I noticed in Zeldar’s favourite TV show thread that no one listed Friends as a favourite show - including me! I loved the show at first - but by the end I was sick of it.
For me, it went on at least two series too long. The Ross character’s mannerisms stopped being endearing & started making me want to slap him. The Rachel /Joey storyline felt particularly contrived.
& in common with MASH & Home Improvement NZ TV repeated it so many times! NOw the only episode I would ever want to see again is the “Hes her lobster one” Thats a classic.
I got very sick of it towards the end. I remember liking it in high school (oh, around '98) and really getting into the reruns. Today when I catch older eps, I cringe a bit. They feel like old friends or interests from the past…and ones who are really into how smart they are and showing it off.
I enjoyed it a lot for the first 3 or 4 seasons, but I think it got a little stale, to me, after that point. I rarely watch comedies in syndicated re-runs anyway, but I couldn’t tell you the last time I watched an episode of “Friends”.
I think saying “it hasn’t aged well” isn’t really correct. It’s just that the earlier episodes were much funnier than the later episodes. And I think the first three or four seasons have aged fine - they’re still funny. The last couple seasons were never that funny…and still aren’t.
MAS*H actually had the exact same issue. Early seasons=awesome. Late seasons=overly dramatic and hokey.
I watched a rerun recently. Phoebe, Monica, and Rachel were still hot. Chandler was still amusingly emotionally inept. Ross still needed to be killed for the good of humanity. So I’d say it’s aged alright.
I think part of the reason Friends didn’t hold up was, as other posters said, it seems very forced in many ways. You don’t notice it so much in first runs, 'cause it happens over a period of years. But when you’re watching two episodes back to back, five days a week, it becomes much more obvious.
The matching of Rachel/Ross, and all the others, the babies etc.
One of the things I disliked is they really didn’t seem to grow up. What was funny in the start to see some young people acting goofy is OK but then you’re like, it’s ten years later, why do you still act that way?
Another part is the fame that quickly went to all of the cast, seems to show up very rapidly over the course of the show.
Heh - I just watched The One With the Wedding Dresses yesterday, and I laughed my ass off. Some of the series has aged quite well; the first season or so wasn’t the best thing ever, but when they started to hit their stride, it was a very, very funny show, and I think it still is. There were some extremely talented comedic talents in that show (one of them being Jennifer Aniston - I think her comedic timing is really under-rated).
I really liked Friends for the first 3-4 seasons (I loved Marcel the monkey), but then when they got into all the romantic entanglements it quickly went south for me. Maybe if they only had 1 couple come out the mix it might have stayed fresh but 2? Nah, too contrived IMO.
And I totally agree with Markxxx about the actors. I started out thinking they were all kinda cute and endearing, but by the end of it I had completely quit watching it because they all annoyed the snot outta me, particularly Jennifer Aniston, with Courtenay Cox a close second.
Aniston is the equivalent of a cheese grater to my nerves, and I refuse to watch any of her shitty movies these days. It’s like she’s a guest in my home that, sure, I may have initially invited, but who has now way over-stayed her welcome and I’m about ready to shoot her in the face and bury her in the tomato garden if that’s what it takes to get rid of her. She’s done nothing but assault us with bad movies since the series ended. If she would just go away for a few years I mightmaybe start to miss her and invite her back. If she would quit (unsuccessfully) trying to be a movie star, and if she had just gone underground for 2-3 years after the show, I think she might have had a very good chance at another successful TV series. She can forget that now, considering she has bought into her own hype.
All of the cast is guilty of this to varying degrees, it is just that Aniston is by far the worst of the bunch.
The only one I can tolerate now is Lisa Kudrow (probably the most talented of the females), and that is because she had the good sense to lay low for awhile.
Even in its later years, Friends was still not bad (head and shoulders above “According to Jim”) and episodes like that one or “The One With the Embryos” (“What was Monica’s nickname when she was a field-hockey goalie?” “Big fat goalie!”) or “The One with the Routine” are absolutely hilarious still.
Monica was the best example of this. In the beginning of the series they were all functional young adults with a few quirks. But the last few seasons were so awful, Monica went from being “mothering with a side of control freak” to so completely anal and OCD and ridiculously unbelievable it was cringetastic.
The thought of certain scenes still makes me laugh, but not enough to rewatch it. The show had a high proportion of obvious comedy, and that loses any value it had the second time around.
