The One About Friends

I recently watched Friends for the first time since it was on air. I watched most of Friends when it was on TV, but I missed some of the last couple of seasons since I was "adulting" at that point (plus Friends was getting old). I saw the finale, though.

I wasn't sure if I'd really like it this time around. Over the past twenty-ish years, I've kind of poo-pooed Friends since my sense of humor has grown so sophisticated (ha!), but it was fun to go back and experience a show that was so iconic and influential in our culture. I enjoyed it.

Here are some of my thoughts and observations - the good, the bad, and the ugly - from watching the show as a real life, actual adult.

The fat shaming is intense

I remember watching Monica in her fat suit when I was younger and thinking it was so funny. Monica used to be fat! Hardy harhar! 

"The camera adds ten pounds!"

"How many cameras are on you?"

Hardy harhar. 

Monica used to eat everything in sight. Monica was a 200 lb nine-year-old. Ross had nightmares that Monica was going to eat him.

Hardy harhar.

Monica got skinny because Chandler made fun of her. Monica got skinny because of shame. 

Hardy harhar. That's some funny crap!

Now I look at Monica in her fat suit, and I'm as big as she was. So they're not just cracking jokes about fat Monica, they're cracking jokes about me. 

Now I see how sickly thin Courtney Cox was. There was an episode where they were at the beach, and Monica was in a bikini, and she looked skeletal and weak. It was eye-opening to watch Friends as an adult and realize the messages this show sends about body image, and as a regular viewer of this show in my teens, it was all pummeled into my under-developed brain. 

Rachel didn't have "the Rachel" for very long

Jennifer Aniston's hair was a a big part of Friends and the 90's in general. I sported my own version of it through jr high and high school:

But interestingly, she only rocked "the Rachel" for the first two seasons. And that goes by pretty fast when you're binge-watching. "The Rachel" is there, and then it's gone lickety split! 

According to this article, Jennifer Aniston always hated "the Rachel" and thinks it's the ugliest haircut she's ever seen. So thank you, Jennifer, for openly insulting your stylists and every person who thought your hair was cute and followed suit.

Monica's hair was all over the place

Monica's hair changed ALL. THE. TIME. She had some really cute cuts here and there, but her hair never stayed the same for long. Sometimes she rocked a cut for a single episode, and in the next episode, her hair was completely different.

Jennifer Aniston got all the hair attention, but Courtney Cox's hair was great too! It just changed so frequently, I don't think it got the credit it deserved!

And then there was Phoebe's hair

which never really changed except that sometimes it was freshly dyed and looked more platinum and occasionally she had bangs, but overall, Phoebe was pretty consistent hair-wise.

But let's go back to Rachel

and those few episodes where she had major hair extensions. They were an "elephant in the room."

Maybe I focus too much on the hair.

Gunther had no speaking parts for a few years

In the first few seasons, Gunther was always in the background working behind the counter at Central Perk. The first time he was ever acknowledged was somewhere around season 3 or 4, and they used the German pronunciation, which sounds more like "goonter." 

"How you doin'?" also came later

Joey didn't start saying "How you doin'?" until a few seasons into the show.

Once upon a time, my very own husband started saying, "How you doin?" and he thought he was the originator of it. I told him to knock it off. That was while I was poopooing Friends.

Friends and 9/11

Since Friends takes place in New York, a lot of the transition shots showed the Manhattan skyline, which included the twin towers. 

After 9/11, television stations stopped regular programming and focused on 9/11 coverage for a few days. Friends was one of the first things I watched as shows started coming back on television, and I wasn't sure if that was okay. It felt wrong to watch a sitcom in the light of what was happening in our country.  

As I watched Friends this time, I wasn't sure at what point in the show 9/11 happened, so I kept my eye out during the later seasons for changes in the scenery. It was season 8. The season premiere was dedicated to the people of New York, and from then on, the twin towers scenes no longer appeared on the show. Joey's magnadoodle occasionally featured messages portraying love for New York, American flags appears in the background of the show, and Joey wore an NYFD t-shirt in some episodes.

Emma will be 18 next year

Remember that horrible plot line where Ross and Rachel have a kid together and name her Emma, and then she is somehow always magically cared for so Ross and Rachel can continue living like they're young and single? Oh, and remember how Ross has a son, Ben, but Ben just kind of disappears in the last seasons? And then Ben grows up to be Jughead?

Anyway, at Emma's first birthday, they made a video message for her to watch on her 18th birthday... which Chandler mentions is in 2020.

Whoa.

Every female in Friends needed a better bra

Seriously with the nipples.

I'm getting old!

I'm older than all the Friends characters.

It both amazes me and horrifies me that we have the capacity to experience ten years' worth of television in a few days (or in my case, about a month. I did stop watching long enough to occasionally go to the bathroom and take a shower).