If nothing on the photo below is familiar to you, then you are not a F.R.I.E.N.D.S fan.
I ordered this poster online from the US and had my sister bring it home just so I can have it mounted on our wall. I spent $2 on this poster but Php 2,500 to get it framed.
The husband and I are on the second episode of the sixth season of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. This is probably the 50th time we’ve cycled through the ten seasons, and I don’t see us stopping. And I know exactly why we love this sitcom so much.
It’s set in the 90s, and we’re 90s people.
But it’s definitely more than that.
The story is centered on 6 people in their 20s with the characters having each of their own eccentricities and while they can live without each other, they choose not to. Phoebe’s psychiatrist boyfriend, Roger, describes the “dysfunctional group dynamic” as “…this kind of co-dependent, emotionally-stunted, sitting-in-your-stupid-coffee-house-with-your-stupid-big-cups which, I’m sorry, might as well have nipples on them.. and you’re all like ‘oh define me, define me, love me. I need love!”. (Needless to say, that effectively killed off Roger.) I can safely say that Roger’s reaction is typical of an outsider to the group; that while he may be trying to project a superior air, he was actually manifesting envy. While I am not at all envious, I do know that this is the circle that I want to be in. There is so much love! The husband calls them ‘dabarkads’.
As a viewer, I’d always prefer this ensemble over say, How I Met Your Mother (sorry, HIMYM fans!), which, in my opinion, would have flopped without Barney Stinson’s character played by the talented Neil Patrick Harris. F.R.I.E.N.D.S is a true ensemble cast in that the series just wouldn’t work without any of the 6 – Monica, Chandler, Ross, Rachel, Phoebe and Joey. Each character brings his own uniqueness to complete the group – Monica being the obsessive-compulsive-Mother-hen “I am always the hostess”, Chandler, the commitment-phobic-sarcastic-joker “Okay, you have to stop the Q-tip when there’s resistance!”, Ross, the fossil-loving-nitpicking-three-divorces-guy “You threw my sandwich away… My sandwich? MY SANDWICH?!!”, Rachel, pushover-daddys-girl-borderline-dumb-blonde-fashionista “Just so you know, it’s NOT that common, it DOESN’T happen to every guy and it IS a big deal!”, Phoebe, the quirky-singer-songwriter-flaky-hippie-masseuse “New York city has no power and the milk is getting sour, but to me it is not scary cause i stay away from dairy la la la la la” and Joey, the airhead-playboy-actor-with-a-big-heart “How you doin’?”. I loved how easily they can transition from one emotion to the next, happy to sad and vice-versa, in under a minute, and get the audience so involved. The comedic timing is excellent. The fact that they could pull off shooting in front of a live audience – that just proves how well the actors worked together even with Lisa Kudrow’s almost-frequent bursts of laughter.
To be continued…
