(Photo Courtesy of Warner Bros. Television)
In 2015, hit '90s atrocity, “Friends,” is coming to Netflix in its entirety, leaving its proper place in the rerun circuit on various TV networks and leading a resurgent invasion back into the lives of college students who cannot afford cable.
We. Are. Doomed.
“Friends” is among a number of nostalgic sitcoms that somehow garner positive regards, despite the actual material being utterly terrible. In fact, one could claim that the embrace of something as bad as “Friends” for the sake of holding on to the terror of '90s sitcom TV is the “friend-zoning” of the medium.
For as long as I can remember, “Friends” has always been the show that was not “Seinfeld” when searching through rerun hour (6:30 to 8 p.m.) on an average Tuesday summer night. It was always an inconvenience and never a pleasure.
After watching the show, I could see the allure. “Friends” hits most of the aspirations young people have: a core group of friends that can always count on each other to hang out in every waking moment of the day, an intricate web of relationships and the urban sprawl of New York City (which is really limited to approximately three places). To put it simply, it’s the dream.
But the show contains some sinister elements to it that make it detrimental for its Internet proliferation in today’s media climate.
Ostensibly, “Friends” covered most relationship bumps in the road in a way that was real enough to relate too, but surreal enough to keep the audience in a place of security. One has to ask, is there really a place for this now? With shows like “You’re the Worst” receiving critical acclaim, the trend is heading in a positive, more honest direction.
If you're going to go back to old sitcoms, it does not make much sense to go beyond "Arrested Development." It's got the heart, the politics and everything in between.
As far as I can tell, there is little to no minority representation in the show. This is customary of nearly all '90s/mid-2000s sitcoms, but, again, in today’s media circus where race representation and forward-thinking storytelling is paramount to the amount of laughs a show gets, it’s hard to imagine that “Friends” really has a place. And, the fact is, the entire industry still has a long way to go to improve on this.
Regressing to "Friends"-level storytelling would only serve to stall this progression.
Finally, we need to talk about Joey. Joey is the lovable loser who is so dumb that it’s still up for debate whether he is capable of tying his own shoes. But, for some reason, Joey prevails through all. Following the ending of “Friends,” NBC produced a sitcom entirely dedicated to the dingus. It failed miserably. Why can’t he just go away?
Do yourself a favor, go with the cable-free HBO streaming over that 5th time watching an episode of "Friends."
Tell the reporter how much you love "Friends" at zjenning@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @humanzane
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