Entertainment
How Realistic Was 'Friends'?
It's been 10 years since Friends ended, and our love for Rachel, Ross, Joey, Phoebe, Monica, and Chandler is just as deep as ever. Not only does Friends hold up, its lessons continue to teach and inspire us. How else could we have known what it means to have a lobster, or that there are seven basic erogenous zones? Friends got a lot about life and love in your twenties right... But, they kind of missed the mark when it comes to what living in New York in your twenties actually looks like.
Sure, Friends is a TV show that was shot on a soundstage in Los Angeles, and had they made the apartment real-NYC-apartment-sized they wouldn't have been able to get all six of the main actors inside, much less an entire camera crew, but I'm not just talking about the apartments here. The hangout spots for the friends on Friends look less like real twenty-something hotspots and more like a TV executives vision of what a twenty-something hotspot should be.
Unless New York in the nineties was a massive, under-populated, hugely affordable paradise (hint: it wasn't), there were a lot of inconsistencies with the way things looked on Friends, and what they look like in real life.
TwentySomething Apartment on Friends...
Look at all that room! All that storage space! All that effort put into keeping it neat!
...TwentySomething Apartment in Real Life
The cat is you. The shoebox is your entire $2000/month apartment.
Coffee Shop on Friends...
How did they manage to get an entire couch at a busy New York City café?
...Coffee Shop in Real Life
Café crowds are stressful.
What TwentySomething Dating Looks Like on Friends...
Even ten years later just thinking about how romantic that was made me sigh out loud.
...What TwentySomething Dating Looks Like in Real Life
It's a jungle out there.
What TwentySomething Vacations Look Like on Friends...
What were they all doing that they could afford these nice hotels in exotic locales?
...What TwentySomething Vacations Look Like in Real Life
A friend of a friend has a possibly bed bug infested cabin an 8-hour drive away? But they have booze and a jacuzzi? Yeah, okay, let's go!
What Hair Looks Like on Friends...
Look at that bounce! Look at that shine! THAT'S NOT FAIR!
...What Hair Looks Like in Real Life
Above: the only time Friends actually got what hair looks like during an NYC summer correct.
What Best Friends Look Like on Friends...
Even when they're calling each other out on their bullshit, the friends on Friends love each other, take care of each other, and will always, as the song says, be there for each other.
...What Best Friends Look Like in Real Life
Okay, so they got that one right.
Images: NBC; giphy
