Reply to Friends is the dopiest, most basic show

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It’s easy.  It’s a lot of good looking people and it really was funny.  Back in the day at least.  I’m not sure how clever you want a comedy to be?  It’s a show anyone with friends can identify with.  They also stayed together for the series which usually does not happen.[/quote]

None of the characters were relatable or even believable as legitimate friends. Oh yes, my circle includes a guy with a romance novelist mom, a ditzy masseur, a chef who somehow seems to never work, a barista with a bottomless budget, and a soap actor. Oh yes. Def.[/quote]

Monica and Ross were siblings. It is believable they would be friends.

Ross and Chandler were college roommates and both have professional, white collar jobs. It makes sense that they would still be friends and that Chandler would wind up in Monica's apartment building (that's how post-college networks often work).

Rachel was Monica's best friend growing up. They grew apart during college (which was culinary school for Monica) but in the first episode, Rachel has just stood up her fiancé at the altar and winds up in a coffee shop where Monica and Ross are (I can't remember if this is intentional or an accident -- it's intended to be over the top ridiculous so I will grant them this license). Monica and Ross (who holds a candle for Rachel dating to high school) both help her because they know her and feel bad for her. Monica has a spare room (she lives in her grandmother's rent controlled apartment) and offers to let her stay until she's on her feet. None of those relationships are crazy.

Joey and Phoebe are the wildcards. Joey is easily explained though -- Chandler needed a roommate (NYC rents) and Joey is an actor in need of a cheap apartment. They become friends because they are roommates, and they become friends with Monica and then Rachel because they are similarly aged neighbors and are connected via Ross.

Phoebe is the biggest outlier, but it is explained that she previously lived with Monica. As a chef in NYC (working in restaurants at night creates some weird relationships), and as a bit of an odd duck herself despite growing up on Long Island, it's not that weird to me that Monica would have collected Phoebe as a friend, either by renting a room to her or through random people she met in her industry. It is weird that Phoebe would focus her social life around Monica and the others, but again, it's a TV show. It can take some artistic liberties. She is there to stir the pot and enhance the humor. Like Urkel on Family Matters or Kramer on Seinfeld. It's a common comedy trope -- the weird interloper who does nutty things and then all the more standard characters react.[/quote]

Oh and Rachel only becomes a waitress because she needs money after leaving her fiancé -- she was supposed to marry rich (dentist) and then become a SAHM on Long Island. Instead she gets the first job she can find waiting tables and then pursues a dream of working in fashion, starting with some very menial jobs as a personal shopper and a buyer's assistant in a department store, believable jobs for the daughter of a wealthy doctor who grew up in the NYC area at the time.[/quote]

Phoebe is also the twin sister of Ursula from Mad About You.[/quote]

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