Introduction
It has been
twelve years to the end of an American television sitcom which took the whole
world along its tides of laughter, love, romance and most importantly,
friendship. F.R.I.E.N.D.S. started in 1994 with a script that focused on six
people in their late twenties hanging out in a coffee house. Twenties, a time
in everybody’s lives when we believe anything and everything is possible and
where life is also quite uncertain. This show mostly focused on friends who
have each other’s backs in times of need and their journeys towards later phase
of lives. The idea was conceptualized by David Crane and Marta Kauffman who
envisaged the idea near around the point when they had completed college. They
had begun living on their own in New York and Kauffman mostly believed this
time to be “more of a question mark”. They thought this concept was going to
appeal to all age groups because they believed that everyone in their lives
goes through this phase. "It's about sex, love, relationships, careers, a
time in your life when everything's possible. And it's about friendship because
when you're single and in the city, your friends are your family."(David
Crane, Marta Kauffman and Kevin Bright). F.R.I.E.N.D.S. ran successfully for
ten seasons over ten years with the average number of viewers being 23.61
million. (Checkout our collection of Friends T-Shirts India)
Will we ever get bored of F.R.I.E.N.D.S.?
F.R.I.E.N.D.S.
started with six friends in their late twenties in New York. Two of them, Ross
and Rachel whose lives just turned upside down with Ross getting divorced by
his estranged lesbian wife and Rachel leaving her fiancé on the altar. The show
portrays Monica as clean freak who is searching the right guy to date while
Chandler and Joey try to help Ross get over his divorce. Meanwhile, Phoebe
constantly points out how she grew up in the most tragic way after her mother
killed herself and her step-father went to prison. The most important thing
about the show that sets right from the beginning is that it brought out the
realities of life in a subtly hilarious way. This show brings out light comedy
in the form of everyday scenarios of six people trying to do the best in their
life among all the uncertainties that come their way, which is not very
different from what we face on an everyday basis. The show didn’t just show
that bonding between the characters, it also showed the failures that each of
them faced and how they embraced it. The show was bold enough to show how the
characters sometimes lost their jobs, failed at their love lives and handled
awkward situations poorly. And that mostly, appealed to the viewers because,
who hasn’t been through that! One of the classic lines which is said by Monica
after she persuades Rachel to cut all her fancy credit cards “Welcome to the
real world. It sucks” is also hinting at reality. Maybe, we don’t poke a ugly
naked guy with a giant poking device made up of chopsticks, maybe we don’t get
married to our best friend in Vegas while being drunk and maybe we don’t raise
rats in a shoebox but somehow, we could all relate this amazing show because of
its most comprehendible situations and we found parts of ourselves in the
characters portrayed. Hence, I would like to reflect on the characters on the
show.
Chandler Bing, hopeless
and desperate for love as he is, remains in an on and off relationship with
Janice who brings out the laughter in the audience because of her cacophonic
laugh and her classic “Oh. My. God.” Chandler never fails to impress us with
his one-liners which are not only interesting and keeps us hooked but also
hilarious.
Chandler and
Joey are roommates, however, their friendship is something that is most loved
on the show. Who doesn’t want a best friend as they are! He finally wounds up
in an epic relationship with Monica which started out as meaningless sex to
comfort each other.
Phoebe Buffay is the most
eccentric of all the characters. Among her bizarre sense of fashion,
exhilarating song writing abilities and comical manner of handling situations,
Princess Consuela Banana Hammock, a.k.a., Regina Phalange will definitely
compel you to see this show again and again. Her confidence is exhilarating and
she is the creator of the song “Smelly Cat” which is her signature song among
all her other songs. Even though she might not be the best singer out there or
her lyrics mayn’t make perfect sense or her voice might be irritating, she
never stopped following her passion and went on to produce music videos. Her
passion and the way she sings her hear out with all her emotions makes her
songs quite fascinating. She has been portrayed as a very compassionate,
charitable and selfless character which is inferential after she agreed to be
the surrogate mother for her brother and let the love of her life go to Minsk
because it was good for him. Most importantly, she never failed to make us
laugh. PAGE 4
Joey Tribbiani - an
Italian-American who is an aspiring actor is adored because of his
kind-heartedness and loyalty that he portrays towards his friends. Although, he
is portrayed as promiscuous as well as stupid, but these features bring out the
child and humour in him and that’s what makes us love him even more. He is
portrayed as someone who loves his food, especially meatball sub sandwiches and
pizzas. He is charming in every way possible with his classic pick up line
being “How you doin?”
Monica Geller an amazing
chef is shown as a person who is competitive and is overly obsessive about
cleanliness. And, in this spirit of competitiveness, once, she bet her
apartment to Chandler and Joey in return for them to get rid of their rooster
and duck, but lost in the end. She used to be fat during her early age and had
acquired the name “Big Fat Goalie”. She had a topsy-turvy love life where she
once dated a billionaire and then, an ophthalmologist among many others who was
her father’s friend before ending up with Chandler. Monica always remained the
host throughout the ten seasons. She showed immense courage when she motivates
Chandler to quit the job he hated and supported him in every way possible. She
and Chandler also adopted twins in the last season after finding out that they
can’t have kids.
Ross Geller is the brother
of Monica Geller and is a palaeontologist. Their parents are proud him. Ross
and Monica are portrayed as very competitive from their childhood. Instances on
the show include fighting for The Geller Cup which was hosted every
Thanksgiving since childhood as well as wrestling in their childhood. He had an
incessant need to correct people for their wrong usage of English. He was
amazingly funny on the show due to various reasons like overdoing his spray tan
because he couldn’t count mississippilessly, over-whitening his teeth, wearing
a ladies shirt, among a lot others. His on-again and off-again relationship
with Rachel kept us hooked to the show. He had a crush on Rachel since high
school but never acted on it till he was divorced by his lesbian wife. He has
dated quite a number of women in the show and has been married and divorced
three times equally. That bagged him the title “Ross: The Divorce Force”. He,
at the end of the show, gets back together with Rachel which was the perfect
ending to the show.
Rachel Green started out
as a rich, naïve girl who left her fiancé at the altar and lived with her high
school best friend, Monica. Her on-again and off-again relationship with Ross
kept us asking for more. The show portrayed Rachel with a bigger nose in her
childhood which she later reduced by surgery. She showed impeccable courage
when she wore a cheerleading outfit in her late twenties to impress a guy. She
also married Ross in season 6 after both of them were drunk. She was terrible
at cooking and one fine Thanksgiving Day, she made an English trifle with
ladyfingers, custard, jam and beef which according to Ross tasted like feet.
She and Ross have a baby at the beginning of season 8 and both of them end up
together which all the audiences could ever hope for! PAGE 8
CONCLUSION
F.R.I.E.N.D.S.
doesn’t just have one magic ingredient that makes it this successful, it is the
combination of a lot of elements. Be it the eccentricity of Phoebe or the
dim-wittedness of Joey or the best supporting cast or best possible the script
written, the show has touched a million hearts in ways undefinable. The show
might be a source of relaxation for some, while for others it’s a way of life.
It has been showcased over the years after the series finale in 2004 again and
again, not just because it’s fun to watch but also because it’s hands down one
of the best shows in the history of television.
Nice entertaining article...
ReplyDeleteBest Lines For Friends