7 Reasons People Love ‘Friends’ And 7 Reasons People Hate It
Friends is a classic show that defined a generation for people who grew up in the late 1990s and people who saw the show later on in re-runs (or on Netflix). It truly captured the existential angst of a generation of wayward twentysomethings looking for love and friendship, and discovering themselves and who their true friends were along the way. In turn, they discovered who they were, found career magic, found love, and even had babies at the end when they were all grown up. Oops. Spoiler alert. Sorry. But hey, if you don’t know the big finale by now, well, we don’t feel too bad leaving a little hint! This sitcom defined a generation of young people and helped them feel not so alone in their life, career, and relationships. Turning into these adventures was always fun and you can’t help but love Ross, Rachel, Monica, Chandler, Phoebe, and Joey. But what about those that didn’t like Friends? Some have said that the show not only did not resonate with them, but that they absolutely didn’t see what all the fuss was about! They found that it did not speak for everyone in their twenties growing up in the late 20th early 21st century. So on that note, here are 7 reasons why some people loved Friends, and 7 reasons why some people hated it!
14 Hate: Ross Is Too Geeky
Yeah. Ross was really not that funny and that’s why some people just can’t get on board with this show, no matter how popular it might be. He was just geeky and there were WAY too many nerdy paleontologist jokes about him and other jokes about his work. Come on. So, he’s not a football player. It doesn’t mean he is some super intelligent guy that only talks ship all the time. The show alludes that this is all he does though. Almost all the characters laugh at him and his career and it’s kind of annoying. It’s a stereotype that all people who have a PHD are big nerds who don’t care about the outside world. Let’s move on, and see smart people as well rounded instead of just special or talented in one area. Almost all the jokes about Ross, other than some about his relationships, were about his job. Come on people, let’s go in a different direction.
13 Love: They Said Things We All Were Thinking
Yep. How many of us have been in the position of watching a friend date a guy we used to like or vice versa? Maybe it was our ex and we were in Ross’s situation. Totally weird in all senses of the word. So when we saw the characters on Friends facing these same situations, well, it felt good. We knew we were not alone. After all, who doesn’t have awkward situations with ex-boyfriends and girlfriends or current or ex-friends? We can now see that not only are we are the only ones, but even beautiful people like those actors on friends struggle with it. Yes, the show is fictional, but it did encompass a lot of what actually happens in friends and different kinds of relationships. There were other funny Chandler lines about relationships and different things the ladies have said that show us all we are not alone.
12 Love: Ross And Rachel’s Complicated Relationship
Ah yes. Ross and Rachel. Boy secretly loves girl. Girl likes boy but doesn’t know it. Boy finally works up the courage to tell girl about his feelings and is happily surprised to learn that she feels the same. Boy and girl start dating. Boy and girl fall in love. Boy makes a mistake with another woman as he thinks he and girl are “on a break.” And… well, we all know the rest. Then it’s some jabs back and forth, they are each jealous of the other one’s new guy or girl, there are passive aggressive comments made, there is love again, and, well, then they are back together and living happily ever after. Sorry. Spoiler alert. We all know friends and family members’ relationships where there are struggles, break ups, get back togethers, and decisions about what to do next. So we feel better knowing our love lives are not as complicated as this story, or as complicated and not worse.
11 Hate: Cheerleader Rachel Hanging Out with Regular Gals
Now, all three of these ladies are beautiful, intelligent, and have many talents… however, even the show’s writers alluded to the fact that Rachel had been the high school cheerleader back in high school, while Monica was overweight and struggling with her social image back then and Phoebe was the quirky one. Now how many high school cheerleaders and popular types would hang out with other women who did not fit that bill? Monica’s character was a worrier and Phoebe’s was kind of out there. This is not really realistic. Of course women do grow up and their attitudes and personality change, but this was never brought up which would have made the show a little more realistic. Lots of critics of the show wished that the friendships were more realistic and this was delved into. Then we would maybe all have understood how these three women could still have become such good friends.
10 Hate: Too White And Middle Class
Another thing is the fact that the show was, well, so white. You did not see a character who had a different background during the show’s entire run and the characters were all middle class white people with middle class, white people problems. This was fine for the audience who was in this category themselves. They were able to relate to these issues and problems, but the rest of the people who did not fall into this category either watched the show and maybe did not feel like their problems or life was addressed, or moved away from the show because they were upset that they were not represented. It’s a hard decision to make when casting, and although no one racial or ethnic group wants to feel as if it is being cast to make a political statement, it still would have been a more realistic representation of the New York population which is much more diverse than this show would suggest.
9 Love: They Were NOT On A Break
And now more for the “we were on a break”, angle. Who among us did not have relationships misunderstandings like Ross at one point in our lives? Who among us did not know of anyone who had those kinds of misunderstandings? Boy, can we then relate to Ross’s problems when he realized he was at fault in what happened with Rachel, at least for a good chunk of it, and how he had to learn to win back her love. This was not easy to do, but we all know how he wins back her heart in the end as she does his. But seeing couples on-screen handling this, even though they are fictional, it shows us that all couples deal with complex emotions in relationships and that they have to learn to navigate the ups and downs of talking about how to cope with things like that.
