"I'll Be There for You"

*clap, clap, clap clap*.

 

So, it’s been 10 years since Friends ended, but the show still makes a dent in the tv line up- the 10 seasons re-run daily on various channels. I know the story lines can have questionable morals, Joey could use some therapy, but you can’t deny the show’s impact on television.

 

How is it that a show that began 20 years ago, ran for a decade, and is a decade old, still resonates? Why do people care about Phoebe’s past? Whether Ross and Rachel will work it out? Why does a show about 6 friends ring true?

 

As I type in my pjs, relaxing on a Friday night, I found myself thinking about how art imitates life. Friends lasted because it echoed what we all crave—consistent community that “will be there for you, when the rain starts to pour…” We all want to be known and loved. The six friends stuck it out through some rough life patches—divorce, unemployment, deaths in the family, and they knew they could count on each other. We all crave that. Everyone wants to be connected and known. We don’t want to be known only on a screen—through the façade we create with facebook posts or doctored Instagram photos where we can omit our bad habits, crop the stains on our shirts, hide our imperfections. 

 

Friends depicted a community where 6 individuals were known, faults and all. Rachel was entitled and ditzy, Monica had OCD, Chandler was struggling to reconcile childhood traumas, Ross shot himself in the foot with relationships, Phoebe was quirky and too idealistic, Joey was a womanizer. But they were loved. Not that they never called each other out on these things—in fact, much of the “humor” centered on the way these faults impacted their lives and the lives of their friends. They often “told it like it was” to each other, they knew what the others struggled with but hung in there—knowing that the others were “there for [them] too”.