Yet, however much Friends pushed the boundaries of what family could look like it was, traditional values ultimately won out. In 2004’s finale, Rachel sacrifices her career to return to Ross and raise their daughter together. Monica and Chandler get the babies they longed for and move to the suburbs. Phoebe has married Mike. Only Joey is still single – conveniently for the spin-off sitcom, Joey, that was to follow.
But as one friendship set consciously ungrouped, more were coming together – on How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Happy Endings, New Girl… A raft of “hang out” shows channelled Friends, though none ever matched its success. Even now, 20 years since the finale, it has found a new audience in millennials and teenagers. In 2018 and 2019, Friends was the most streamed show in the UK. It reportedly rose to the top of the US streaming charts in the week following the death of actor Matthew Perry in October 2023.
For younger viewers, it might be hard to fathom a world in which friends hang out every day physically… or rather, IRL (in real life). “I think Friends speaks to that sense that we’re feeling anxious, we’re feeling disconnected,” says Ewen. “It offers a fantasy of that part of your life, the idea that you can just sit around with your mates for hours and not worry about stuff.”
At the Tribeca TV Festival in 2019, Marta Kauffman explained that that time was finite: “This is a show about a time in your life when your friends are your family,” she said. “And when you have a family, that changes.”
The idea of spending hours hanging out with your friends with no one distracted by their phone has become aspirational – a slightly depressing thought, but one that reveals how much Friends tapped into an enduring truth. For most of us, at least for a time in our lives, there was nothing we’d rather be doing.
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This is an updated version of an article that was originally published in 2019.
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