George who? Stephanopoulos? WHO?! Never heard of him.
But thanks to the magic of Google I can confirm he is in fact a real person! And a politician at that. Who knew Friends™ was so topical? I mean, not topical anymore obviously... but still.
“The One Where I Decide this was an Excellent Idea”
This week me and my Real Live Friends (mercifully less screechy than Rachel’s friends) went out to see Spectre (four stars).
This marks the third time we’ve been out recently to an area of London known as “Shepherds Bush” (steady…). So I suppose you could say that's become our equivalent of Central Perk! Going to see a film contrasts with the Friends™ visit to a hockey game in this episode as none of us really like sport.
I mean, sure I’ll watch football on the telly if it’s an international match, I just don’t have time for the commitment needed to follow it properly. At times this creates quite a gulf between me and people who DO support a football team. I wonder how my friendships would be different if I did? I suspect more random events would happen in my life.
Joey Number 1 did once try to organise a tennis match, but we ended up having a cheese night after he miss-spelt "racket" as "raclette".
Literally nothing of interest happened on our trip to the cinema, with a large portion of the evening being taken up by sitting in the dark. I can see why the writers of Friends™ chose a hockey match over a visit to the cinema. In fact I can’t think at all of a time the Friends™ go to the cinema! (Feel free to correct me in the comments...)
In many ways this episode continues the themes set out by Episode 2. Except this time the focus is on the pressures felt by Rachel rather than Monica. In a small coincidence, before the film a friend of a friend mentioned she hates being single, because whenever she goes home her family constantly asks her if she’s got a boyfriend yet.
Girl, Monica can feel your pain!
I myself can relate to Rachel’s excitement then disappointment at her first payslip. Not least because a few months ago I was paid 1% of what I supposed to be due to an administrative error!
I found it interesting how Rachel’s snobby friends see her job as some sort of little jolly she’s doing for fun rather than an unfortunate economic necessity of circumstance.
I often feel people in my own life view my “career” (or lack thereof) in a similar way. My partner has had some bad news in the job department too, so the scenes of Rachel, Phoebe and Monica lying around in their pajamas, depressed at their jobs and lack of direction in life struck particularly close to home. We don't even have any hot politicians out our window to entertain us! Although we do have Netflix.
I saw R, P and M’s appreciation of Mr Stephanopoulos as another affirmation of their sexuality. This, again, piqued my interest in the shows feminist slant so I decided to have a look into the gender distribution of the writers:
Series one has a ratio of three women to eight men (including series co-creator Marta Kauffman) and it turns out that this episode was solely written by a woman: Alexa Junge.
Although this looks like quite a poor ratio; ten out of the twenty-four episodes in season one were either written or co-written by a woman which I think is actually quite good.
Particularly in such a traditionally male dominated industry such as comedy.
As with last episode though; any liberal bingo points the writers gain are counter-balanced by some slightly insensitive jokes about deaf people making noises when having sex. (Although I can hardly talk as one of my Real Live Friends once split my sides with a story of their deaf flatmate having rather loud sex too…)
Speaking of sex, this episode has Ross revealing he lost his virginity to Carol and that he was with her for seven years. I only have one RLF who has been in a relationship for this long, who happily is already my Ross No. 1 (his number of sexual partners is currently unconfirmed…)
If I was super creepy this means I could count every time Ross gets laid and work out how many sexual partners he has before he finally (SPOILER ALERT) settles down with Rachel. Fortunately for you I am super creepy! So I will be doing that.
The first few episodes I felt like Ross and Rachel got over their relationships ending unrealistically quickly, so I was glad they focused more on the fallout from that this week, and showed Ross hurting from his split. Hurt, Ross, hurt. I need your pain for my entertainment.
So far I’m really enjoying re-watching the show as it is both funnier and more moving than I remember. I don’t regret starting this ridiculous project at all!
Having said that, this episode brought two uncomfortable realisations with it:
Firstly, it is explicitly stated in this episode that it's 20th October. This means I am a lot further behind than I thought. As a result, I’ve planned ahead and found that for News Years to match up I'll have to do one a week until the end of the year. Only then can I settle into my originally planned more leisurely pace of one episode every two weeks. Lucky for you I guess?
Secondly I noticed this week that in my efforts to start the retro-90s trend (“hairdresser, make me look like David Beckham circa 1996”) I have inadvertently ended up with Chandler’s hair…
Real Life Sitcom Moment of the Week:
I went to a wedding this week where the wedding band singer was the ex of the bride.
Although in a sit-com this would have lead to a litany of humorous yet awkward situations I am happy to report that everyone was very adult about the situation! I say happy… I am of course livid that nothing amusing happened.
