Why did a sitcom like «Friends» last so long? The first episode of «Friends» was broadcast on 22 September 1994 on NBC (in Italy on 23 June 1997 on Rai3). Another 235 followed, spread across ten seasons. The series written by Marta Kauffman and David Crane has lasted over time and has become a global phenomenon because it immediately established itself as a sort of intergenerational manifesto. The six protagonists talk about themselves and their dissatisfaction (is there anything more universal than dissatisfaction?) but they do so in a polite, light, ironic way, as if they appeared satisfied with the dissatisfaction they feed on. Also because they belong to a generation that has never known either war or economic crisis.
Monica, Rachel, Phoebe, Ross, Chandler and Joey, before being characters diversified by psychology, are stories, they are six narrative lines that progress simultaneously: telling the events of a large cast that develop hand in hand helps to underline the unpredictability of life rather than its regularity. On the one hand, the spectator is reassured by some canonical places (the house, which seems not to know the bedroom, and the sofas of the Central Perk Café) where speeches can be staged; on the other hand he is intrigued by a continuous and unpredictable search for something to do with happiness, with reassurance, with tomorrow.
«Friends» lasted a long time because it deliberately avoids the problems of current events, of reality, preferring the comfort zone of meta-history, the ideal place to cultivate «characters». For example, Chandler (it is the death of Matthew Perry which suggests these considerations to us) is described as the most cynical and sarcastic of the six, but his ways, his face, his smiles were all marked by a sweetness capable of weakening any causticity. As Wesley Morris wrote in the «New York Times», «Friends» «is easy TV at the highest level. Lots of jokes, lots of physical comedy, lots of surprises and emotions and squeals of happiness from the studio audience.” Simplicity is not a simple thing, it takes talent to achieve it.
On the disappearance of Matthew Perry (1969 – 2023) read also:
2023-10-30 16:40:58
#Friends #success #reassuring #simplicity
