Why It's Fashionable To Hate Friends Now

Unagi? More like oh no gi...

Ross Friends
NBC

Despite the fact that it's been in heavy network syndication ever since it went off air way back in 2004, Friends has only recently had a huge revival in interest thanks to Netflix acquiring the rights and inviting fans to binge-watch almost ten years of classic episodes (and some terrible ones) in a couple of sittings.

Unfortunately for the show - and for fans who lived the lives of Ross, Rachel, Phoebe, Monica, Chandler and Joey for one very charming decade - social media told a story that wasn't quite the tidal swell of love they might have expected. In fact, the new breed of fans - all of whom claimed to have never caught an episode, rather oddly - started to pick the show apart. They didn't like the characters we all loved, they didn't like the classic episodes, hell, some of them flat-out didn't like the whole thing.

And as curious and deeply saddening as it all was, they do come with a lot of evidence. Some of which is surprisingly compelling, even for the die-hard fans.

Here's why it's suddenly got very fashionable to hate Friends...

8. Pedestal Destruction

Friends show
Warner Bros.

With the rise of social media, it's never been more popular to dump on old beloved things. Just as nostalgia rules for things from the early days of your own generation, swiping at things from the generation before is irresistibly cool. As Clueless so succinctly put it, how one generation feels about The Rolling Stones is how the next will feel about Nine Inch Nails.

This so-called Actually Psychology - named for the word most used to respond to hyperbolic praise of anything ("actually, it's not all that...") - is pretty much what defines social media commentary, but it's a far older phenomenon than that. Why else would every Oscar-winning film become the target of hipster hate as soon as it's recognised with the highest award.

It's just good old-fashioned pedestal destruction and it's as sure as the tides. Even if Friends was flawless, it being presented as such a beloved cultural flashpoint was always going to inspire some hip takedowns.

Unfortunately, it's far from flawless...

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