Decoding the success of ‘Friends’ and how it continues to be the most binge-watched show on OTT platforms.
The TV industry has a special place in its heart for the 90s rom-com Friends. It is not without reason why 16 years after its last episode was screened it continues to be the highest watched show at any OTT platform. As we cannot still get enough of Chandler’s surreal jokes, Monica’s bossing around and Rachels’ tantrums, here are looking closely at how the show made a change in the sitcom landscape and how people consumed TV. This iconic show also left an impact on the millennial lifestyle of every country it was broadcasted in and hence is relevant decades after it was aired.
How Friends Broke the Glass Ceiling for TV
The Path breaking quality of Friends was its cast, and their antics were limited to a few backgrounds. The production of the series was easy peasy as the friends just had to hang out with each other as much as possible. In Season 3, the episode titled “The One Where No One’s Ready,” was filmed entirely at Monica’s living room, and it continues to be a laughter riot, one of its kind.
Friends didn’t need character or plot progression, and yet it was one of the few shows that managed to be a successful show with multiple seasons running for a decade. Apart From Monica and Chandler’s relationship and Rachels’ career, nothing much changed in the life of the characters. Yet what pulled everything together was the character’s off-the-charts chemistry. The tightness of cast both on-screen and off-screen helped them negotiate an equal pay per episode with ease.
How Friends connected with millennial life
Friends depicted New York Life in all its glory, unchanged and familiar even in its gloomy times. That time when it came to India, call centre jobs had started blooming, Millennials were leaving their hometown for a life of dreams at metros and often would find the family in friends, colleagues, flatmates. Work stress and anxiety were grievous, but Friends had an answer, ‘I’ll be there for you”. These six slightly clueless twenty-somethings muddling their way through relationships, jobs, and life was every youngster of the times. No wonder it struck the right chord with you!
How Friends Harvested Coffee Culture
A new fan theory suggests Friends was the stage setter for coffee culture in India and the rest of the world. Coffee started to be a conversation starter, even in tea-loving countries like the UK after Friends gained popularity. Coffee chains that offer large sitting areas to sit back and relax came up in quick progression.
In the later years, Friends lay the stepping stone for other TV series with a similar backdrop like Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother. Although each of these shows has its fair share of fame, the legacy of Friends continues to live on.
