Metal Reviews

You have to get to know the characters a little before the show's humor really starts to kick in. A lot of the show's jokes are centered around the characters rather than the plots. So, if you don't understand the personalities of Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer (not to mention the show's many side characters like Lloyd Braun and J. Peterman), you probably won't get most of the jokes.

Anyway, I'm now trying to chronologically watch every episode of the first seven seasons of Friends (the seasons I currently own on DVD). I'm at the beginning of Season 4 right now.

yeah, and i hadn't realized that when i first watched Seinfeld.

and Friends is really good, even if it's a bit too touchy-feely sometimes.

Friends is the worst show in the history of TV. The worst part is some pople think it's like real life. Even worse, some idiots think it's just like their own fucking life. How could you mistake your own fucking life for something so hideously removed from it? Jeez. Rant over.

Friends is dreadful bollix. Really, truly, dreadful.

Well, I guess one man's trash is another man's treasure.

Anyway, I myself used to feel the same way about Friends. Until my curiosity finally led me to watch a few episodes. To my surprise, I found that I liked the show. Truly one of the few "teenybopper-friendly" shows on television that I really enjoy. True, it's not as "realistic" as a lot of people say it is. But it does give some occasionally good insight into the mind of a typical 20-something (particularly with some of Chandler's subplots). It's also very well acted, well written, and funny as hell.

Please.

srsly

Actually, it is well acted for what it is. I don't think I've seen a single sitcom with a realistic performance, because it's not about realistic performances, it's about comedic timing, which can make or break a show.

I used to hate Friends for the same reasons as everyone else, but after I'd watched every season of Seinfeld I wanted to watch more comedy shows and I started with Friends. Like any show it's better if you watch it from the first episode to the last, it doesn't matter if it's a sitcom, there's stuff that you need to understand before you can appreciate the show.

Friends deserves neither the amount of flack nor praise it gets.

Frasier remains the funniest sitcom ever!

Exactly. Particularly, that's the case with Friends because of how much more serial-like it is than most other sitcoms.

what about that Old Christine show, featuring Elaine from Seinfeld? is it just me, or is it a massive piece of shit?

they use canned laughter ALL THE FUCKING TIME!! i hate canned laughter, but on shows like Seinfeld or Friends it's forgivable because it's actually funny, but on this show it makes me want to put it on mute and just read the subtitles.

then they have Wanda Sykes, who all of a sudden is considered funny. she was shit in that monster in law movie, she was shit in Evan Almighty, and surprise surprise she's shit on this show too. it's like only black people are allowed to say "funny" things on modern comedies.

to quote astaroth, though, Elaine is one hot mammal

I agree. Elaine was hilarious on Seinfeld, but her new show is horrible. It's just another sitcom with jokes that are almost funny, but not quite. Somehow they think over-the-top acting will help, like if you can't get good writers, just try everything.

I'll give Zad and Radagast some credit and say that Jennifer Aniston's performance in the pilot episode of Friends was pretty over-the-top (even for her).

Worst of all is Matthew Perry. Anytime he's not being funny he's just horrible, like any scene where he's supposed to be sad, sincere or whatever he just looks ridiculous.

Probably because being sad, sincere, etc. seems to sort of go against the whole smart alecky personality of his character. For example, his sincerity with Joey after admitting his crush on Kathy (this is in he beginning of Season 4) seemed rather unnatural and out of character for him (although that did give us a hilarious Thanksgiving Episode, where he locks himself in a box for six hours as an apology).

Just finished Surface. Good show, shame it didn't have a proper ending.

I've dones that lol. Friends is a great show, shame it got less and less funny towards the end but i suppose thats to be expected with that many seasons.

We have every season. We love watching all the Thanksgiving episodes when we decorate for Christmas during Thanksgiving weekend. There's nothing like listening to Chandler bitch about his gay father and watching the Gellar cup episode.