’re saying you knew it was BOB right from the beginning? Which would be something.) Doesn’t change what I said in any way. Who Killed Laura Palmer wasn’t The Mystery to be solved. Tell me, why are the owls not what they seem, and what are they? Why was there a fish in the percolator? Did that gum ever come back in style? Did the log really speak? No one knows! The show left factoids (I wouldn’t call them clues - clues fit together, and serve the greater story) lying around like bird droppings. Everyone forgives anything Lynch does. Hell, people think they understand Mullholland Drive, too, which is pretty good, because Lynch certainly doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-thinks-the-tv-show-friends-is-very-overrated/941343/63 "2021-05-05T14:57:53Z")
I tried watching exactly one episode of _Friends_. It was so bad, I couldn’t even finish it. ---
**Author:** ![themapleleaf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/themapleleaf/32/14349_2.png) [@themapleleaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/themapleleaf)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-thinks-the-tv-show-friends-is-very-overrated/941343/64 "2021-06-17T13:19:12Z")
I was never a fan myself; the show as a whole never had anything to offer me. I should mention, though, that I was never particularly interested in sitcoms. I started watching them later than most of my peers (at 9) and largely stopped watching them in my teens. One of the first ones I watched, “Webster”, was very kid-friendly, with topics that were relevant to my age group; ditto for “Full House”. I kind of liked Seinfeld at 13, but by 14 it had lost its appeal - I actually walked out of an episode that I had paid to watch at school during the lunch break. Also, for example I never cared for reruns of “M.A.S.H.”; I found the humor borderline stupid. So “Friends” always seemed like a waste of time. “The Big Bang Theory” and “Young Sheldon” do have some appeal for me, though the former eventually got quite old. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-thinks-the-tv-show-friends-is-very-overrated/941343/65 "2021-06-17T13:37:49Z")
_South Park_, which I stopped watching years ago, is a very different show from _Friends_. Much cruder, funnier, different audience. They once had, as part of a Hanukkah song about dreidels, a summary of the appeal of the show in one verse. _Courtney Cox! I love you! You’re so hot! On that show!_ But attractive actors do not a show make. The plots are so ridiculous. The last one I saw had three subplots - geeky guy tries to impress girl by pretending he can play rugger, girl destroys apartment hunting for obscure noise and guy does not want to tell girlfriend he needs to break up with her because of her annoying voice so invents a job in Yemen. These ideas are not terrible. But, to take an example, the _joke_ is he is going to go to… Yemen!! Yemen! That’s craaaazy. Even the name is funny - or meant to be. Ha, ha. Yemen! Good thing there’s a laugh track. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-thinks-the-tv-show-friends-is-very-overrated/941343/66 "2021-06-17T14:25:09Z")
Did Friends have any catch phrases that a non-Friends watcher may have heard? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-thinks-the-tv-show-friends-is-very-overrated/941343/67 "2021-06-17T14:38:14Z")
Here are two, off the top of my head. “We were on a break!” “Could you BE any more annoying?” (The “catchphrase” was in the use of “be” and how it was said, not the rest of the sentence.) There are more, no doubt. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-thinks-the-tv-show-friends-is-very-overrated/941343/68 "2021-06-17T14:50:21Z")
“PIVOT!” (Discourse does not approve.) ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-thinks-the-tv-show-friends-is-very-overrated/941343/69 "2021-06-17T15:40:42Z")
One episode popularized (but didn’t invent) the phrase “going commando”. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-thinks-the-tv-show-friends-is-very-overrated/941343/70 "2021-06-17T16:44:29Z")
Probably the closest thing they had to a catchphrase, in the sense of something that was repeated in multiple episodes for comic effect, was Joey’s greeting to an attractive woman: “How _you_ doin’?” ---
**Author:** ![pirviii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pirviii/32/3233_2.png) [@pirviii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pirviii)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-thinks-the-tv-show-friends-is-very-overrated/941343/71 "2021-06-17T16:47:41Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > girl destroys apartment hunting for obscure noise Actually, she was trying to find what a light switch went to, and this episode is in my top 5 Friends episodes. This episode relies on past knowledge of the characters and events, and these actions are perfectly normal for them in the situation they are in. It may just seem odd to a casual viewer because their actions seem counter to what you or I would do, but is exactly what those characters would do. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-thinks-the-tv-show-friends-is-very-overrated/941343/72 "2021-06-17T17:16:00Z")
Did the friends ever go into that coffee shop, and have to sit somewhere other than that couch? Can you reserve couches in coffee shops in NYC? ---
