I’LL BE THERE FOR YOU

10 seasons. 10 years. 13 years since its last. And even today, this show speaks to you. Whether you’re bamboozled in love or lust, whether your job’s a joke, you’re broke or your love life’s DOA, whether you’re always stuck in second gear, when it hasn’t been your day, your week, your month or even your year (sang these lines, didn’t you?). This group of old souls still say, don’t worry, “I’ll be there for you”. And they’ve stuck to their word. Now that’s F.R.I.E.N.D.S. for us, in the truest sense. But over the years, we’ve slowly evolved from friend-zone to comfort zone. Even today, this is our staple when it comes to TV shows. Like pizza, you can’t go wrong with it. Give us our daily dose of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. anywhere, anytime, and we’ll be like happy puppies lapping it all up, with this goofy smile plastered on our faces, every single time.

I still remember the first episode I watched. It was ‘The One With The Baby On The Bus’. And that’s all it took. One episode, 20 minutes and 13 years later I’m still hung up on them. So what’s all this hoopla about, you ask? How after all these years can people watch and rewatch a show over and over again, with the same enthusiasm every time? How can a show so strongly hung up on the 90s and early 2000s appeal to an audience beyond the generation gap? How can F.R.I.E.N.D.S. be so timeless? Like fine wine, this series has aged beautifully, pouring out nostalgia each time it airs. Being children of the 80s, F.R.I.E.N.D.S. reminds us of simpler times. Times of lesser technology and more connectivity. Where conversations happened around dinner tables and moments happened at coffee shops. And where a million memories were created when we didn’t have our heads buried in the screens of our phones. In a not-so-perfect world, here were six not-so-perfect friends everyone wished to have next door. There was a point in my life I dreamt of having a group just as imperfect as this. Because I could relate to F.R.I.E.N.D.S. in more ways than one. I loved their imperfections and that’s what made them humane. There were times I could see bits of myself scattered in each of these characters. That’s probably what this show offered. A little something for everyone.

And that’s why I probably love it even today. So much so that the dialogues have become inside jokes and anecdotes in our lives. I’ve tried the ‘How-you-doin’?’ in Joey’s drawl and I’ve sung ‘Smelly Cats’ to even the not-so-smelly cats and I’ve almost perfectly imitated Janice’s ‘Oh-My-God!’ in her classic nasal twang. ‘Pivot’ still has me in splits and ‘Unagi’ is more than just an eel now. While the ‘Hug-And-Roll’ technique was a lifesaver for spouses and boyfriends who needed space (Oh my! A pun!), the ‘We-were-on-a-break’ redefined relationships. And how can we forget Monica’s gospel truth on sex, the ‘Seven’. Most of all, it gave us the life truth, “Welcome to the real world. It sucks. You’re gonna love it!”. You can’t compare F.R.I.E.N.D.S. to Seinfeld or Fraiser. It’s not here to compete or to win accolades, it’s here to win hearts. And it did so even in the tiniest of things, like naming their episodes. Do you realize how each of their episodes starts with ‘The One’? That’s because the producers noticed it’s how people discussed shows. People remember the plot of the episode. And think about it. It’s how we all discuss our favourite shows, don’t we? ‘The one with this’ or ‘The one with that’.

Now I can go on and on but I’ll just say that I loved it as a goofy college going kid and I’m pretty sure I’ll still love it when I have a goofy college going kid. But for me, this show won’t age at all. It’s hard to believe that it’s ended. In fact, the final episode broke my heart. It was a goodbye filled with warmth, love and tears. It was hard to imagine life without the idiosyncrasies of this bunch, or the familiarity of Central Perk. You cannot not love this show. So now matter how old we get, ‘they don’t know that we know’ that these F.R.I.E.N.D.S. will be there for us, when the rains starts to pour, like they’ve been there before.