Analysis of the television show Friends from a Christian perspective

Friends TV Series 1994

Friends TV Show

FRIENDS TV SERIES

AUTHOR'S NOTES

Crux of the Series

Popularity and Viewership

Viewers Reviews

Critics on "Friends"

Christianity Perspective of the Show

The paper is all about the TV Show "Friends," an American sitcom about six friends living in Manhattan, New York. We will be viewing the show's happenings, critics and fans' views on the show, its popularity, its progress, the main storyline and its implications in accordance with the religion Christianity. The sitcom is a comic sitcom that goes around the lives of these six friends and how they deal with the problems they face in their lives and the happiness they share together. It is all about loving, sharing and caring for friends and has a very positive approach towards life. This is the major concept behind the show and this is what we will be analyzing and highlighting upon in the paper.

Introduction

"Friends" is a comic sitcom which first aired on National Broadcasting Company (NBC) on September 22nd, 1994. This hilarious show, created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, is a product of Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television. The story of the series revolves around a group of friends, namely Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc), Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry), Ross Geller (David Schiwmmer), Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston), Monica Geller (Courteney Cox) and Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow), and their life at the city New York[footnoteRef:1]. [1: FRIENDS WIKI, "Friends," wikia.com. http://friends.wikia.com/wiki/Friends (accessed August 27, 2012)]

The idea of the series originally belonged to Crane and Kauffman who presented it to Bright under the name of Insomnia Cafe in November/December 1993. After the idea was revised and scripts rewritten along with the name of the series, which was changed to 'Friends Like Us', the series was finally named "FRIENDS." The series was filmed in Warner Bros. Studios and was a major hit after its first episode aired on NBC. The ten seasons of this series were sensational and a combination of amusing, emotional and life changing stories of the six friends. The success of the series was of such extent that the finale of the series (236th episode), which was promoted by NBC and aired on May 6th, 2004, was watched by around 52.5million Americans, thus making it the fourth most watched series finale in the Television history and the most watched episode of the decade (Friends Wiki).

Apart from the success in terms of viewership, Friends reaped the rewards of putting forward a great comedy in the form of various awards and nominees that the series won. The series have had 55 Emmy Awards Nominations including six nominees for Outstanding Comedy Series, which the show won in 2004. It won the People's Choice Award for the first season for Favorite New Comedy Series and won three more awards in three years thereafter as Favorite Comedy Series including in 2002. The cast won Screen Actors Guild Award in 1996 for Outstanding Ensemble Performance in a comedy series. Also the series has been nominated four times for a Golden Globe Award for the category of Best Television Series (1996, 1997, 1998 and 2002)[footnoteRef:2]. [2: Calif Burbank, "Synopsis of Friends TV Show," HollywoodJesus.com (May 11, 2004), http://hollywoodjesus.com/friends.htm (accessed August 27, 2012).]

The series was consistently ranked among the top ten final primetime ratings. Critics regarded the show as one of the finest shows in the Television history, among which TV Guide ranked the show No. 21 on its list of "The 50 greatest TV shows of all time." The episode of the series "The One with the Prom Video" was ranked as No. 100 on "TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time." The cultural impact of the series was highly strong, which could be judged by the fact that The Central Perk coffee house, which was the main attraction of the series as this was the place where the six friends hanged out all the time, has been imitated at various places throughout the world. Due to the series' huge success, a spin-off series "Joey" was aired right after the finale, starring Matt LeBlanc as Joey (Burbank 2004).

