2. Characters
Unlike movies, TV shows depend on characters. If viewers are going to invest a couple of hundred hours following the lives of these fictional creations, they need to be entertaining. The cast of Friends just about shades this over any other comedy series. Each character has one unique characteristic, yet they all share the same sense of love and loyalty. Monica and Ross are extremely relatable as the competitive siblings, Joey is the lovable ladies man, Phoebe is the crazy girl of the group, Chandler is the sarcastic smart-ass while Rachel is the pampered, slightly spoiled daddy's girl. The genius of Friends is not cheap jokes - its the journey the characters take and how the whole group evolves together. If there is one problem with The Big Bang Theory, it's the character development. Sheldon is one of the best ever comic characters to grace our screens as his performances alone make the series worth watching, but taking away his brilliance all but kills the show . Leonard is the most socially adaptable one in the group, but apart from his on/off relationship with 'girl next door' Penny, he hasn't changed much as a character. Over five seasons, Raj has remained the same expendable member of the group while his best friend Howard was greatly underused until the last two seasons. But the biggest problem are the female characters. Whereas Friends boasts three strong willed leads, The Big Bang Theory falls flat. Penny is completely one dimensional. It's understandable to have a non genius character to translate the plots for the casual viewer, but Joey does this much better in Friends. More often than not, Penny is nothing more than a stereotypical blonde. Without getting into an equality war of words, creator Chuck Lorre seems to have borrowed this concept from his other show Two and a Half Men. The introduction of Bernadette and Amy haven't helped proceedings either. Maybe it's just me but most of the time, the show is too male-centric. Season 6 has improved upon this to a degree but there is still a divide in terms of just how valuable the female characters are to the overall direction of the show. Could you really say that Monica, Pheobe or Rachel were less important in Friends?
Winner = Friends