Friday, February 13, 2004

Is "Friends" overrated?

One TV reporter on CNN.com thinks so. In looking at the series' key element, the relationships among the six cast members, Mr. Moore points out that there's not much depth to any of these characters. They've never gotten too far beyond what they were at the beginning of the series. He makes some other good points, but I think that the main problem with the series today is that it's just not funny anymore. Last night's big wedding episode just bored me to the point that I started washing dishes to get away from it. I'm sick of Ross's dorky behavior, Monica's control-freakishness, and where the hell are they hiding Rachel's baby? Apparently starting next week the writers are getting Ross and Rachel back together again, which is fine with me since I don't think they should have ever broken up. But if the series had ended abruptly last night I wouldn't care. It's been on too long, and I'm not looking forward to all the network hoopla that is certain to accompany the finale.

But is "Friends" overrated? I think it's a good sitcom, and in its best years in the late 1990s it rivaled some of the classics, but overall, I'd say it's just above average. For me, its reruns don't have the same "rewatchability" as "Seinfeld" and "Simpsons" reruns do. I think that's a crucial distinction that separates a good show from a great one.

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