Friends

Not a fan. Boring insipid spoiled idiots all trying to fuck one another. I can see this at work everyday.

'Friends' was about beautiful people sitting on couches. I guess there wasn't a lot to do in the 90s, if that was the premise for a hit show. There we all were, sitting on couches, watching beautiful people sitting on couches. I can't think of many memes or quotes from 'Friends' that I still use today. So when all is said and done, and you have to ask yourself 'Is this 'The Wire'?', then the answer is no. It predates 'The Wire', much like drinking mercury to your health predates modern medicine.

There are few sitcoms I despise more than Friends. There were just so many better shows on at the time, and certainly many better shows on TV now. I find Friends to be not all that funny, that people of my generation started watching because it happened to be on, and in a fit of Stockholm Syndrome declared it to be their favorite show. Not worth my time or anybody else's.

I don't think it's a truly great show, but I find it highly enjoyable. Particularly due to the performances from the male leads who are, all three of them, blessed with comedic timing. One might say that this series did to sitcoms what 'Se7en' did to serial killer movies. For better or worse they make us ask ourselves: Now that we have this, do we need any more of these?

The actors understand their characters far better than the writers do, and it results in well-defined personalities turning to histrionics. As with most sitcoms, these are talented actors given nothing to do, and the audience, whether they realize it or not, nothing to watch. Well, except this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUc0vbSlanM

I hated these people.

I was subjected to this by a younger ex-step-sibling who couldn't stand to even take a trip to the grocery store without it playing along the way. the grocery store. and it was a portable dvd player, we're not talking easy access to wifi and streaming back then

I can't say I'm a fan, but if you said you were a huge fan, I'd be okay with that. Unlike if you told me you were a fan of the dumpster fire that is there Big Bang Theory. And that dumpster if full of rotten brussel sprouts, towels used to clean up an overflowed toilet, a bunch of "Lin-sanity" t-shirts from that time Jeremy Lin was the best basketball player in the world for 1 month, and Jim Parson's dignity.

A daytime soap opera with a laugh track.

It's not as good as I give it credit for, but it's also better than most give it credit for these days. It married the Seinfeldian friend dynamic with the more traditional likeable character formula in a way that was really enjoyable. When Seinfeld ended, it more or less killed off the traditional multi-cam sitcom. Friends mined the last comedy from the format, and there hasn't been a decent one since.