8 Love: Hanging Out At The Cafe
Hanging out at the local coffee house is still pretty trendy, but back in the late 90s and early 2000s, this was just starting to be all the rage. Young people, even those that had graduated and were working full or part-time, would meet up with friends at their favorite coffee house and just chat until the wee hours. It became like a bar, only this was for those who didn’t love alcohol or wanted to hang out earlier than it would be appropriate to drink. All jokes aside, Friends continued to normalize something that started out as a small thing, then grew into this big industry where coffee house ran the night life of young people. Here they could discuss their trials, tribulations, ups and downs and see what they could come up with. It was also easier bouncing ideas off of their friends without worrying about the music being too loud to hear themselves think.
7 Hate: They Couldn’t Afford Such Expensive Apartments
Another unrealistic thing? How come we hardly ever saw the friends working at their jobs that paid for the fancy apartments they lived in? Sure, their romantic lives were more interesting by far, but still to give it that more realistic basis it would have been nice to see more of Monica, Chandler, and Joey at his? We did see a little bit off Rachel and Phoebe, but also not as much to make it realistic to the audience. Yes, it is a television show, and yes, it is fictional, but you need some semblance of a normal life with normal living conditions, people eating, working, paying bills etc. A lot of critics of the show wanted to see the characters in these other areas of their life and kept hoping the show would go in another direction and were sad when it didn’t. Still, it would have been interesting to see other sides of the characters’ lives.
6 Love: Everything About Rachel
Tons of women wanted to be Rachel and wanted her hair too. Let’s face it, Jennifer Aniston is a beautiful woman. Her hair is stunning and she is a funny, accomplished, and intelligent woman. She brought a lot of herself into the Rachel Green character and most audiences fell in love with this character. Her hairstyles sparked many women going out and demanding that in their hairstylists. Her fashion sense caused a lot of women to want to imitate that too. She was kind of the ultimate 90s hot chick that we all wanted to be. And when her fashion career exploded on friends we were all truly happy for her that she was doing what she loved. It reminded us about the importance of all of us doing that in our own lives. The show definitely gave us permission to not be afraid to dream our own dreams.
5 Love: “How. You. Doin’.”
Okay, now come on. Who does not remember those infamous Joey Tribbiani words: “How. You. Doin’.” Just picturing his face would make most of us laugh, never mind when he tried the lines out on all the girls and in spite of themselves, they giggled. We all know a Joey Tribbiani who utters cheesy lines like that to any woman he meets. He is handsome, funny, charming, and even if not the smartest guy, seems to know the right thing to say to make everyone in the room laugh, feel better about life, or groan and call him their loveable chucklehead. Whatever. We all know a Joey whether he’s one of our best friends or a friend of a friend. We always associate hilarious lines with a certain someone, and we enjoy that.
4 Hate: It’s Too Predictable
Sitcoms are supposed to be predictable in some way. There is a formula to follow and soon enough the writers know what their audience craves, but when the writers start running out of idea and the characters start doing weird things like sleeping with each other, you know that they don’t know what else to write. Sure, the Chandler and Monica story line was sweet. But that whole Rachel and Joey thing? Come on! It’s like a soap opera! Even fans of the show were getting fed up. It’s really time for the writers to figure out what the characters are supposed to be doing and write that, or really, it gets old fast. A lot of the show’s fans were upset too. They really had a hard time with it. Well, at least they turned it around and it all worked out in the end!
3 Love: They Help Each Other Through Life’s Small And Big Problems
Again, all people have been through stressful times in their relationships, friendships, and work relationships. This is why they can relate to hanging out with friends at each other’s houses or a coffee shop and dishing about life, dissecting things so we can get to the bottom of solving life’s little and big problems, and knowing that our friends have our back. On the show they all had each other’s backs no matter what. There were insults thrown around, occasional hurt feelings, but mostly there was love, acceptance and gratitude. This is kind of like the sitcom Cheers where the characters know there is a place they can always go to see people who knew their name and would help them grapple with life’s hard times and challenges. Some characters used humor to help, like Chandler, and others like Ross were nerds with big hearts. Then there’s neurotic Monica, caring Phoebe, and funny gorgeous Rachel, and Italian Stud Joey. They all have their own personalities and unique ways of dealing with stuff, but they always help each other.
2 Hate: Too Much Angst
All that angst. All that romantic, friendship, and job confusion. After a while, it all got to be too much. All the issues and the complaints and the privileged problems these characters had were getting annoying to a lot of former fans and some people who had tuned in, didn’t enjoy watching all these issues after a while. This is when a lot of people started tuning out and watching other shows. The writers did their best, but those that didn’t like the angst formula did not go for this and would just tune into watching other television shows. It all depends on your perspective, but lots of people did not enjoy this. The real fans stuck with it to the end, but the others simply tuned it out. It was getting hard to stick with the show for some people. Angst was going out of style and that’s why some people just hate this show.
1 Hate: Marcel The Monkey And Other Animals
That monkey! It was cute for ten minutes, but then come on. It’s like the ugly naked guy thing. That was funny for a bit, and then it was not funny anymore. People wanted them to move on and do other things. Lots of people tuned out of watching the show and others lost interest. It’s important that a show experiment with different things, but if it’s too weird, no one wants to tune in anymore. Many were relieved when they stopped writing about these things, but a lot of people had already tuned out of the show which was too bad. In the end, whether you love or hate this show is totally per
