Friends is Boring and Overrated

Friends is one of those shows that has reached the level of popularity where people randomly quote it in conversation and can identify seemingly obscure references. It’s a sitcom that many people grew up with in the 90s and truly love. I must confess that as someone born in ’98, I’ve watched maybe 8 episodes of Friends in my 22 years of life and even then, non-sequentially. I would just catch whatever episode was showing on Warner Bros when I came home from school. I don’t know much about the show but people always recommend it. I fully intended to binge-watch it at some point. Then, I realized there were 10 seasons. 236 episodes. That’s 4,720 minutes of content (approximately) and 78 hours of my life that I cannot commit.

Solution: I’m just going to watch the Pilot and the Finale. Now, I know what you’re thinking: that’s not enough to make a proper judgement of the merits of the show! It’s not but it should be logistically speaking. Hear me out! The pilot is supposed to draw the audience in and give you just enough information to compel you to continue watching, hook, line and sinker. Finales are meant to be satisfying, light-at-the-end-the-tunnel, nostalgia-inducing nuggets that provide a sense of closure and finality. I’m not doing any of the in-between stuff, it doesn’t matter. Sitcoms are so formulaic that you can kind of infer all the stuff that happens in the middle anyways. If…