This week’s blog post will be a new kind of blog post. Instead of reviewing a show after I have finished it, I will review Friends while currently watching it. At the time of writing this, I have finished through Season 7 Episode 6: “The One with the Nap Partners.” Keeping this in mind, even though I have a general idea of how the show concludes, please keep comments spoiler-free.
In the past, I had viewed Friends over my sister’s shoulder in bits and pieces. It is a sitcom created from 1904-2004. Now, I have finally started watching the show myself per the recommendations of numerous people. While I knew that Friends was a successful, popular show, I was unaware of its extent of it. According to Market Place, Friends has been nominated for 62 Primetime Emmy awards and has 10 Golden Globe Award nominations with 6 wins and 1 win, respectively. Emmy awards are the pinnacle for television shows and emerging media, and the Golden Globes are for peak films and television shows. Additionally, NY Daily News reports that Friends is the most-watched sitcom of all time, beating out Seinfeld and Game of Thrones which were second and third place. Unfortunately, because many of the watch hours are through DVDs and methods that cannot be recorded, there is no accurate estimate for how many hours Friends has been watched in total by all persons. If one were to sit down and watch the entire Friends series all at once, it would take approximately 85 cumulative hours. So, it is on the longer end of the spectrum for television shows with ten seasons with roughly twenty episodes each-each episode being 20-22 minutes long.
Now to my own review of the show. Since starting this blog post and taking a break for a couple of days, I have progressed to season 7 episode 14. If that doesn’t convey my fervor for the show, I could include a rather sad statistic about how recently I started the show, but I will allow any commenters to provide a guess. Continuing, I think the basis for judging the strength of a show should be mostly objective and statistically based. While I could dive into an in-depth analysis of the craft and creative elements of the show as I did for the Office and other shows, I have found that I am not watching this show for the quality of production, though I do not doubt it exists. I watch Friends simply for light-hearted entertainment, however.
The beauty of Friends is how easy it is to watch it. This may not be the best way to watch it, but I watch Friends in the background all the time and don’t always devote a given time to sit down and watch it. I can put away my laundry or do a mindless task and watching Friends makes those things more fun and the time passes far more quickly.
There are two different platforms I watch Friends on. First, I watch Friends on my phone through certain websites. No, I won’t specify which websites. This constant easy access has been a driving force in the prevalence of my sporadic watchings of the show. But what makes it so entertaining, and what keeps enticing me to watch more?
Let me start by saying that there are only mild tension and pilot lines that carry from one episode to the next. One of the primary hooks was between Ross and Rachel thus far. This was one of the few times that I felt super drawn in to watch another episode after having just finished one. If it is not for consistent tension and suspense, why do I continue to watch Friends?
The characters are extremely relatable like in The Big Bang Theory. While I don’t live in New York, the friends continue to have interesting problems in their lives that are plausible and entertaining. Characters like Joey are certain people that could be seen in public and meet in real life. If one were to meet him in person, one would be entertained. In essence, Friends provides an opportunity for the viewers to get a glimpse into an entertaining group of people’s lives. From the beginning to where I am now, there have been dynamics between the main characters that continually shift and keep the view on their toes.
For me, Friends is a feel-good show. Nearly every time I watch it, it will be a time I want to relax or before I go to bed because the episodes are relatively conclusive. I am looking forward to watching the rest of Friends, but not looking forward to the end. Most of you have probably seen Friends already, but if not, I highly recommend it.
Hi Chris,
I must say that your mention of the TV Show Friends immediately compelled me to read your blog. My first memory of watching Friends is as a 9th grader with nothing but time in my hands. It was so easy to get sucked into the short episodes and the sardonic jokes from Chandler. Something really weird that I vividly remember doing is downloading the whole Friends TV show from google drive so I could watch it on my laptop for free (this was definitely breaking some law of pirating and each episode was like a file folder I had to open). Moving on, my favorite kind of tv show is absolutely sitcoms. I think there is something so appealing about just watching characters grow and navigate relationships and experiences but in the face of comedy. In my experience of watching many, many, many sitcoms/comedy here are my favorite and why you should watch them (if you haven’t already):
New Girl:
Beautifully well done relationship building between characters (better done than Friends)
Many seasons, short episodes
One of the main characters was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois.
There is a cat named Furguson!!!
The Mindy Project
Funny and low commitment while still addressing serious topics
Witty and lovable cast
Hi Chris!
I found this blog really interesting, because I have heard so much about friends without ever actually watching it. I was the type of person to get into arguments with others in middle school over which is better: The Office or Friends. Both sides never watched the other show but we were very aggressive about what we believed in. Similar to you before actually watching the show, I have only consumed bit sized pieces of it, sometimes even watching clips of the show on Tiktok, edited onto the top half of the screen with this one knife throwing mobile game gameplay on the bottom half. Anyways, it’s nice to know it’s a show with light plotlines, something you can pick up and put down anytime, while still being something that can keep the audience on their toes. Even from the clips I watch here and there, I get immersed almost immediately. I too find Joey really entertaining and love meeting people like him in real life. I also like Rachel, but I don’t really like Ross because I don’t find him as likeable or funny as the other characters. Maybe I haven’t seen enough of him, though. This post may inspire to actually start watching; great job!
Hi Chris! I totally understand why you like watching Friends, you made some really good points in your blog and the was definitely a phase in middle school where pretty much the only television I was consuming was either Friends or Grey’s Anatomy. With that said, this was just that: a phase. One that I quickly outgrew, at that. I have become very particular about the shows I spend my time watching and I think they can be broken down into three categories: 1) horrific true crime documentaries/movies, 2) cringey dating shows, and 3) a VERY specific style of comedy. There are plenty of reasons Friends no longer fits into the third category, the first being the constant laugh tracks. I am sorry, I don’t like being told when to laugh and I really think the sound of other people laughing makes me want to laugh less. On top of that, I am not a fan of the humor in general, I find Phoebe and Joey to be extremely annoying and the only person remotely funny is Chandler (I am big on sarcasm). All of its flaws aside, I agree with you in that Friends is a really good show to have on in the background. If you’ve never watched Schitt’s Creek, I recommend it!