Sepinwall's book excerpt on The Sopranos: The Russian, and The End

You related to:

- being able to afford massive NYC apartments on waitress' salaries?
- Have TWO dudes in your social group whose main personality trait was that they acted stupid? And one woman with the same trait?
- The hottest woman dating the biggest dumpy dork in the group?
- Etc.

Yup. The laugh track was insulting. Phoebe says "You snooze, you lose!" and they turn up the laugh track.

Friends wasn't for 20-somethings. It was for 12-year-olds who thought this is how cool it would be to be 20-something.

 

I'll try to put together a pretty detailed defense of "Friends" - it might take a few weeks, because I think it deserves it.

But for now: Yes, laugh track on dumb Phoebe jokes falls into that "cutesy" zone and is a reason I called the show "uneven."

One thing that strikes me is how much Aniston grew as an actress and how much the Rachel character grew to become more recognizable and sympathetic - really, I suppose, the transformation you see out of a person moving from her early 20s to early 30s.

In Season 1, you had her screeching about her "Paolo shoes." By the late seasons, she was navigating her serious fashion career aspirations and balancing single motherhood.

Also for now:

Relatable:

- Navigating the dating world
- Navigating early divorce
- Navigating lack of career fulfillment
- Navigating income differences among a social group
- Navigating education-level differences among a social group
- Gender politics
- Office politics
- Dealing with parents as an adult for the first time
- Dealing with death (grandparent in the first season)
- Etc., etc.

 

So you related to Friends because it dealt with themes other shows handled much, much better?

 

Aniston's nipples were tremendous in Friends but her best acting work was in The Good Girl, Along Came Polly, Rumor Has It, Friends With Money and The Break-Up.

She was very strong in The Good Girl, Rumor Has It and Friends With Money.

 

I enjoyed her in Horrible Bosses.

 

I reject your premise.

 

- Navigating the dating world
- Navigating early divorce
- Navigating lack of career fulfillment
- Navigating income differences among a social group
- Navigating education-level differences among a social group
- Gender politics
- Office politics
- Dealing with parents as an adult for the first time
- Dealing with death (grandparent in the first season)
- Etc., etc.

Which of these do you think Friends handled better than other shows?

 

Specific to 20-somethings?

Probably all of them.

 

You really thought that grandmother's death plot was one of the best examples of 20-somethings dealing with death in TV history? We'll have to agree to disagree.

How I Met Your Mother's first six seasons dealt with almost all of those themes and did so while being funny.

 

Now, I'm on the record saying that the first season of "Friends" was probably the weakest, but, yes, I thought the episode was handled pretty well. Again, some cutesiness and schmaltz taints it - like them finding the photo of the grandmother and her friends at "Java Joe's." But plenty of good material there about Monica's mother not realizing she was as critical of Monica as her mother was of her. Or, at least, choosing to willfully ignore it. She says: "I like when people just get along." That's pretty good stuff right there, and captured pretty well the frustration of a 20-something person just bursting to blast all her opinions to the world running into an older person who has come to the conclusion that it's not worth it. Very relatable, particularly against the backdrop of a death in the family.

 

Oh, my God, though, did they sport some ugly '90s clothes sometimes on that show.

 

'Friends' was terrible.

Even though you liked some form of entertainment when you were younger doesn't mean you have to cling to the notion that the entertainment in question possessed any real merit.

It was a sitcom. I was a very popular sitcom, but it wasn't a particularly good sitcom.

In 10 years, people who were avid fans of 'Two and a Half Men' and 'How I met Your Mother' will be wondering why they thought the shows were so good.