Total lie

Also worth remembering that except for Phoebe. All the characters on the show grew up upper class. Like top 5% upper class.

Also Phoebe lived with her grandmother in a small apartment until her grandmother died and she got roomamates.

Did any of us watch any of it?

Friends fucking sucked.

Can you tell which episode it is? I've tried watching some but couldn't find it.

That would just be a dig on their intelligence. You can't see the massive problem of not being able to afford housing? How can I relate to this character?

Never thought about this, that a really good input, thanks

That's completely not the reason. How other shows manage to show small apartments and poor people houses?

Showing regular people living in big apartment is more appealing to the public. Shows from the 70s or before were more realistic. Mary Tyler Moore was living in a small apartment and sleeping in the sofa despite having a regular job. In All in the family, they were financially struggling especially because of the 70s inflation. Lucy and her husband were living in a small apartment.

Things did change in the 80s and we started seeing families living in big houses with cars. Even Roseanne who normally depicted a working class family was living in a big house and could afford many things.

Older gens I'd say. My mother had afriend who always came in without knockin and just...vibed. Like they suddenly materialised in kitchen and talked while eating or materialised near table and drank coffee.

My partner's mother had someone like that too.

Meanwhile I am having a meltdown if someone tries the door before knocking (they are always locked anyway)

Before the internet was widespread, it was extremely common for people to actually hang out in person. The show is set in an era where the internet was something you went out of your way to connect to, not something that was already integrated into every single device you used.

Especially since they all lived so close together, it’s 100% believable that they’d hang out together regularly. People also forget that the show takes place over multiple years, and we only see 20’ish episodes per year. Assuming each episode takes place across two’ish days, they’re still only seeing each other two or three times per week. If I lived across the hallway from my best friends, I’d probably hang out with them a few times per week too.

This is especially true from Chandler and Joey’s perspectives, where Monica’s kitchen is only like eight steps away from their own kitchen. Why bother cooking yourself breakfast, when there’s a professional chef willing to do it for you, and all you have to do is open two extra doors?

Not breakfast, but I used to eat dinner with my neighbors allllll the time. They even used my fridge to keep extra food in when preparing for parties and stuff.

People with close friends, i guess.
My friends definitely don't want me around. lol

He works in data analytics, his friends just don't care enough to learn what that means.

He probably analyses consumer and advertising trends to guide investments and product launches.

Ross wasn't a grad student though. he was a PhD researcher + professor. back in the 90s, that would've been a decent gig.

Ross wasn’t a grad student; He had his doctorate. Initially he worked at a museum of natural history, then eventually got fired (for screaming at his boss) and went to work at the university as a professor. Either way, in the mid-90’s, he would have been comfortable.

Chandler was more some bureaucratic data guy. The way they describe him is inputting numbers into speeadsheets at a megacorp. But he eventually becomes a manager.

It's the street noise

Moooorning's heeereee!

We get up at 6 and we head to work between 7 and 9.

So depending on the day and person its just a quick coffee. But on other days we have time for bread and croissants.

Lots of lockers portrayed in media are the type that go from the floor all the way up the wall. I don’t know about other schools, but my lockers were all pretty small and there were several on top of each other.

Friends.

That's supposed to be a new your city apartment lol

A lot of people don't actually realise just how much time passes between most episodes if you actually listen to context clues. Obviously there are some exceptions, but generally these shows are not supposed to be assumed to be real time in any sense. Some will have a thanksgiving episode and the next is Christmas or new years. People will mention they've been dating for months after a few episodes.

Some vaguely line up with being the week they aired in real life being the week it's supposed to be in the show. But think about what that would mean. You're seeing an entire week of their lives condensed into a 20-30 minute segment of highlights. Many episodes span several days of their lives. That means you're seeing maybe 5-10 minutes of each day the episode involves.

It's true. Try hanging out somewhere outside your house with no modern technology for two hours.

First you'll realize how long time feels without a smartphone or instant entertainment.

The second thing you'll realize is how hard it is to keep track of time without a wristwatch.

People socialized more in person because there wasn't much else to do and it was the best way to do so.

I had a girlfriend that was utterly convinced that bottled water was healthier for you. Although when pushed she couldn't provide a reason.

Some people do seem to buy into the idea that bottled water is all collected from some kind of secret magical spring of eternal youth. When really it all comes out of a tap in the factory.

You can say that it isn’t for you but you can’t say it’s a shitty show. It’s one of the most influential shows of the 90s. Cheers, All in the Family, MASH, and Seinfeld are probably the only ones that compare. (I’d like to put Malcolm in the Middle and Married with Children up there too but that’s probably giving them too much credit)