The show had seen an immense magnitude of success and the six stars starring as the six friends were fortunate to be casted for this show owing to the popularity they gained as these characters, especially Matt LeBlanc whose performance as Joey made all of America fall in love with Joey and his innocent humor. Each character adds on to the series in one way or another. Joey Tribbiani is a struggling actor who becomes famous when he begins working in a hit TV show 'Days of Our Lives' as Doctor Drake Ramoray and a food lover many at times displayed by his dialogue 'Joey doesn't share food!' Phoebe Buffay is an unusual and eternally optimistic folk singer and a masseuse. Chandler Bing is a dry witted executive in statistical analysis and data reconfiguration for a large multi-national corporation who quits his job and becomes a junior copywriter at an advertising agency in season nine. Monica Geller is the mother hen or chief of the group and a chef. She is known for her perfectionism, competitiveness and obsession towards cleanliness and orderliness and later marries Chandler. Ross Geller is the older brother of Monica and a paleontologist who has been divorced three times. Rachel Green is a fashion fanatic with a rich father who vouches for her until she runs away from her wedding with Barry. She is Monica's High School friend and later falls into a relationship with Ross (Burbank 2004).

Crux of the Series

The show, though comical, deals with all kinds of situations that these six friends go through. It deals with death, divorce, job loss and relationship problems in an entertaining and attention grabbing way. It is mainly a dialogue and situation driven show with humor serving as the main attraction keeping the audience on their tip toes for knowing what will happen next. The show continuously goes on with different situations turning up for the friends to deal with in almost every episode. Many at times, the situations put the friends into conflict with each other like Ross and Rachel's break up when Ross cheats on her, or Joey and Chandler's argument on Chandler making out with Joey's girlfriend. However, at times the conflicts were portrayed in a humorous way like Rachel convincing Ross' girlfriend to shave her head telling her that Ross likes her that way and Ross' divorce with his first wife since she realized she was a lesbian and she thus left him for another woman[footnoteRef:3]. [3: Maggie Hammond, "Critical Analysis of Friends." Maggie.jp (2000). http://maggie.jp/PhillipsMaggieFriends.pdf, (accessed August 27, 2012).]

The show is full of such situations bringing conflicts among these six friends and how every time they manage to surpass these situations and workout their problems helping them become friends again. This is the major crux of this show. It exhibits this positive message, a message telling us the worth of friends, how important they are and how they can never be abandoned since they are a part of our life and dearly loved by us. Thus the idea the show reflects is that no matter what happens, friends can never be left as friendship is a bond of love that gives one a feeling of belonging and love and the fact that one is not alone. The series was an embodiment of the bond of friendship and how these six friends work out their problems to remain in this bond.

Popularity and Viewership

Friends has been said to be one of the greatest comic sitcoms of all time. However, we base our analysis on facts and the facts that we will be considering here are the popularity and viewership of the show. The series finale alone, of 66 minutes, was able to attract the audience of about 52.5 million (43%), which made Friends viewership fourth highest which could not surpass the viewership of series finales of M*A*S*H (106million), Cheers (80.4million) and Seinfeld (76.3million). Super Bowl XXXVIII was the only series finale after Friends that had beaten this record viewership. Although the episode had an extremely high viewership, it still wasn't the most watched episode of Friends, which is an honor that still remains with the Season Two episode "The One After The Superbowl" aired on January 28th, 1996, watched by 52.9million viewers (Friends Wiki).

These were the viewership statistics from U.S. The show has viewership all around the world and is highly popular in even certain developing countries like India and Pakistan. In Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, the series has earned popularity to the extreme and this is thus shown from the statistics of viewership of the show in these countries. In Australia, the show remained consistently ranked among the top ten most watched shows. The show was first aired in Australia in 1996 on the Seven Network. The viewership ratings were being calculated by Nielsen Media Research Australia for the first 5 seasons of the show and displayed positive viewership, showing it to be the most watched program in the fifth season (2000). The graph below shows ratings of the show calculated by Nielson Media Research1. The ratings computation was taken over from sixth season onwards by OzTAM which displayed the show's ratings to be lesser than that computed by Nielson. The last season was ranked as the third most watched scripted program and the 6th most watched program of the year. The finale earned an average viewership of 2,273,000 viewers[footnoteRef:4]. [4: The Australian Channels on which the series was aired were The Seven Network (1996), the Nine Network (1997), Cable TV channel Arena (a Foxtel and Optus channel), Network Ten (which brought the rights of the show in November 2007) and on Australia's "Big Three" Television Networks. ]

Nielson Media Research Australia shows that the show had high ratings throughout its broadcast in the country and remained in the top ten most watched programs in the country. Although the viewership dropped from 2,586,000 viewers per episode in Season four to 2,340,000 viewers per episode in Season five, the show still remained among the top ten rankings, ranked as the most watched television program in this season despite the fall in viewership (Friends Wiki).

