Friends TV Show • Page 40

One of the best things about rewatching the show is when you first realize they set up Monica and Chandler all along haha

 

So easily a top 5 character of all time

 

Re-watching clips yesterday, his timing is so good. Chandler could have easily been so much more annoying and unlikable smart-arse in the wrong hands, but he tapped into a beautiful relatability with him. And the way he pauses for just the right amount of time before a punchline just made him so bloody funny.

 

This has forever been my background show for the last 15 years of my life. It was an early bonding experience for me and my now wife, and we've probably watched it 10-15 times together (albeit background while we're cooking/cleaning/chilling on the couch scrolling our phones, etc.)

Easy, likeable and relatable viewing.

Chandler as a character was the underrated heart of the 6. Starting as overly sarcastic, cynical and generally pessimistic in the earlier seasons, to showing the most growth until the end of season 10 out of the 6. He's the most vastly different from who he was in episode 1, to who he is in the finale.

I don't know a lot of Matthew Perry's other work, but Chandler is an absolute all-timer. R.I.P MP.

 

It was not originally planned.

 

Yeah originally they had thought to put Monica and Joey together at the very start, but then changed direction as the show went on and the characters changed and stories developed. I’m glad it worked out the way it did because I love Chandler and Monica. My wife has always been a Monica, and everyone in her family likes to point that out to her, while my Friends surrogate has always been Chandler so they were always our favorite couple. As mentioned above, Matthew Perry had this naturally born gift for comedic timing. He could take a line that was marginally funny and elevate it into a line delivery that gets endlessly quoted decades later. I agree about his character arc too. Chandler grows so much throughout the show, and I know it was a struggle for Matt at times, but he imbued that character with so much heart that you really rooted for him every time he found something in his life that made him happy whether that was a relationship with Monica, marriage, adoption, or his new job near the end. That’s all Matthew Perry.

 

I just meant their writing set things up for it to happen quite well, there were hints of them getting together throughout; whether it was fully intended or not

 

Tiktok is so weird. People are posting what feels like v insincere and emotionally manipulative things. Like clips set to sad music and edited in a depressing way that feel like they're created by an AI bot for optimal sadness. My lil sister sent me one and I was like ??? Why??? I guess a weird parasocial like deliberately emotional and vulnerable thing that seems v Gen z in a way that's hard for me to explain.

Maybe that's not it at all idk but it's odd. Maybe it's just noticeable cause something like the FNL Emmy trailer was meant to tug on my heart strings but it's well-made and feels like it had heart. Something like these tiktoks are edited by randos on their phones and lacks that same gutpunch and instead just feels weird and hollow and manipulative/performative

edit: Exploitative is maybe the word I'm looking for

 

I totally know what you mean and it feels weird to me too.

On the flip side, I'm also really getting pissed at the people who feel the need to say shit like "yeah but let's not forget that Friends sucked"

Like, is this really the appropriate time for those jokes?

Idk, they're just shitty jokes about a sitcom... I get it. But I was raised on this show since I was a toddler haha I have such a huge attachment to it and every actor involved in a way that is incomparable to any other form of media. It's my comfort food. Every actor on the show feels like an aunt or uncle to me. Why antagonize people who care about the show so much at such a terrible time?

 

I engage in a bit of dark/gallows humour here and there, but people racing to be the first one to make a dark joke about a celebrity dying - particularly one who meant a great deal to a lot of people - makes me feel really uncomfortable.

 

Another two Chandler thoughts I've had after watching youtube tonight.

1) Having not watched the show in a while, I forgot how there's more than a bit of Jim Carrey in the way Perry goes about his delivery.
2) The writers lazily turning the Chandler/Phoebe friendship into Phoebe just dunking on him at any given opportunity really fucking sucked.

 

My fave light hearted chandler dunk is when they all thought he has glasses the whole time

 

could the shark have been any more jumped over if that happened

 

I wonder if this had anything to do with their initial intentions for Monica and Chandler to break up. I remember when they first hooked them up they had only intended for it to be a fling but the audience’s reaction to their coupling changed their plans.

 

“The Chandler”

 

Yeah cheating would be taking things way too far. That being said, if I were Chandler and had seen how madly in love Monica was with Richard and how difficult it was for her to get over him, I'd be equally pissed at her secretly eating a meal with him haha

 

Monica should have been with Richard

Chandler should have been with Kathy

 

Richard was a fucking creep

 

A handsome creep (who totally wore his pants up to his nipples)

 

Everyone in that show is a creep