4. The Setting
HIMYM recants about a group of friends all living in Manhattan, New York. They regularly drink at the same bar together, seemingly on a daily basis, where they re-tell funny stories and discuss anything current going on in their lives. In Friends the group all live in Manhattan, New York and go to their favourite coffee bar on a daily basis to check-in with what's been going in on each other's lives. You couldn't make this up. Are there no other locations the group could be synonymous for hanging out? While the names of each respective hangout are different, the theme is just the same. A place where they drink and not eat except for a light snack, and the whole team seem to always be there together despite them having completely different working lives. In the opening episode of HIMYM, Ted falls in love with Robin, who is originally an unknown to the rest of the group, at first sight upon seeing her from afar. Ross from Friends falls head over heels for Rachel also subsidiary to the group but an old school-friend of Monica's the first time he meets her in the first episode. Once again, far too alike for two characters previously shown to be alarmingly too similar. Why have the cliched meeting of eyes from afar? Why can't the writers play down the comparisons to Friends and instead move away from anything close to the sitcom? A common theme through both sitcoms is the togetherness of the group, and how nobody's profile was above anybody else's. They both focus heavily on relationships, whether failing or succeeding, and have the all the friends together in the opening credits.