Why Is It So Hard to Watch ‘Friends’ Now?

The big picture

• Friends
  The legacy lives on through iconic moments and characters, but its stale humor and lack of diversity are clear problems.
• Problematic portrayals of gender and sexuality a
  Friends
  highlight its regressive nature despite its cultural impact.
• The show's failure to evolve with the times raises questions about its lasting relevance and the impact of its controversial content.

The legacy of NBC Friends has surpassed those of many sitcoms that graced television screens long before and since. Decades after the show's emotional finale for which 52.5 million viewers tuned in, the show and its characters continue to rule pop culture, thanks to the show's fandom that refuses to let go put out the spark of the show. Aside from the memes and pop culture references that the sitcom has fostered over the years, the cultural impact of Friends it has certainly been important. From Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) Joey's haircut (Matt LeBlanc) collection line, a lot of Friends it has infiltrated the cultural makeup of the world, reaching international audiences everywhere. But despite continuing to find some sort of relevance even today (as evidenced by 2021 Friends: The Meeting), Friends it's become a demanding show to sit through, given how it doesn't stand the test of time.

Despite being one of the most watched sitcoms of all time, Friends has not aged well in terms of its highly problematic and politically incorrect comments and repetitive tropes, making viewers rely heavily on the likability of its cast to capture the audience's attention. From relying on Monica's younger self to Joey's overtly masculine characterization, a lot of Friends he fails to impress despite breaking ground for his time, especially with Monica and Chandler's decision to resort to surrogacy. Also, many of the show's “funnier” tropes may attract ridicule today. With Ross struggling to accept his wife's lesbianism because Chandler was gay jokes, the show is largely plagued by its regressive undercurrents that dominated some of the show's progressive stances. Friends becomes today a difficult watch com it seems to have been stuck in the time it was made as a result of the ideas that prevail in show business.

Dealing with gender and sexuality aren't 'Friends'' strong suits

If you start counting, there are many things about the show that became iconic. Aside from the obvious fame that came to the ensemble cast, which included Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa KudrowMatt LeBlanc, Matthew Perryi David Schwimmer, many of the elements of the sitcom's hit reached the pinnacle of modern virality. From Central Perk's orange couch to the iconic “How you doin'?” by Joey, There are many things to remember about the show. Fortunately, the same cannot be said for the more problematic aspects of the show. As with everything, sometimes bad things don't stick.

The characters were wired with inherently problematic stances on gender and sexuality. Often these stereotypical depictions would later inspire more misrepresentations in future sitcoms. For example, Matt LeBlanc's portrayal of Joey as a mute but handsome and charming male figure who never wastes an opportunity to sexualize any woman he meets raises all kinds of red flags in a review. On the contrary, Chandler's toned-down male portrayal qualifies him to be the butt of homophobic jokes in the world of the Friends. Let's not even touch on the fact that Ross, who is apparently the most polite of them all, has a harder time digesting his ex-wife's sexuality.

'Friends' Chandler's father, constantly wrong

The show hit a homerun with its problematic jokes when it came to the transphobic comments made toward Chandler's father, Charles Bing (Kathleen Turner). Also, the character was referred to as “him”, an error acknowledged by the co-creator Marta Kauffman. Almost three decades later, since the show's inception, the jokes thrown at Chandler to make fun of him as a result of his father being transgender dealt the biggest blow to the show's credibility . Finally, a cis woman playing a transgender role is not commendable for the show's attempts at representation. To be fair, not everything the show did was negative. The eleventh episode of the second season “The One with the Lesbian Wedding” was one of the first cases of same-sex marriage being portrayed on conventional television.

The lack of diversity of “friends” is well known at this point

In a deep dive, the show reveals a myriad of problems that become glaring mistakes by 21st century creative standards. FriendsThe lack of diversity is accepted and acknowledged, even David Schwimmer has denounced it. Apart from some characters, among them Aisha TylerCharlie Wheeler, the show mainly lacked in presenting a diverse set of actors and characters. Tyler became the first black person with a recurring role Friends in the penultimate season of the program.

Gender norms are heavily enforced on 'Friends'

Returning to the show's handling of genre also reveals other cracks. Monica's obsession with cleaning and cooking may be as problematic as his mother's indifferent treatment of him compared to Ross, the male offspring of the Geller family. It's kind of obvious why Ross finds it harder to believe that his son likes a Barbie doll as opposed to something more “manly” like a GI Joe figurine in “The One With the Metaphorical Tunnel”. His exchange with Sandy (Freddie Prinze Jr.), the male nanny that Rachel hires in “The One With The Male Nanny”, is an exposition of how Ross can easily understand the ways of dinosaurs, but cannot understand that men can be equally sentient beings.

From rampant sexism to contempt for intelligence, the creative crimes that Friends has committed throughout his successful and remarkable ten-year career. Compared to the many heights the show has achieved in terms of its cultural impact, Friends it has also suffered many falls considering the errors that have prevailed to the sitcom project. Regardless of whether the interest for early observers who take a risky step into the lives of six friends in prosperous New York of the 1990s, Friends it tends to become a tough watch once the initial magic wears off.

While many among the cast and crew have come forward to humbly accept the mistakes that were made in the past, it's doubtful that the accolades will make up for the problematic ideas propagated by the cult '90s sitcom. For many reasons , Friends has been a force to be reckoned with when it comes to the impact he has left on pop culture. For as many or more reasons, will find itself struggling to stay relevant as soon as the nostalgia starts to wane. Maybe it's time to ask, “Could I Friendsto be harder to see than it already is?”

You can decide for yourself. Friends is available to stream on Max in the US

Look at Max