Friends, friends na raha, really?

To gauge appeal of a typically American sitcom Friends 19942004 across geographies through decades the Reunion episode 2021 points to two young men Samuel and Emanuel from Ghana who say that the show really taught them how to be around girlsmdashthat they were otherwise too shy to be friends withBeing from Third World you can equally connect with the two men making a point about genderneutral companionshipmdashwithout as much selfawareness or attendant awkwardnessmdashthat ran through Friends The other glocal New York City NYC sitcom from the same time Sex and the City 19982004 seemed like its counterpoint Its posh Cosmopolitanlaced ladiesrsquo nights being the exclusivist equivalent of the Friendsrsquo relaxed Central PerkWhich I suspect normalised coffeeshops as the daily eveningrsquos extension of the living roommdashamong the young betteroff across the world Not so much a dating thing alone Although while schooling in Delhi in the late rsquo90s if someone alluded to a group as being so thick but ldquoso Friendslikerdquo they probably meant everybodyrsquos been with everyone in that coed cohortThe showrsquos original oneline brief by its creator David Crane appears to have resonated most from its sassy Reunion documentary of sorts ldquoItrsquos about that time in your life when friends are familyrdquo Or at any rate friends are flatmatesI guess hersquos referring to a phase when yoursquore a workingearning adult but singlemdashin the city but without spouse or more importantly child Whatrsquos happened to this demographic since over a decade and half that the last Friends episode airedCanrsquot speak for all But if NYC is indeed the singlesrsquo capital of America and Tier I Bombay somewhat its legit desi equivalent I observe far more menwomen progressively past their mid 30smdashwhether never married livingin separated or divorcedmdashalmost permanently extending the lsquoFriends phasersquo into a proper life choiceA way to be rather than a rite of passage as it were The futurersquos not ours to see Irsquom merely pointing to relevance Does that explain the continuing attraction for Friends and its setting while times have changed and so have audiencesThatrsquod be taking psychobabble to another level And disservice to a show that promptly proved how easy it looks but difficultserendipitous it must be to keep it so simple stupidThat uniting the cast of a random hangout sitcom with six actorsreactors with throwaway lines walking in and out of an inexpensive set would get Beckham 46 Bieber 27 and BTS average age 25 pitching in with desperate cameos expressing their enduring love in a reunion episode 36 years since the first Who wouldrsquove thunk itUnlike its NYC predecessor Seinfeld 198998 selfexplanatory for whorsquos at the centre Friends isnrsquot about any particular charactermdashRoss Chandler Joey Rachel Phoebe or Monica That makes it appear that it is about usmdashwhether or not you pick your evolving favourite As someone in the know once told me every character also had an attached writer in the room to thinkscript specifically for themHow the storytellers could pull this off for a decade without any tension showing for the lack of a lead is a lesson for Indian filmmakers who groan under the weight of egos even in a quickfix multistarrerFor whatrsquos an actor if not naturally equipped to compete especially performing before a live audience which was the Friends set Hell even the Beatles broke up and they had a tacit hierarchy in place What Friends had is the sort of alchemy that confirms your sense that actors even the best of them are mostly extensions of actual selves on screen making casting such a lockandkey thing Looking at them decades later in the same context is therefore the most fitting mirror to how times have irreversibly flown byThis is why Friends The Reunion 2021 equalled mild melancholy for watchers of network TVrsquos Friends 1994 But depends on who you were looking at reallymdashhad my eyes on Rachel and Phoebe Sorry Joeymdashsome age better than othersAs do shows And comedies inevitably age best You can still rewatch Charlie Chaplin Try swordandsandal cinema from the same silent era Also like lsquocomfort foodrsquo therersquos such a thing as lsquoeasy TVrsquomdash chewing gum for the brain especially if therersquos winebeer or too much food in the tummyFrom any episode to season you simply click on it with your legs up head resting on the couch before the screen blurs before your eyes and you eventually pass out having registered nothing This is how I suspect Friends has been viewed over a 100 billion times across platformsIrsquove never casually binged on Friends this way Something similarly new always comes alongmdashSchittrsquos Creek Curb Your EnthusiasmTwo and Half Men or Friendsrsquo progenies How I Met Your Mother Big Bang TheoryhellipWhich is why I only recently read but had no clue how Friends got rediscovered as borderlinefullblown homophobic sexist ableisthellip SoWhite that it doesnrsquot pass the wokepurity test with flying coloursHerersquos the thing Canrsquot be bothered That reunion was instantly moving Like hanging with old friendsfamily Theyrsquore memories Beauty of nostalgia lies in it being uncomplicatedSo sit down GenZ kid go find your own friendsMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper