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IRQ posted:Everyone watched it back in the day. Same with Seinfeld. Friends has held up way better than Seinfeld though.
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Dec 26, 2017 19:23
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precision posted:
I've seen neither of those so I do not take your meaning.
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Dec 26, 2017 19:25
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to me this is as weird as saying that Shakespeare In Love has held up better than Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
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Guy Mann posted:I've never understood why so many people who love shows like Seinfeld and Always Sunny struggle with accepting that the people on Friends are supposed to be terrible people. The difference between Sunny and Friends, is while both group are awful people, is that Sunny doesn't want us to root for them, to see them succeed. The Friends group are awful people, but we're still supposed to admire and support them.
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Dec 26, 2017 19:29
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Guy Mann posted:I've never understood why so many people who love shows like Seinfeld and Always Sunny struggle with accepting that the people on Friends are supposed to be terrible people. While the Friends were self absorbed over the top characters who made bad decisions, I don't think they were ever intentionally bad people in the way shows like Sunny and Seinfeld did it. Sitcom characters in general just tend to be people you wouldn't really want to be around in real life because they're prone to bad decisions and selfish behavior to create weekly hijinks. Normal people are boring.
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Dec 26, 2017 19:29
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Davros1 posted:The difference between Sunny and Friends, is while both group are awful people, is that Sunny doesn't want us to root for them, to see them succeed. The Friends group are awful people, but we're still supposed to admire and support them. And people by and large did. Despite Ross being a turbo-creep stalker weirdo just tons of people were obsessed with that will they-won't they poo poo with him and Rachel. Vegetable posted:What I thought this was the general consensus? Seinfeld is kind of painful to watch now, everything about it feels so dated and stale. I'm not saying Friends was a better show, just that it remains the same trashy popcorn it always was.
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Dec 26, 2017 19:33
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IRQ posted:Everyone watched it back in the day. Same with Seinfeld. Friends has held up way better than Seinfeld though. Seinfeld has held up brilliantly outside of some gay panic stuff. And the idea of picking friends up from the airport when they could just get an Uber now. IRQ posted:Seinfeld is kind of painful to watch now, everything about it feels so dated and stale. What the gently caress
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Dec 26, 2017 19:34
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I still watch Seinfeld rerurns when I'm too bored to pick something else (see also: Survivor seasons i've never watched) I dunno it doesn't feel as dated as Friends to me, the stakes in Seinfeld are much more blatantly existential crises and to that end feel less specific to any era
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Dec 26, 2017 19:35
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Escobarbarian posted:What the gently caress I honestly thought everyone agreed on this one.
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Dec 26, 2017 19:39
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IRQ posted:I thought this was the general consensus? Seinfeld is kind of painful to watch now, everything about it feels so dated and stale. I'm not saying Friends was a better show, just that it remains the same trashy popcorn it always was. Uh, no. Seinfeld is generally considered one of the greatest all-time sitcoms and has held up better than anything of its era by a mile. A handful of poorly handled social issues, but it's still terrific.
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Dec 26, 2017 19:44
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Guy Mann posted:I've never understood why so many people who love shows like Seinfeld and Always Sunny struggle with accepting that the people on Friends are supposed to be terrible people. could they BE any more obtuse?
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Dec 26, 2017 19:50
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IRQ posted:I've seen neither of those so I do not take your meaning. Go watch Rosencratz and Gildenstern Are Dead . It's great.
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Dec 26, 2017 19:57
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IRQ posted:I honestly thought everyone agreed on this one. I agree, I tried to watch Seinfeld for the first time a couple of years ago and I thought it was garbage. I made it through two loving seasons and I didn't laugh once. It was probably great when it aired but is hasn't aged well at all. Two friends also tried to watch it but they didn't even make it through the first season. Friends isn't great but at least some of the jokes still work.
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Dec 26, 2017 20:12
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I didn't like Friends when it was originally airing and still don't 
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Dec 26, 2017 20:15
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Popelmon posted:I agree, I tried to watch Seinfeld for the first time a couple of years ago and I thought it was garbage. I made it through two loving seasons and I didn't laugh once. It was probably great when it aired but is hasn't aged well at all. Two friends also tried to watch it but they didn't even make it through the first season. Seinfeld only gets good after you've seen 40+ episodes and have fallen into its weird-rear end rhythm. I genuinely didn't get the show for years until at one point it just kinda clicked and I have no idea why but after that point it was super entertaining and still is. Help 
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Dec 26, 2017 20:20
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Seinfeld is the best sitcom in history right behind Newsradio.
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Dec 26, 2017 20:24
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Yeah not gonna watch 40 episodes of anything I don't like in the times of peak TV. I could watch all of Future Man, Master of None and all episodes of Better Things in the same time. Going through some 20 year old sitcom hoping that it might stop sucking in at some point feels like a horrible idea.
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Dec 26, 2017 20:26
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Please do not watch Friends.
