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"Friends" returns with a special 0:44
Editor's Note: Holly Thomas is a writer and editor based in London. Tweet on @HolstaT. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.
(CNN) - Last week, Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, Matt Le Blanc and Matthew Perry went to Instagram to confirm what fans had been suspecting around the world for a long time: Friends of “Friends ”Will meet again.
We do not know what form the program will take. But it renews and puts in the center of attention of the 21st century, a favorite of the 90s that for many defined a generation and that, even after finishing, continued to enjoy popularity in television broadcasting and on Netflix. As even the most fanatical followers can now recognize, "Friends" was always on the wrong side of cultural history, highlighting many concerns of its time. This reunion at HBO Max arrives at an opportune moment for fans and new viewers to consider exactly why so many people still love this program, and to ask that the group of “Friends” - presumably with more years and wisdom - can arrive to recognize him on the Central Perk sofa this time. (Like CNN, HBO Max, a digital streaming service that will launch in May, is owned by Warner Media).
To begin, the reunion of "Friends" can try to talk about the notorious lack of diversity in the original program. While there were non-white equivalent series in the 1990s, it was a gigantic omission for the program (supposedly the largest in the decade, located in one of the largest and most diverse cities in the world) to have such poor representation of non-white sectors , middle class and thin.
David Schwimmer said in a recent interview his awareness of the lack of diversity of the program, suggesting that there should be an "'Friends' all black or all Asian." Erika Alexander, a cast member of the “Living Single” program, who also portrayed a group of young urban friends and debuted a year before “Friends” objected to Twitter, which appeared to be an obvious presumption that this program did not It would have existed. Schwimmer responded in a tweet: "I did not mean that" Living Single "had not existed or that in fact had not come out before Friends, something I knew."
Compared to programs such as "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air," which not only dealt with racial politics but also with issues such as generational and class divisions with humor and elegance, "Friends" remained fairly static in its comfortable middle-class bubble. Any difference was used as an extravagant reference ("Phoebe used to have no roof, so it is super tough") instead of as an opportunity to explore a potentially juicy subject or raise the social consciousness of the spectators.
Issues that shouldn't have been problems - like Monica's childhood fatness - were used to provoke offensive giggles. The adolescent Monica, stuffed, clumsy and innocent (who appears for years in frequent memories) was not even allowed to have the same personality as the thin, efficient, sharp Monica: she was just an extra “funny” character that sometimes she had to Appear.
On the rare occasions when someone who did not fit in the cast appeared in "Friends", it was used as a complement to the experience of the main L'Oreal style cast. Consider how the father was treated - apparently, but not explicitly - Chandler's transgender, represented by Kathleen Turner. His identity was not even openly treated in the program, but the general impression is that it is confusing and therefore traumatic for Chandler. His presentation is used as a talk for ill-fated lines such as: "Don't you have too much penis to be wearing a dress like that?" It would be great to see that conversation about that relationship. For example, Turner has said he would not accept the same role now.
Of course there are other LGBTQ concerns that the group could talk about. One of the most recurring jokes in the program - which appears in the pilot's first minutes in 1994 - is that Ross was left by his first wife, Carol, by another woman, Susan. Although it was not usual in the 90s to have a female gay couple as protagonists on television, much less present them as parents, that visibility was undermined by the central joke that it was humiliating that Ross had been left by another woman. From the first meeting between Ross and Susan, Carol's girlfriend, Susan is portrayed as an uncompromising villain, and the pattern of jokes about gay affairs was established for many seasons thereafter. The Susan of 2020 deserves to be portrayed as a total heroine for having endured all that.
“Friends” was not even remotely the only program of the time that did not take female gay relationships seriously. When Samantha from "Sex and the City" began dating a woman in the fourth season of the series, her friends' responses are initially sarcastic and disrespectful. Her friend Charlotte says: "Maybe [Samantha] ran out of men?" It is used as another instance in which Samantha is judged for her sexual proclivity for her supposedly liberal friends.
The 90's mentality of embarrassing someone for considering her a "bitch" occasionally emerged in "Friends." One of the high points in the relationship between Richard and Monica is how many sexual partners she had. When Monica says the number, Richard (friend of Monica's father and incarnated by Tom Selleck) sits and breathes with relief: "You made me think it was ... a flotilla." The strong implication was that if the number had been larger, then it would have been a problem. It is strange that they focus on this if we consider that the one Richard dated Monica, whom he had known since he was a baby, was the equivalent of Joey in 2020, dating Ross and Rachel's daughter, Emma.
Hopefully, if the issue of "Friends" relationships arises in 2020, they could at least talk about how they might have addressed certain issues in another way, including sexual interactions. Joey as Don Juan, Ross's controlling and jealous boyfriend's background, the cruelty with which Chandler treated his girlfriend Janice, are well documented. But some initial events external to the main cast are more sinister. In season one, when Rachel's boyfriend, Paolo, gropes Phoebe while she does a professional massage, the group treats the incident as a form of deception. Phoebe even apologizes to Rachel for the fact that Paolo had made an "advance." After #MeToo, that "dramatic turn" is interpreted in another way.
Considering how little the program commented on the fact that touching women without their consent is sexual harassment, highlights even more today how hypersensitive friends were to totally benign events involving women's bodies or parenting. When Carol breastfeeds her son, Ben, at the beginning of "Friends," Joey and Chandler escape in horror as soon as possible. This was not only masculine in the comedies of the 90s, apparently; Carrie in "Sex and the City" is shot when she sees her friend Miranda feeding her baby. In contrast, the real problems of parenting - how Ross hates his son Ben's Barbie, or dismisses his son's babysitter for being "too sensitive" -, they look like something nice. Less than two decades ago, men were praised just for being in the same room as their offspring.
So what could the next HBO Max special bring? We have to hope that by 2020, friends will have a new perspective on the internalized - and externalized - misogyny present in the youth of their program. At least, that they understand the world better beyond Central Perk, a world where reifying women is bad and ignoring the archaic gender binarism is good. If they don't get it, the best thing the cast of "Friends" can do is probably make new friends.
Translation of Mariana Campos
Friends