Why It's Fashionable To Hate Friends Now

2. The Homophobia & Transphobia

With attitudes towards LGBTQ identities on mainstream shows becoming way more progressive in the last couple of years, it's no surprise that looking back at a show that ended more than a decade ago will throw up some issues around dangerous representation of homosexuality.

In 2018, you simply wouldn't see a character like Sandy the Manny accused of being gay (or "at least bi") as some sort of insult because he's theatrical and works with children. That's insulting to several different groups of people, including hand-puppets possibly. And you also wouldn't see Ross treated as some sort of "victim" of lesbianism when his wife leaves him for another woman.

It's not that she left him that's played for laughs, either, it's that it's for another woman - during a threesome, no less - as a conscious means to imasculate him. That's not a great look.

And then there's the show's casual transphobia in its portrayal of Chandler's father. That simply wouldn't happen now, and looking back on it now doesn't paint the show in a particularly good light. But then when the writers used Ben having a Barbie doll as a means for some comical outrage, it's not really that much of a surprise. It's at times like that that you really wish the show had done a little better.

And the biggest reason...?