Friends vs. HIMYM

Well, i have waited to finish the whole ten season to write this blog post. And before starting, i must say, unfortunately, i am not a big fan of Friends. It just did not work for me. So if you are gonna hate me for this, maybe you should stop reading. Just saying.

Friends is a decent series which made my last three months more bearable. And i should add, it almost made me forget that i am unemployed lol. Even after ten years, with the lack of technology and other opportunities, i must say it is quite successful to made you burst into laughs. But i do have a lot of criticism about it. Especially, if you compare it to HIMYM, i don't know why you wanna do that but if you ever do that, you can see a lot of differences between them. They are two very identical series except they are not.

Starting with Ross, oh my God. (with Janice's voice) He is the most antipathetic and annoying character to me. He is not strong enough to stand what he did, unnecessarily jealous and left very nice women for Rachel, who does not deserve anything. Of course, these thoughts are valid just for the first five-six season. After Emma was born, i love both Rachel and Ross. But still, Ross is my least fave character.

In HIMYM, you can say, Ted is kinda Ross. Because they are both professors, interested to science and some kinda boring stuff that others don't wanna hear about, obsessed one woman for the whole series and end up getting back to her. But the thing is, i love Ted and i can't find any annoying part about him. But when it comes to Ross, even him saying “hi” with his hopeless voice is annoying. I guess i really hate Ross except for a few parts. He was so good at taking care of Emma, he did everything to make Rachel happy and for the last season, he supported Rachel for Paris even he didn't want a bit her to go. That is very much appreciated.

Next one is Rachel. Oh, dear Rachel... While in the very first episode, she is completely spoiled, selfish and inconsiderate; after a few seasons, she became a totally independent businesswoman, lovely mother and caring friend. Especially, the way she deals with Joey’s or Phoebe’s problems is really nice. And i think she was the centre of attention for the whole series. She had changed career a few times, have an affair with Ross and Joey and a lot of other partners, become a mother. You cannot see other’s lives that much detailed. It is always either Rachel's birthday party or baby shower or something else. She is the one who got the most interaction with the gang. She is best friend with both Monica and Phoebe. She has an on and off affair with Ross and Joey. That's the almost whole group.

When you look at the HIMYM, you can say Robin is alike Rachel. They both are career woman, both don't know what they want from life, both attracted to two male people from the gang, both is the prettiest woman in the group. I don't wanna write a detailed analysis of the Robin, because i already did in my last blog post. But let me talk a bit relationship between Joey and Rachel.

When it comes to Joey, you will see that he was my favourite character. But apart from that, i really wanted to the relationship between Rachel and Joey to work out. When they were a roommate, they were perfect. When they were dating, they were perfect. Joey got stuck on Rachel for a long time, and after Emma's born, Rachel also attracted to Joey but somehow, they did not end up together. The scenarist didn't even tell us how and when their relationships end. When Joey falls in love with Rachel, he was a hopeless romantic. You can’t expect his feelings cool down this fast. I mean, for one episode, they were almost engaged and it did end as nothing happened. I don't get it. And everyone else was thinking Rachel should be with Ross because it meant to be. Well, they were stayed separated like six seasons, how they can be still meant to be? I really did not understand this. 

Of course in the last episode, when they back together, i was happy as everyone else. It did not make any sense when they have a kid together, live together and be more than friends to each other, but continue to see other people. So it did become meaningful when they get back together. But i could have been happy as well if it weren't with Ross but with Joey.

My third character will be Joey. My dear beloved and most left out person, Joey... I love Joey more than anyone in the Friends’ character. He is considered, kind and caring person, love and does whatever needs for his friends, a big fan of pizza and an actor. Especially, when it comes to scenes that he has pangs of love for Rachel, i was literally dying. He might be a little naive, so what?  Although in some scenes, i did think, how he can reach this age alive with this much stupidity. But still, he was the cutest character of all. It is really sad and shame of scenarist that he did not end up with someone and never found love. It is an undeniable fact that Joey is the most left out person of series. They literally finished the series by giving Joey a little duck and chick. Was that a consolation prize? Ross and Rachel found each other and have a kid, Chandler and Monica found each other and have two kids, Mike and Phoebe found each other and what’s left to Joey is junior duck and junior chick. What a memorable lifetime of happiness. I really think he should have ended up with Phoebe. They were both nicely weird and getting along with each other. And actually, when they kissed a few times in the series, i thought something is gonna happen in the next seasons, but nothing happened.

