As Michael Schulman writes for the New Yorker, Friends “was pioneering in defining people’s twenties, often aimless and uncertain, as a distinct phase of adulthood, in which platonic friendships can provide a kind of structure lacking in romances or careers.” Viewers seem able to forgive the show’s more anachronistic tendencies, perhaps in exchange for its message of the potential of a good friendship. She admires the cast and crew for taking a “risk” with some story lines, such as Carol’s marriage to a woman in 1996, five years before gay marriage became legal in New York. Yet Hutton feels that in many ways the show did the best it could with the culture it was situated in at the time. The show “fell a little short when it came to different races and ethnicities,” Hutton says, noting that “in all 10 seasons there has been one major character who was black.” Twenty-one-year-old Sabrina Hutton of Tampa, Florida, says she’s been obsessed with Friends since she first watched it with her grandmother as a child.
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“I think this attitude is outdated in the setting of New York City in particular.” Still, Seech says loves the show for the way “the characters build a family unit that can resonate with audiences,” plus “the New York City culture and fashion of the 90s and early 2000s.” “I don’t think that consistently using Carol as the butt of jokes at Ross’ expense and poking fun at the friendship between Chandler and Joey would go over as well if written in a contemporary show,” says 22-year-old Dana Seech from the US.
While the show won a GLAAD Media Award for depicting Ross’s ex-wife Carol as being in a lesbian couple (sadly, this was a pretty big deal in 1995) its approach to the LGBTQ+ community, and lack of characters of color, can feel cringeworthy to some fans of a more woke generation now. For some, that’s enough to forgive its flaws. But for new viewers, however, Friends harkens back to a simpler time-before apps, social media, and smartphones dominated our attention, time, and friendships. Given how dated the show has become by contemporary standards, its enduring appeal can be a little surprising. “In the end, you connect with the entire cast.” Depending on the situation, you’ll find yourself relating with all the different characters at different points,” Ochuba says. “All the characters are unique and pretty layered. She says she’s found something relatable about the show at each point.
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Twenty-six-year-old Kristobel Ochuba of Nigeria is a Friends superfan who says she has streamed the entire series maybe ten times-as a teenager, a college student, and now as a married person. It’s also due to a new crop of binge-watching Gen Z-ers around the world who see themselves in its characters and situations, even though Friends premiered before some of them were even born.
The show’s enduring popularity isn’t just down to a devoted fan base of nostalgic 30 and 40-somethings. Last month, WarnerMedia announced the show will be moving to HBO Max, its upcoming streaming service, next year. With numbers like that, it’s not hard to see why the streaming service reportedly paid $80 million to keep it throughout 2019. Along with The Office and Grey’s Anatomy, it’s one of the most watched shows on Netflix, with viewers around the world spending 54.3 million hours (the equivalent of 62,000 years) watching it in 2018. Twenty five years later, the show hasn’t just endured, it’s exploded, reportedly earning $1 billion in syndication revenue for Warner Bros a year. In the US, some kids were into Friends and Gap cargo pants, and some of us were into Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and wearing all black and writing unfortunate poetry. I was in middle school then and thought I was very punk rock. The theme song was everywhere, “ The Rachel” haircut was everywhere.
When it premiered in 1994, the show was everywhere. The hugely popular sitcom Friends ran for 236 episodes from September 1994 to May 2004.
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