Friends™: 1 – Real Live Friends: 0
But thanks to the magic of Google I can confirm he is in fact a real person! And a politician at that. Who knew Friends™ was so topical? I mean, not topical anymore obviously... but still.
“The One Where I Decide this was an Excellent Idea”
This week me and my Real Live Friends (mercifully less screechy than Rachel’s friends) went out to see Spectre (four stars).
This marks the third time we’ve been out recently to an area of London known as “Shepherds Bush” (steady…). So I suppose you could say that's become our equivalent of Central Perk! Going to see a film contrasts with the Friends™ visit to a hockey game in this episode as none of us really like sport.
I mean, sure I’ll watch football on the telly if it’s an international match, I just don’t have time for the commitment needed to follow it properly. At times this creates quite a gulf between me and people who DO support a football team. I wonder how my friendships would be different if I did? I suspect more random events would happen in my life.
Joey Number 1 did once try to organise a tennis match, but we ended up having a cheese night after he miss-spelt "racket" as "raclette".
Literally nothing of interest happened on our trip to the cinema, with a large portion of the evening being taken up by sitting in the dark. I can see why the writers of Friends™ chose a hockey match over a visit to the cinema. In fact I can’t think at all of a time the Friends™ go to the cinema! (Feel free to correct me in the comments...)
In many ways this episode continues the themes set out by Episode 2. Except this time the focus is on the pressures felt by Rachel rather than Monica. In a small coincidence, before the film a friend of a friend mentioned she hates being single, because whenever she goes home her family constantly asks her if she’s got a boyfriend yet.
Girl, Monica can feel your pain!
I myself can relate to Rachel’s excitement then disappointment at her first payslip. Not least because a few months ago I was paid 1% of what I supposed to be due to an administrative error!
I found it interesting how Rachel’s snobby friends see her job as some sort of little jolly she’s doing for fun rather than an unfortunate economic necessity of circumstance.
I often feel people in my own life view my “career” (or lack thereof) in a similar way. My partner has had some bad news in the job department too, so the scenes of Rachel, Phoebe and Monica lying around in their pajamas, depressed at their jobs and lack of direction in life struck particularly close to home. We don't even have any hot politicians out our window to entertain us! Although we do have Netflix.
I saw R, P and M’s appreciation of Mr Stephanopoulos as another affirmation of their sexuality. This, again, piqued my interest in the shows feminist slant so I decided to have a look into the gender distribution of the writers:
Series one has a ratio of three women to eight men (including series co-creator Marta Kauffman) and it turns out that this episode was solely written by a woman: Alexa Junge.
Although this looks like quite a poor ratio; ten out of the twenty-four episodes in season one were either written or co-written by a woman which I think is actually quite good.
Particularly in such a traditionally male dominated industry such as comedy.
As with last episode though; any liberal bingo points the writers gain are counter-balanced by some slightly insensitive jokes about deaf people making noises when having sex. (Although I can hardly talk as one of my Real Live Friends once split my sides with a story of their deaf flatmate having rather loud sex too…)
Speaking of sex, this episode has Ross revealing he lost his virginity to Carol and that he was with her for seven years. I only have one RLF who has been in a relationship for this long, who happily is already my Ross No. 1 (his number of sexual partners is currently unconfirmed…)
If I was super creepy this means I could count every time Ross gets laid and work out how many sexual partners he has before he finally (SPOILER ALERT) settles down with Rachel. Fortunately for you I am super creepy! So I will be doing that.
The first few episodes I felt like Ross and Rachel got over their relationships ending unrealistically quickly, so I was glad they focused more on the fallout from that this week, and showed Ross hurting from his split. Hurt, Ross, hurt. I need your pain for my entertainment.
So far I’m really enjoying re-watching the show as it is both funnier and more moving than I remember. I don’t regret starting this ridiculous project at all!
Having said that, this episode brought two uncomfortable realisations with it:
Firstly, it is explicitly stated in this episode that it's 20th October. This means I am a lot further behind than I thought. As a result, I’ve planned ahead and found that for News Years to match up I'll have to do one a week until the end of the year. Only then can I settle into my originally planned more leisurely pace of one episode every two weeks. Lucky for you I guess?
Secondly I noticed this week that in my efforts to start the retro-90s trend (“hairdresser, make me look like David Beckham circa 1996”) I have inadvertently ended up with Chandler’s hair…
Real Life Sitcom Moment of the Week:
I went to a wedding this week where the wedding band singer was the ex of the bride.
Although in a sit-com this would have lead to a litany of humorous yet awkward situations I am happy to report that everyone was very adult about the situation! I say happy… I am of course livid that nothing amusing happened.
Friends™: 1 – Real Live Friends: 0
