Friends

So here’s the thing. Despite being very much A 90s Person, and having now reached the grand old age of half a century, I have, or rather until recently had, never seen an episode of Friends.

I haven’t avoided it, as such, but when it was on during its 90s heyday I guess I was either out or drunk or out and drunk or something, but I just never saw it. Then, come 2004, I moved abroad and cut the cord. That meant mostly either watching TV through *cough* certain means or stuff on physical media, so I never came across reruns. Arguably the most zeitgeisty show of the 90s (what’s the competition? The X-Files maybe?) entirely passed me by.

Now, obviously I know about the show. I know who the core cast are, I’ve seen all the memes, I’m aware of the reunion (because who could possibly not be aware of the reunion?) and everything else. The lunchboxes. The duvet covers. That bloody theme tune. It’s all rattling about up there in my skull. It’s just never been accompanied by an actual episode at any point in my life.

Well, all that has now changed. My partner is a massive fan of the show. For him, it’s perfect comfort television and a show he’s watched about a bajillion times. Having discovered this otherwise massive hole in my pop-culture experience and watching to share one of his favourite shows with me* , he is therefore sitting me down so I can, for the very first time and with virtually no foreknowledge, watch the popular sitcom Friends. And this very thread will be my testimony! Or, in fact, our testimony, since he has offered to chip in and add thoughts as well.

Feel free to weigh in as I plough through the series and make a series of observations that are coloured by both my complete ignorance on the subject and probably startlingly obvious to everyone else. So far I have seen three episodes of Season One and five episodes of Season Three. 

So come along as I plough through one of the best-known TV shows of all time and try and make sense of it all. Why is it so popular? Does it deserve its place in popular culture? Will I end up loving it as much as the rest of the planet does? Time will tell, and updates will be forthcoming.

* Note that this is a two-way process and he is currently watching Star Trek: The Next Generation for exactly the same reason – it’s perfect comfort TV for me, something I love, and something he’s never seen.