'Friends' Is a Great Show

I am not going to sit by and let someone take down one of the greatest sitcoms in history. Recently, I read an article on Facebook that basically tore Friends apart. However, the author mentions that it is the whitest show and I did not realize this until it was pointed out. However, there were characters from different backgrounds such as Emily who was English, and Julie who had an Asian background. Charlie was also a character of color, so really I feel that this author of the Insider article had only watched a few episodes here and there; also the guy that went up against Joey for the part of Nick the boxer was also not white. When Rachel and Phoebe were taking the self-defense class, the instructor was once again not white. However, they could have put some people of a visible minority in the series. Yet, they still had love interests and other characters in the show that were not all white. Charlie played a major role in Friends near the end of the series. So, no the show is not only about spoiled rich people, there are many different characters that show up in the show. They had a diversity of cultures in the mesh. It was not all American.

Next, the author mentioned that LGBTQ was often joked about... Susan and Carol were always displayed as the couple who loved each other. They had a wedding, and they were both excited when Carol was pregnant with Ross’s son. There were no negative connotations about their relationship other than Ross hating Susan, but to be fair in his eyes she came between him and Carol. However, if it wasn’t Susan, it would have been any other woman later on in his relationship with Carol. There were no judgments made between the couple throughout the entire series. Ross's friends even thought that Susan was fun to be around. For example, in the episode where Susan and Emily are both hanging out in London and Ross is saying all the things that the two have been doing together, Phoebe literally says "Wow, Susan is so much fun!" I feel like that is not poking fun about the fact that Susan is a lesbian, so I have no idea where the author got this idea from. Ross is just jealous because wouldn't you be if your ex-wife got remarried? It would be no different if Carol had remarried a man. Ross would still be jealous and paranoid.

Chandler’s father being transgender was not a big deal, and there were not that many jokes on Chandler’s dad being transgender. Sure, we don’t even see the drag queen dad until much later, but can you blame Chandler for not wanting to talk to his dad let alone invite him to the wedding after walking out on his family to be with a man? His mom was not the greatest role model either, he basically grew up in a broken family. His parent's divorce is what caused Chandler to be so insecure in relationships and to freak out about relationships being serious until he starting seeing Monica.

"White rich people" was mentioned in the article. Ummm... have you not seen the episode titled “Two Steaks and an Eggplant”? Rachel, Phoebe, and Joey were all upset because they had their tiny dinners to save money for Ross’s birthday. Also, the characters are in their mid-twenties and nearing thirty and still had roommates... for some of the characters it makes sense for them to be doing well for themselves. Yes, I understand that New York is an expensive city, but it is a television show and they needed something aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Ross has a PhD, so he’s obviously got some credibility and later becomes a professor at the university, like yeah dude is gonna have money. Chandler has been working at his company forever and got promoted and was already making good money. Monica would be a chef at a fancy restaurant and then a diner and you could see the drop in her salary over the episodes and how it affected her personal life. Rachel was a waitress at the beginning trying to learn how to live without her dad paying for everything and she barely made enough money to go skiing. So once again, where are the rich white people in the series? Also, Monica was worried that she and Chandler had no money for the wedding, That is a very common thing to worry about. Sure, maybe the characters' parents were rich and middle class, but really is that such a big deal? Notice that all of the "friends" are renters in the series. Keep in mind that none of them actually own a place. And this was taking place almost more than twenty years ago?