I’ve watched maybe 5 episodes because I soooo wanted to like it. It sucks.
Hell, I liked it too. Monica was pretty. Rachel was hot. Phoebe was mind-bogglingly hot–okay, she wasn’t quite that when the series ended, but she looked good for a woman in her forties (reality) or mid-thirties (character). Chandler was hot too, I add as a mostly-heterosexual male. And I always enjoyed the mixture of soap opera and farce. The only thing missing was an admission that the couple who really belonged together was Rachel and JOEY.
This is just so wrong. Ross is Rachel lobster.
I was living in France when the show started, but one of the TV channels there ran episodes, in English. The first one I caught was the one where Phoebe builds an elaborate dollhouse that entually gets set on fire. I recall, when it was over, thinking, “there are some pretty clever jokes on this show”. I also remember thinking, “damn, those women are hot.”
I watched it for the next couple of years, then caught the early seasons in syndication when I moved back to the States. For me, it started going seriously downhill when Ross hooked up with that British harriden and Chandler and Monica hooked up with each other. I think I saw only about three episodes from the last two seasons. But the first five or so had some great stuff.
I watched Friends the whole time it was on and I still watch it. Especially if the CSI rerun on Spike is one I’ve already seen a zillion times.
Some episodes I can’t watch (Ross flirting with the pizza girl and anything about being “on a break”), but most are funny time and time again.
When my wife and I lived in Nunavut, we got TV channels from all over the place – cable company picking up channels from satellite. We would watch three or four episodes of Friends a night, night after night. It was like having our own young friends in Manhattan. The last couple of seasons were sadly bad, but man, it meant a lot to us for a long time.
Courteney Cox was hot. Still is.
I also quite like Friends and have nothing but disdain for people who use it as the stereotypical stupid-show-that-only-the-sheeple-and-not-elitist-people-with-good-taste-like-me-watch.
But I really don’t understand the whole Ross and Rachel thing. They just aren’t a good couple. What do they have in common? Ross should have stuck with Julie, Rachel should date Joey, and they can all remain friends.
I too enjoy “Friends”. I especially liked Phoebe.
That’s funny, I came to ogle Rachel (early eps) and stayed for Phoebe (mid-to-late eps). Monica was a skinny neurotic with no softness in her, no attraction for me whatsoever.
And the only guy for Rachel was that one behind the bar who was too shy to talk to her; he would have worshipped the ground she walked on just to be with her, and that would have suited her just fine.
The humour was OK, in general; some good one-liners but no ground-breaking thematic work like Seinfeld or The Simpsons.
Friends was great for me and my buddies for a couple of reasons.
First, for whatever reasons, we got to watch it from the beginning and didn’t have that awkward coming in the second or third season and missing half the in-jokes thing.
Second, it was ours. They were our age, and if we squinted really hard, we could pretend that those were the lives we weren’t having. So it made wiping runny noses and changing diapers seem like more of a valid choice, just because they were so delightfully messed up.
And just to set the record straight, Monica was actually a real person the first couple of seasons, apparently her comedic timing was lodged in her fat cells because she became more of an unfunny caricature the more skeletal she got. Chandler, by comparison, grew yummier even as he got more neurotic.
And she definitely looked cutest in the seasons two and three era.
I always liked Friends. Looking quite a bit like Chandler didn’t help me get laid as much as one might think…
-Joe
“This is ancient Earth’s most foolish program. Why does Ross, the largest Friend, not simply eat the other five?”
The first few seasons were above-average for a sitcom, but that may well have just correllated to when Jennifer Aniston was really That Hot. There are definitely enough things wrong with the show that someone could dislike it for perfectly valid reasons; unfortunately, a big chunk of the people who “hate” it do it for the “cool factor”.
As much as I might make fun of a couple of my female friends for NEEDING to watch it whenever the repeats are on… I’d definitely rather be watching repeats of Friends than anything sitcommy we’ve gotten since the networks decided to put all of their efforts into reality shows and prime-time soap operas. As long as you take it for what it is (light-hearted chick-oriented sitcom with a bunch of hot girls to keep the guys watching), there’s nothing wrong with liking Friends. It’s a B-minus show in a world of D-plus shows.
There’ve been funnier shows, but Friends is can still get me to piss myself from laughing on a regular basis. We’ve got all 10 seasons on DVD, so it’s safe to say it’s a popular show in the Briston household.
You’d think that would embarrass me, but you see I’m maxed out.
It may be worth noting that the DVD episodes include unaired scenes and are thus several minutes longer than the TV episodes.
Hello. My name is anyrose and I’m a Friends fan. It all started in 1994 with a show starring the boy i had a crush on thru-out high school (a Ross type) and my bestest bud in the theatre department (a Chandler type - only gay). I loved that Pheobe wasn’t as dumb as Ursula. She had a unique way of looking at and dealing with the world (her doll house comes to mind as the most creative expression of latent childhood) I’m glad Ross and Rachel ended up together at the end. The only thing I couldn’t connect with was after the engagement (season 7?) I no longer believed that Chandler & Monica were in love. Had Matthew Perry’s personal issues caused a rift in the cast? the chemistry (that had been present since the beginning even tho the characters weren’t romantic) with Courtner Cox was definitely gone.
I generally liked Friends. I used to watch it regularly until I started watching Survivor which was broadcast at the same time. But I still watch occasional reruns and have picked up some of the boxed sets used (and my street credibility is totally destroyed by now).
It’s generally an entertaining show. The cast and characters are likable and the women are attractive. The scripts are usually good for some laughs.
That’s okay. You can come down in the basement and watch it on dvd with the rest of us Friends geeks.
I think Ross flirting with the pizza girl (who turned into Yola from “The Chris Isaak Show”) is probably the most cringe-worthy moment in the series. Although Rachel coming out in her old cheerleader outfit is right up there. :o
Oh come on! Those eps were funny as hell!
“Your haircut looks like a little boys…”
“Not that its bad…I like little boys…”
“You rambled on for 18 pages…front and BACK!”
“Dont worry, if I need to sleep I can just read your L E T T E R!”
The Ross/Rachel thing was just so damn tedious, but I enjoyed intermittent episodes mostly for Chandler’s sarcasm. But once the babies started appearing… blech.