Viewers Reviews

'Friends' is a story of every twenty plus Manhattan citizens and many can relate to the stories of the six friends presented in this series. On one side where there were and are millions of fans and viewers of the show with positive and enthralling views about the show, there are certain viewers who hold negative views about the show and many such are not regular audience of the show. Though if we see the overall bird's eye view skimming through the reviews that we came across, the general atmosphere is pleasant with majority viewer reviews inclined in the favor of 'Friends'.

On the website of IMDb, the more than 60% of its users rated the show 10 out of 10. This can be seen from the chart shown below, taken from the website mentioned.

Out of 159884 IMDb users, 60.9% rate the program as being the best comedy series. In total, 92.8% IMDb users rate the program above 6 out of 10, which means that the viewers rate the program highly and majority viewers have positive views about the program. These statistics are worldwide statistics as the websites users come from almost all the countries around the world[footnoteRef:5]. [5: IMDb Users, "User Ratings of FRIENDS," IMDb.com, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108778/ratings (accessed August 27, 2012).]

The average rating that IMDb's users gave to the show overall was 8.9 out of 10. The highest rating given to the show among these users according to the demographic segmentation provided above is an average rating of 9.5 out 0f 10 by Females under 18, which shows that this segment watches the show the most and have positive views about it (IMDb Users).

The fan reviews of the show are all about the wonderful and realistic sides of Friends. According to many fans, it's the story of their lives and thus they relate to it. For some the show is an entertainment like none other and thus whenever they are sad, they watch Friends. The fans' exuberance actually led to 'FRIENDS' merchandise coming out in America. One of the reviews from fans displays their exuberance and love for the series[footnoteRef:6]. [6: Fabrizio03, review on "Reviews & Ratings for FRIENDS," IMDb.com, review posted on February 20, 2005, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108778/reviews (accessed August 27, 2012).]

Critics on "Friends"

Like every movie and every series, 'FRIENDS' was critically reviewed by the critics as well. Although like normal shows, the series did bear criticism from critics but some critics expressed favorable reviews for the series as well. Chris Utley, the film reviewer stated that unlike many, he wasn't quite fond of Friends in the beginning like his wife, who was a Friends fanatic. According to his Christian-driven thoughts, he didn't understand what was so special in this show that had driven his wife to keep on watching the show everyday with reruns[footnoteRef:7]. [7: Chris Utley, "A Tribute to Friends (1994 -- 2004)," HollywoodJesus.com (May 21, 2004), http://hollywoodjesus.com/friends.htm (accessed August 27, 2012).]

The mystery resolved when on 25th April, 2004, he watched an episode with his wife and realized why his wife loved the show as she could relate to it by reliving the college moments when she had a group of friends just like this one. It helped him see how other relations in addition to the relationship with God and family matter, how we need friends in the toils and troubles of life and how valuable these friends are. The show left him with the desire to have such real-life friends which were absent from his life (Utley 2004).

The early critics' reviews of the series were mixed. Tom Feran of 'The Cleveland Plain Dealer' called the series as being traded "vaguely and less successfully on the hanging-out style of Seinfeld." Ann Hodges of the 'Houston Chronicle' called the show "the new Seinfeld wannabe, but it will never be as funny as Seinfeld." On the other hand, Ray Richmond of 'Los Angeles Daily Times' stated the show was "one of the brighter comedies of the new season." 'The Los Angeles Times' declared the series to be "flat-out the best comedy series of the new season." 4 Lastly, Entertainment Weekly expressed its opinion on the show in the following words, "The show operates like a Broadway farce, complete with slamming doors, twisty plots and intricately strung together jokes....'Friends' is pretty irresistible" (Friends Wiki).

