F.R.I.E.N.D.S

I should accept first off all that, I could not have come with a better title for my blog!!  “Something like that would make people guess what this title could possibly mean or could be about or blah blah blah ............. . “F.R.I.E.N.D.S is F.R.I.E.N.D.S”

F.R.I.E.N.D.S a sitcom which was originally created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman lasted about 10 years in the television history, not being less fun or enjoyable than the preceding year. The same had around 20 million viewers each year from1994-2004. Well this is what Wikipedia or any such Googled version says about F.R.I.E.N.D.S. I would really like to brag on my own about this TV serial which I would quote “very important” (not meaning “so called” version here people) instead in my life.

 

F.R.I.E.N.D.S first got into my system from STARWORLD - The TV channel which eventually happened as an account of switching channels and nothing more. I felt yes this is funny but I did not resolve in watching all the seasons or follow up the series. All this happened long back during the school days in early 2000 and also a little before I guess. Then came my college where I got to know more about all this F.R.I.E.N.D.S stuff, while we played poker ( Ross’s Pile ) and even at a lot of incidents here and there especially with a couple of my closest friends. Yet F.R.I.E.N.D.S did not bother me much, as time went by my college got over, later I get to work and gradually I moved to Kerala for another job (yet another blog awaits just on this topic), just when it’s not too late comes this very special F.R.I.E.N.D of mine who gave me all 10 seasons of F.R.I.E.N.D.S and asked me to watch them all in a rather deniable way I would say. Now that is when I really got into F.R.I.E.N.D.S and watched then in a rather ordered way than ever before. 

To start with there are 6 crucial characters in this TV series that can nevertheless be called less important or unique in contributing to the success of the series and hence deserve a mention:

Jennifer Aniston

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Rachel Green

Courteney Cox

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Monica Geller

Lisa Kudrow

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Phoebe Buffay

Matt LeBlanc

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Joey Tribbiani

Matthew Perry

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Chandler Bing

David Schwimmer

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Dr. Ross Geller

To have to start talking about F.R.I.E.N.D.S, I’d start with what I would call as the real lifeline of this show, the title song... ‘I WILL BE THERE FOR YOU’ so apt a title song for this show, you would really feel the words I will be there for you when u hear it each time in all the 238 episodes. The music and the BGM throughout the series made me enjoy certain English classics in their own best way. For example when Rachel sings ‘her name was Lola, she was a show girl’ then when Marcel (Ross’s pet monkey) plays ‘the lion sleep tonight’ and when chandler sings the theme of ‘Sanford and sons’. Also there was this song ‘England Swings’ which gets played when all these people go to London for one of Ross’s “marriage” ;-) and to add the whole London extravaganza on F.R.I.E.N.D.S was a very memorable one.

I have seen open dialogues only in this sitcom the dialogues are scripted in such a way that the whole viewers in this world would have the same thought and feel which I would say is something very tough to bring upon. The mending of the dialogues and the gestures made, stand out for theses 6 people’s character’s, they don’t even need to finish a dialogue, and their expression is sky high. Just script and dialogue alone will not make any show a massive hit and this show is a proof for how important gestures and dialogues in tandem.

The most memorable and rather close to the heart scenes for me would be the mention about my home country and the one which I live in now. First to go with my home country India, there are scenes in the show where Ross mentions about an 18^th century Indian artefact and shows a Pullayar (Lord Ganesh) idol and then I came across the mention of Indian names ‘Vikram’ and ‘Mukherjee’, I really cherish those scenes. There was even a mention about Indian food once in a funny way. Secondly there is this one scene which had a mention about the place where I live now, Sweden. Phoebe lies about herself being a Swede giving a Swedish message. The funniest part was when she says her name to be IKEA and sings in a funny way what she mentions to be “The Swedish national anthem” ;-). When talking about countries I would like to mention the use of different languages of different countries in this show like Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, and Dutch Etc.

I would say that I have not seen any series complied enough to portray as much versatility in emotions as F.R.I.E.N.D.S did. The TV series would nearly include almost all faces of life like guilt, depression, self-pity, anxiety, resentment, envy, frustration, shame, denial, sarcasm, offended, negative, regret, resentful, sad, worried, grief, love, pain, appreciation, happiness, sacrifice, hope, enthusiasm, vitality, confidence, gratitude, patient, trust, ego, vulnerable, optimistic, appreciative, ashamed, astonished and what not. Although the honourable mention has to be given to the portrayal of the tasteful Love and Friendship which already engulf in mind and heart enough to be not able to recover from the sweet scenes crafted by the F.R.I.E.N.D.S team. Above all I strongly believe that the humour which was a huge part of the TV series which I feel is more prominent than any reason to have kept the show living up to almost 10 years.

The show has made me laugh, cry and feel a lot of special things which life has to offer as a part of itself mostly the beautiful things I would say. Although the culture among friends or people in love is nothing close to what my culture is, it still feels so special to look at the way in which F.R.I.E.N.D.S has been created to make the viewer feel lots special. The show can be said to have won most hearts than to have won tonnes of awards and rewards. I feel the show has influenced me within; I watch some random episode or a scene from it daily and at least discuss one character of it.

Some of the greatest scenes in F.R.I.E.N.D.S have to be Ross and Rachel’s love and kisses, Phoebe’s strange yet hilarious behaviour, Chandler’s timely sarcasm,  Chandler and Monica’s relationship from being best friends to a couple, oh Joey J the best ! The most hilarious amongst the F.R.I.E.N.D.S. The series has scenes when all six of them would be together either on a special day, party or occasion proving that at the end of the day being F.R.I.E.N.D.S is what matters. I really love the small one or two minute teaser like scenes in the end and the beginning of the show. Not to forget the coffee house “CENTRAL PERK” in which these people spend most of the time hanging out sipping coffee. “Why does one have to gift coffee mugs to F.R.I.E.N.D.S? “ Stands clear now to me. At times I even feel that I had something similar in my life to what the F.R.I.E.N.D.S had in their series, oh no I would actually have to say that what I would love to live at least few parts of what they had lived in front of the cameras for 10 years in the 238 episodes. They really grew into a F.A.M.I.L.Y into F.R.I.E.N.D.S

Credit to my F.R.I.E.N.D who made an offer that I could not resist or refuse ;-) and made me watch F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Thank you for being that F.R.I.E.N.D and this blog also goes out to all my close and best F.R.I.E.N.D.S