**Author:** ![epbrown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e47774/32.png) [@epbrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2021, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-thinks-the-tv-show-friends-is-very-overrated/941343/73 "2021-06-18T14:54:45Z")
They did a cold open in which they found the couch occupied and went back home, as well as an episode where one subplot is another group commandeering the couch, both early in the run. In most seasons, the couch was permanently reserved for them because of Gunther’s crush on Rachel. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2021, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-thinks-the-tv-show-friends-is-very-overrated/941343/74 "2021-06-18T14:58:24Z")
> [@pirviii](#): > > Actually, she was trying to find what a light switch went to, and this episode is in my top 5 Friends episodes. This episode relies on past knowledge of the characters and events, and these actions are perfectly normal for them in the situation they are in. It may just seem odd to a casual viewer because their actions seem counter to what you or I would do, but is exactly what those characters would do. “What’s making that sound?” “… it’s Joey.” “Turn him off!” ---
**Author:** ![willjackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willjackson/32/8187_2.png) [@willjackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/willjackson)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2021, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-thinks-the-tv-show-friends-is-very-overrated/941343/75 "2021-06-19T12:00:37Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I tried watching exactly one episode of _Friends_ . It was so bad, I couldn’t even finish it. lmao same. Don’t even bother to hear about it anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2021, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-thinks-the-tv-show-friends-is-very-overrated/941343/76 "2021-06-19T15:17:42Z")
You are right about the subplot. My problem with _Friends_ is not the fetching actresses, crazy situations or developed characters. It’s the football-in-the-groin lack of subtlety. No doubt plenty of TV is over-emoted, but _Friends_ so much so that it seems incredibly artificial to me. The laugh track doesn’t help. The writing is incredibly blunt - it would be pretty hard to miss the joke. I don’t doubt the situations “remain in character”. No doubt if you watch the show for years this is endearing. But if you watched the show with the volume off you would miss precisely nothing - and still get the primary benefit of the show. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2021, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-thinks-the-tv-show-friends-is-very-overrated/941343/77 "2021-06-19T15:32:01Z")
Do you know Malcolm Gladwell’s theory that the characters on matched, which is what you call over-emoted?: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/6LaG25gdJog/maxresdefault.jpg "Malcolm Gladwell on Why 'Friends' is Misleading") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LaG25gdJog) ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2021, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-thinks-the-tv-show-friends-is-very-overrated/941343/78 "2021-06-19T15:40:37Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > Interestingly, Malcolm Gladwell writes that the acting in the show is so expressive one could easily follow the complex plots without sound. He shows all the actors use much stronger facial movements than most people in real life. So it is crystal clear when the characters are feeling happy, annoyed, disgusted, angry, fearful, etc. since most of the muscles coding these emotions are at a 5/5 level. To me it just seems unnatural. Which wise man said this? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2021, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-thinks-the-tv-show-friends-is-very-overrated/941343/79 "2021-06-19T15:52:40Z")
Sorry, I didn’t go back and reread all the posts. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2021, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-thinks-the-tv-show-friends-is-very-overrated/941343/80 "2021-06-19T15:54:58Z")
And I didn’t even copyedit my post well, so that I said “the characters on matched” instead of “the characters on _Friends_ are matched”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-thinks-the-tv-show-friends-is-very-overrated/941343.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-who-thinks-the-tv-show-friends-is-very-overrated/941343.md?page=5)