The one element that was strongly criticized by many critics was the openness and audacity with which the show made use of sexual themes when the audience of the show included children and teens below 18 years of age. This led to the '"Parents Television Council" declaring the sitcom as being "one of the raciest sitcoms in prime time'. The use of promiscuous language and explicit use of sexual content made the show to be rated as only suitable for adult viewers. The show was though applauded for the absence of violence in its content but was highly disparaged for sexual situations and language[footnoteRef:8]. [8: Mike Spadoni et al., "FRIENDS: A group of friends share life in the Manhattan area of New York City," Television Heaven USA (2003), http://www.televisionheaven.co.uk/friends.htm (accessed August 27, 2012).]

Ginny Holbert of 'Chicago Sun-Times' found the characters of Joey and Rachel to be underdeveloped. On the contrary, Richmond stated that the cast was a "likeable, youth ensemble" with "good chemistry." Robert Biancho of 'USA Today' commended David Schwimmer's and the female leads' performances, while stated Perry's role as Chandler to be "undefined" and LeBlanc's role as Joey to be "relying too much on the same brain-dead stud routine that was already tired the last two times he tried it." The author of 'Friends Like Us' stated that Perry and Schwimmer were "trying just a little too hard" (Friends Wiki).

The series however, started receiving positive reviews as it progressed and became one of the most popular series at the time. Many critics praised the chemistry developed among the main characters and the consistency of the show's writing. Noel Holston of Newsday apologized for her reviews on the show in which he stated the show to be a "so-so Seinfeld wannabe" in 1994. Heather Havrilesky of Salon.com applauded the character-specific jokes and declared the quality of writing to be "original and innovative." Bill Carter of 'The New York Times' stated that the 8th season was a "truly stunning comeback." Liane Bonin of Entertainment Weekly expressed disappointment in the 9th season stating it to me a non-stop celebrity guest spot, though stated "the writing was still sharp." Havrilesky stated that the 10th season was "alarmingly awful, far worse than you would ever imagine a show that was once so good could be" (Friends Wiki).

The finale received mixed reviews as well. Biancho stated the finale was adroitly showcasing the mixture of emotions and humor and was entertaining. Sarah Rodman of the Boston Herald praised Aniston and Schwimmer for their acting but stated their relationship patch up was "a bit too neat." Lastly, Ken Parish Perkins of Fort Worth Star-Telegram expressed that the finale was "more touching than comical, more satisfying in terms of closure than knee-slappingly funny" (Friends Wiki).

Christianity Perspective of the Show

Friend being a comic sitcom does not really comply with the Christian teachings. As already stated the one criticism the series was subject to was the explicit use of sexual language as well as many sexual acts. The show portrays the idea of sex very casually showing that the characters are often indulged in one-night stands with people they are not familiar with. Although the show portrays the importance of relationships, but the element of sex in these relationships has been shown to be meaningful and relevant in this show. This reflects the popular culture administered by movies these days and thus goes against the religion Christianity's teachings (Hammond).

The series also promotes unorthodox methods of parenthood. Though these are prevalent in some European countries but still these methods are looked down upon in the religion Christianity. The first implication of this nonconformist practice is the decision of Ross' ex-wife of bringing up her son with her lesbian lover, Susan, right after the child's birth. Another implication is Phoebe's decision to become a surrogate mother for her brother and his wife's triplets. The third implication is Monica's decision of whether to be inseminated artificially or not since she thinks she is ready to become a mother. These matters are portrayed to be right and are not thought of in negative sense, thus promoting this culture of untraditional families, which are not though to be right in Chritianity (Hammond).