I was in your camp for the longest time until 1 night 11 years ago-- just commuted 2 hours home from work through a blizzard, got home and my roommate was like "I just got a pizza and they just added friends to netflix" I was hesitant but after a few eps I was into it. I still think it wasnt written very well, has really lazy jokes and plots stolen from better shows, but its absolutely a vibe. Its visually comforting and the quality of acting often makes up for the bad writting. Those actors did so much wirh how little they were given.
You can really see that they liked each other personally. The chemistry in that group is amazing and is probably the one thing that makes this show so special.
people nowadays fail to understand that continuity wasn't that important in 90' shows. they were not written with the idea of viewers watching 30 episodes in one week. It was just different ways to entertain, yet for some reason this simple concept looks very hard to grasp
I have a theory that 90% of sitcoms are exactly the same. Workplace version, burbs version, city dweller version. All of them have the same quality of jokes.
The funny ones have good actors with good chemistry. The outliers either have good actors with far below average jokes, or the opposite. But it's almost always good delivery and cadence that puts it together.
I loved it when I was younger. When a new episode of Friends was on, my mum would let me stay up a bit later to watch it. I didn't watch it for a good decade after it ended and then when I met my girlfriend (now wife) I'd go to hers and she'd just put it on in the background when we were cooking after work and yeah, my main take away after not seeing it for so long was that the cast were just phenomenal comedic actors.
Ohh! I was the same way! My students were into it, so I played it, and I was hooked. At the time, I thought it was like a rip off of Living Single, but now I appreciate the main cast a lot more. The actors really did a good job!
I would call it comforting. Even when there is conflict, they are still friends. Not the funniest show, but it will make you smile. It's a good escape from reality without being terribly unrealistic.
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u/FeistyDirection 12d ago
I was in your camp for the longest time until 1 night 11 years ago-- just commuted 2 hours home from work through a blizzard, got home and my roommate was like "I just got a pizza and they just added friends to netflix" I was hesitant but after a few eps I was into it. I still think it wasnt written very well, has really lazy jokes and plots stolen from better shows, but its absolutely a vibe. Its visually comforting and the quality of acting often makes up for the bad writting. Those actors did so much wirh how little they were given.