FRIENDS: 27 years old and still the best show current youths can relate to

By Nisha Ganasen

A permanent perch at Central Perk; from left: Matt Leblanc as Joey, Jennifer Aniston as Rachel, David Schwimmer as Ross, Matthew Perry as Chandler, Courtney Cox as Monica and Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe (Source: The New York Times)

It’s been 27 years since ‘Friends’ first telecast on televisions. Even though much has evolved since 1994, the series continues to be popular. New generations are discovering the show through reruns of episodes on television and on streaming platforms such as Netflix and HBO.

The popular sitcom Friends ran for 236 episodes from September 1994 to May 2004. According to recent statistics, 35% of people aged 25-34 have watched all episodes of Friends. I have watched the show more than 10 times in my life.

Producing a television series consisting of 24 episodes throughout 9 seasons back in the day was something rather extraordinary. Martha Kauffman and David Crane have sculptured the show’s 236 episodes as perfect as it could be.

“Friends'' was an easy TV show at an elite level. It was a big hit because of its hilarious jokes, the characters' body comedy, so many surprising turns of events and a lot of heart-aching awww moments and must mention squeals of six members unexplainable bonding and of course live- studio audience excitement in the back.

Do you remember the first episode, As Monica Geller once said to Rachel Green, “Welcome to the real world! It sucks – you’re going to love it.”

Could there be a better television show to portray the lifestyle of a group of people in their twenties to thirties ? This sitcom had become a guiding light for struggling young adults in everything from the moment Monica welcomed Rachel into the universe of hardship, dead-end employment, and quarter-life catastrophes. This is basically still relevant twenty-seven years after its launch in 1994.

Friends cast photoshoot for Entertainment Weekly Magazine Cover in year 2002

(Source: Pinterest)

Look at Rachel’s life from being a rich spoiled daddy’s girl to a Central Perk waitress. The job was really not something she used to do when she was living with her parents. Yet, living in a new city without any financial support from family members had pressured her to do the waitressing job although she is terrible at it.

Then, looking into Phoebe Buffay's life as an abandoned child who lives with her grandmother. Before she found herself, she used to live in the street and made friends with fellow mugging people for survival. Then, fortunately she found her best people Monica, Ross, Chandler, and Joey for life and carry on her lifestyle by being a massage therapist to earn income and be a guitarist at night at Central Perk to entertain people.

Hence, although there were many ups and downs in their life, the way the six of them enjoyed their life by being happy every single day is one of the relatable moments in projecting the life of young adults. It does not matter how many times I have seen an episode; I still laugh every single time I watch the sitcom.

If we take look into the moment throughout the series, when Monica’s obsessive cleaning habits, Rachel’s passion for her fashion career, Joey’s charming stupidity, Chandler’s sarcastic jokes whenever he encounters an uncomfortable moment, Ross’s bad luck in every marriage which eventually end up in divorce ‘Ross: the divorce force’, Phoebe’s timeless songs especially the Smelly Cat… shows how unique they are.

Fans of Friends basically grew up with all these characters, usually connecting to them and their messy and crazy lives.

Despite the humor and sarcasm that mark the sitcom, each Friends episode essentially ends with a life lesson. The most important of which, of course, is always to count on your friends and not to focus on other people's opinions as their theme song lyric,

“ It hasn’t been your day, your week, your month or even your year, I’ll be there for you… when the rain starts to fall, I’ll be there for you… like I’ve been there before, I’ll be there for you… cause you are there for me too.”

However, the most important life lesson came from Ross, who helped the audiences to learn that when in alter saying the CORRECT name of bride during marriage and NEVER wear leather pants on a first date.

Even though seeing them together feels wonderful. Yet I want to share some moments when I remain on my sofa, reclining and laughing at Ross and Phoebe debating on evolution in season 2 episode 3: The One Heckles Dies. Then, Phoebe, Joey and Ross impersonating Chandler or Chandler and Monica love for each other being found out by their friends or when Rachel takes forever to tell everyone who is the father of the baby, those nights could not be any more serious kind of situation for Friends.

It is worth talking about the cast dressing throughout the show, which is still being followed by today's youth. Especially on Tik Tok, current trend outfit changing challenge, some gen Z are doing the challenge with inspired friends character’s outfits. Then, of course, Rachel Green's first two seasons hairstyle is still a hype among current generation youths. Rachel’s long bob haircut was so popular until it earned its personal nickname (The “Rachel”).

So, twenty-seven years after it first appeared on TV, Friends is still an influential sitcom for every new generation of youths. Although the show does focus less on smartphones and

drug - fueled clubbing, maybe that’s the reason it is still being loved by everyone.

It narrates a similar life story, one about working hard, working for passion, achieving success, trying to work things together to have dinner with the people we actually love and no matter how difficult life is one day everything will turn out to be the way we like it.

The Friends team at Los Angeles in 2004 (Source: The Telegraph)