Yes, they made lots of scenes with Joey and his soap operas. But i still think what happens to Joey was unfair. They made him look like a fool, unsuccessful and have lots of partners but never found love. Well, he did find love with Rachel but they didn't let them be together. And it still didn't make sense that he gave up Rachel this quickly while he is so in love with her. But anyway, he is and will be my favourite character in Friends forever. If i compare to HIMYM, i can say he is a bit like Marshall. Because Marshall was also a bit naive when you compare other characters in HIMYM, but he never acts like a fool. And unlike other people's opinion, Joey was not like Barney at all. In Friends, they made Joey look like a womanizer. And as we know, Barney was also womanizer but Joey didn't even come closer what Barney did. Barney was more ahead of his league.

My fourth and fifth character will be Monica and Chandler. Monica, hmm how to put this delicately? Let's say, she was a control freak, cleaning addict and selfish person who can't stand when she cannot be in charge of everything. God bless Chandler. The scenarist made her look like the mom of the group. And yes, she was. But she is one of my least fave characters, unfortunately. And i still can't believe how she ends up with Chandler. Because it didn't make sense to me at all. They were friends for a few seasons and they accidentally have an affair and boom, got a relationship! And after they started dating, i was struggling to remember how were they like when they were just friends. It felt like they were together from the beginning. But no, in the first few seasons, you cannot expect on earth them to be together.

In HIMYM, it shouldn't be wrong to say that Monica is alike of Lily on some certain features. They are both the mom of the group, love cooking, control addict and most stable couple of the group. Although Lily was more fun than Monica, obviously. 

Chandler was a fine guy. Despite the fact that they tried to make he looks like “fun guy”, i was laughing at Joey and Phoebe more than Chandler. His jokes are not funny at all, except a few times. And after marrying Monica, he did not become fun at all. He turned into a fat, boring and less loveable person. It is either he has some problems after the fifth or sixth season or Monica made him less funny. But in the tenth season, i think he became funny again. And his scene about talking to the woman who gives birth their children was amazing.

He got a boring job at the beginning. We did see him several times at work. But when he changed his career entirely and entered into advertising, we did not see what he did at work, at all. They should have shown it more since it is an important change. In HIMYM, i may say he was a bit like Barney in terms of they both wear a suit all the time, both have a desk-bound job and both jobs are little unknown. The rest of the gang never could tell what Chandler and Barney doing for a living for the entire series.

My sixth and last character is Phoebe, who is my second favourite character. Phoebe is totally sui generis, creepy and unique. She is a masseuse and plays the guitar as a hobby. But we can say, her songs were terrible and she suffered financially a lot during series. Just as i couldn’t believe how dumb Joey was, i could not believe either how creepy Phoebe was. Luckily she ended up with Mike who is just fine. I do have a few criticisms about it but still, i am glad she found some sensible guy in the final season. Still, i am thinking she is as left out as Joey. 

We know what she does for a living but we barely see her works. While others date a lot of partners during seasons, she just dated a few and never found true love. And after she found her lovely Mike, we barely saw their relationship. We didn't even see Mike after the marriage. Isn’t Phoebe from the six-people gang? Why we see other’s partners all the time but couldn't see Phoebe’s ever? Mike didn't even have a friendship with the rest of the gang. It is so unfair. But apart from these, i think Phoebe is the most unique and weird character ever. I can't even tell how she is different from HIMYM's characters, because no one is like her.

If i make a general evaluation of Friends, i love the fact that the scenario is happening in a coffee house and they are drinking coffee all the time. Despite MacLaren's Pub, i feel more close to Central Perk. And when you watch HIMYM, you feel like an audience. But when it comes to Friends, you feel like you are one of them. This was so sincere. The last thing is, in HIMYM, almost every character from the gang were university educated and has a good career. Of course, they did lose their jobs from time to time, but in the end, their intellectual levels' were kinda even. Although we saw that Robin and Barney sometimes did not understand or simply don't know the facts that everybody should have known from childhood. But in Friends, while Ross has PhD degree, Phoebe and Joey didn't even go to the high school. So in Friends, it was more of a complex group regarding the gang's educational background. Of course, these things do not matter but when i compared two series, i just couldn't help but notice.    

Let's be honest, i didn't like every episode of Friends. Sometimes, i just watched it for coming closer to the end. But most of the times, i enjoyed a lot. It cheered up my breakfast and late-night tea times. I forgot everything unpleasant about this life while i was watching. But what makes a series memorable is willing to watch it so many times after finishing it. I watched a million times HIMYM and never got bored. I don't know whether or not the same thing will happen to Friends. For now, i am glad it is over. I am grateful for the joy i have but don't have a special desire for rewatching. 

But you know what they say, we will see.