FRIENDS (1994-2004) is one of the world’s most popular sitcom television shows. It brings together six friends – Monica Geller, Ross Geller, Rachel Green, Chandler Bing, Joey Tribbiani and Phoebe Buffay – and follows their lives from their late-twenties to early-thirties. These characters each have their own niche about them and are funny and lovable in their own ways.
As an avid Friends fan, I can never pick my favourite character. I love them for all the same reasons everyone else probably does. However, I feel as though the boys of the show get a lot of recognition and the girls are considered to be more annoying or dysfunctional. The boys can be funnier; with Chandler and Joey it’s almost inevitable. But the girls deserve some recognition too.
Monica Geller
Personally, Monica is the only one out of these three that I feel most connected with. She is my spirit animal. Always the hostess, always cleaning, always the “mom” that holds the rest of the group together. Monica is me.
She was always so set on getting married and having kids, she went through a lot with guys before she realized that her soulmate was right under her nose – Chandler Bing. Their relationship always seems to be overshadowed by Ross and Rachel’s back-and-forth relationship squabbles. Personally though, Monica is everything I could want to be in my late twenties/early thirties.
Phoebe Buffay
Okay, I know this is just a TV show, but Phoebe went through so much more than any of us could even imagine. Her mom committed suicide when she was just a teenager, her father was in prison, she lived on the streets and when she was older, she found out that her mom wasn’t even her real mom. Talk about stress.
Phoebe has her quirkiness and everyone loves it, but the girl could have turned out a lot worse considering everything she went through. And somehow, she ends up with Mike Hannigan, played by America’s sweetheart Paul Rudd (we must protect him at all costs). She turned out pretty okay and people seem to overlook that because she is represented as an air head. I think she’s the funniest out of all the girls.
Rachel Green
Okay we just need to take a moment to appreciate Rachel’s boss-lady character arc. She started off as daddy’s little princess, getting married for security and money, unwilling to let go of daddy’s gold card and face the real world. Yes, she had her ups and downs with Ross and the whole baby thing, but by the end of the series she was on a plane to Paris to work for Louis Vuitton. She worked her way up the corporate ladder in the fashion world and lived every girl’s dream career, all before she was even 35. One could only hope.
There are a lot of controversies today surrounding the popular sitcom, but I still stan this show and I probably always will. Each character has their own quirky sense of humour and I love each and every one of them, but the girls go underappreciated every time – besides their looks of course, I mean Jennifer Aniston has not aged since the 90s and that’s a fact. Hopefully this will shed a little light on the reasons why the girls deserve a little more appreciation.