Is it threadshitting to come into this thread and say you* liked* Friends?
Maybe. But I did like Friends.
I liked the series. It wasn’t great television but it was entertaining.
I’ll take the risk. Well, I liked the first few seasons at least. I lost interest around the time Ross blew up his own wedding to that obnoxious British woman, Chandler and Monica hooked up and all the female cast began having babies. Really, I know that the series had to progress the overall storyline but it seems like it should have ended at least four seasons before it actually did.
High points for me, among others ,were the various takes on Thanksgiving, the couple of alternate universe episodes, the one with the trivia game where the winner gets Monica and Rachel’s apartment, and Phoebe teaching Chrissie Hynde how to sing ‘Smelly Cat’. Low points: as mentioned above, along with, in general, the soap-opry aspects, particularly the banal, endles Ross-Rachel will they-won’t they storyline.
I love Friends! I’d seen only one episode until I returned to the US two years ago. That was in Kuala Lumpur in 1996, and the reason I didn’t see more was because the TV set in the hotel room literally blew up and they didn’t have a replacement. So when I returned here two years ago, I watched it every day. Still watch it every night. It’s a great show! What’s not to like?
I’m watching it now.
Buncha threadcrappers.
It just jumped the shark earlier than most, running the typical arc of something that attracts attention for being potentially subversive, then becoming almost exclusively about “feelings”. “Feelings” are what sells the junk food, pills and new improved razors. Many TV shows do this: Mad Men, Oprah, even that show about a criminal biker gang. For Friends it just happened after the first three episodes of the first season.
The show finished some 15 years ago.
To watch it now, yeah the humor seems dated and also social norms have moved on. Also the last couple seasons it did run out of steam.
But it makes perfect sense to me how much of a hit *Friends *was at the time: it was simply a lot funnier than anything else on TV at the time, plus it looked like a fun place to be: you want to be the seventh person hanging out at Cafe Perk. But also I can see why someone watching it now would think it was crappy.
We still have that socially inept scientist show.
I liked it back when they iced down Rachel’s nipples and she had some juicy t & a. Then they got into that whole let’s see what actress on tv can be the skinniest bag of bones competition.
You could also tell whenever Matthew Perry was struggling with addiction because his weight fluctuated around 30-40lbs over a short time and his head completely changed.
… Which also jumped the shark long ago when it started to be about “relationships” and “feelings.” I wish CBS would finally put it out of its misery.
The only episodes (or bits of episodes) I’ve seen were the ones with Paget Brewster in nothing but a jersey and sweat socks.
Paget Brewster, mmmmmmmmmmmmmm! :o
Was never crazy about it. I did always like Chandler though. Nobody plays a better smart ass than him.
Here and there it has some nice little bits. But a lot of not so nice bits. Watching it once a week was okay. But watching several episodes back-to-back. Egad, the flaws just jump out screaming. Plus once you know how certain things turn out (often in a dumb way), rewatching becomes very uninteresting. The anticipation just isn’t there.
I’ve never had strong enough feelings about it to hate it. But from what little I’ve seen, the best I can say for it is that it’s better than Seinfeld.
It sucked. The only good moment was Kathleen Turner as Chandler’s dad.
Chandler: There’s daddy.
Monica (absolutely drop jawed): That cannot be your father.
Chandler: Believe me, I’ve been saying that for years.
I never got into it back when it was running, and don’t have any nostalgia to get me into it today. I don’t get why people are so into it, especially younger people who didn’t see it in the first run, but it’s in the ‘meh’ category, not ‘I hate this with the passion of a thousand burning suns’.
I’ve watched a few episodes here and there. It didn’t grab me. Then again, I’ve never been a faithful follower of any situation comedy. My wife loved it though, bought the DVD box set.
You may not like the writing or the actors, but I don’t see what there is to not “get”. It’s a standard sitcom that happened to be quite popular, probably because it had pretty people in it. Nothing deep here.
possibly, but I hate sitcoms in general.