"Friends" or Foe?

I found myself watching an old episode of “Friends” the other day and thinking: what made me tune in every week, and during syndication, every day for this?! The show is about six friends who, in real life, would never be friends. The actor and massage therapist, the professor and the waitress, the (what was Chandler’s job?), and the chef; the tax bracket differentials alone would have strained their relationships beyond the one episode when Phoebe, Joey, and Rachel vehemently oppose splitting the check at dinner. Perhaps the foursome of Chandler, Ross, Monica, and Rachel would have continued to know one another for a few years, but being brought up in the stuffy world of New York class politics, I doubt once-homeless Phoebe would have ever made the cut.

I understand that part of the appeal of television is the suspension of reality, that the idea of friends uniting daily on the same couches (which again, minus one episode where the cast duels a rival group of friends for ownership) are mysteriously always free for them to exchange dialogue, is comforting… but who are we kidding? The “Friends” dynamic worked in the decadent 90s, during the tech boom, when spending money was fun rather than feared; but looking at the show today, the content doesn’t resonate. Sometimes I watch the comedies of my youth (“Full House,” “Doogie Howser, M.D.,” “Family Matters”) and laugh at my innocence, but I still appreciate the times when I believed things were that simple. Looking at “Friends” today, I simply scoff at my poor taste in television programs, and wonder how they lived in such nice apartments while barely working.

I guess the problem I have with “Friends” is that it’s not intentionally outlandish and it is rooted in the illusion of real life – but I don’t believe a word of it. A modern equivalent, “How I Met Your Mother,” satisfies my tastes much better. Featuring Neil Patrick Harris and Bob Saget (some of the stars of my youth), the show is about an architect, a lawyer, a newscaster, and the mystery-job wielding Barney. Like Joey, Barney is entirely outlandish and quite the Lothario, but unlike Joey, he doesn’t employ the stupidity card. I don’t think many New Yorkers would put up with the likes of Joey Tribiani for long, but I think everyone has a friend who is obnoxious, and mostly serves the purpose of entertaining everyone else at the table. They still live in beautiful apartments (but they have jobs to pay for them), they still always sit at the same table at their bar (okay, maybe that’s a little ridiculous), but they make sense as friends. Perhaps it’s the recent recession that has turned me into a Scrooge, or maybe I’m in a phase when looking back on my teenage years is a lot less appealing than examining the days when the only books I picked up had large pictures and starred talking animals, but I watch “How I Met Your Mother,” and I believe in the characters. And somehow, that makes all the difference.