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Dec 26, 2017 20:28
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FactsAreUseless posted:Please do not watch Friends.  watch Newsradio instead
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Dec 26, 2017 20:31
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Seinfeld's only weak stuff is the first season (which is five episodes of junk because they had no idea what they were doing yet) and parts of the ninth, notably the finale and some occasional episodes because Jerry Seinfeld himself was completely checked out and doing it for the money, but there is still gold in there, a lot of which is still cultural touchstones: George's obsession with food during sex, "serenity now," Festivus, the Frogger episode, etc. Seinfeld was knocking classics out of the park as soon as the second-season premiere.feedmyleg posted:Seinfeld is generally considered one of the greatest all-time sitcoms and has held up better than anything of its era by a mile. A handful of poorly handled social issues, but it's still terrific. It's hard to overstate just how ridiculous NBC's sitcom lineup was in the '90s: The amazing achievement of going from Cheers to Frasier without missing a step, the unbelievable domination of Friends in the cultural zeitgeist, God-tier stuff like NewsRadio, and some really good but just slightly lower-tier programming like Wings and Mad About You. Timby fucked around with this message at 20:39 on Dec 26, 2017 |
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Dec 26, 2017 20:36
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GobiasIndustries posted:I didn't like Friends when it was originally airing and still don't Same here. I’ve watched enough to know it wasn’t for me ever.
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Dec 26, 2017 20:50
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nate fisher posted:Same here. I’ve watched enough to know it wasn’t for me ever. I didn't like Friends as it was airing and despite having... associates who were obsessed with it, I've never thought it was any good except in bits where Lisa Kudrow is onscreen
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Dec 26, 2017 20:54
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IRQ posted:Friends has held up way better than Seinfeld though. This is just factually incorrect
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Dec 26, 2017 20:59
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When was the last time you guys actually tried to watch Seinfeld?
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Dec 26, 2017 21:03
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IRQ posted:When was the last time you guys actually tried to watch Seinfeld? This past weekend.
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Dec 26, 2017 21:04
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Literally last night?
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Dec 26, 2017 21:04
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IRQ posted:When was the last time you guys actually tried to watch Seinfeld?
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Dec 26, 2017 21:06
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Rageaholic Monkey posted:Yesterday. I think the real question is when was the last time you tried to watch it. About a year ago. I'm genuinely very surprised by all this.
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Dec 26, 2017 21:07
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IRQ posted:About a year ago. I'm genuinely very surprised by all this.
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Dec 26, 2017 21:11
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Mu Zeta posted:Seinfeld is the best sitcom in history right behind Newsradio.  Phil
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Dec 26, 2017 21:14
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Rageaholic Monkey posted:You honestly thought Friends was better revered in the cultural zeitgeist than Seinfeld? lol No that isn't what I said; I said it doesn't hold up as well in 2017.
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Dec 26, 2017 21:15
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Guy Mann posted:I've never understood why so many people who love shows like Seinfeld and Always Sunny struggle with accepting that the people on Friends are supposed to be terrible people. Lol nope, not at all. Though it is interesting watching now that Ross is essentially as bad as Dennis Reynolds, except the show is painfully unaware of it. I remember liking it a lot when it aired, but it became pretty poor once they did the London episodes and everyone gracefully lept into becoming caricatures.
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Dec 26, 2017 21:17
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There was still the barest trace of an edge in the later seasons, Phoebe's past, Joey fuckin'. OTOH (and I made this same post the last time this conversation came around) Chandler started as an actual person with a life but somehow regained his virginity (minus Janice and maybe that time he was in the box) by the time he was with Monica. It was a good show.
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Dec 26, 2017 21:27
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IRQ posted:Everyone watched it back in the day. Same with Seinfeld. Friends has held up way better than Seinfeld though. The wrongest thing ever posted here. Friends was always crap. It was crap when it first aired, its crap now when you like back at its stale and often bizaare takes (like what the gently caress was the show's thing with gay people?) The people behind the show were hacks and horrible people btw, just read about how they treated their women employees. Otoh seinfeld has aged like a fine wine, and doesnt need the cultural claustrophobia of the 90s for its humor. Ive had some success introducing it to my younger relatives and friends and they love it.
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Dec 26, 2017 21:53
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Seinfeld has aged well because it's completely absurd, literally. It's easy to gloss over how loving brilliant it is to have an entire episode about waiting on a table in a restaurant.
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Dec 26, 2017 22:02
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I feel like the current TV landscape where serialization and binge-watching is the norm has kind of poisoned the way that people watch old shows because they start from s1e1 and watch in order and the truth is that a lot of "classic" TV took like two or three seasons to actually get good and since it's episodic you can jump right to the good stuff and miss nothing. Like even fans will admit that Seinfeld is pretty bad until the Chinese restaurant episode or that the first season of The Simpsons is ugly and maudlin and barely resembles the show that everyone actually loves.
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Dec 26, 2017 22:06
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I'm not an unreasonable internet idiot. I will give Seinfeld another chance to hold up in 2017.
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Dec 26, 2017 22:20
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You chuckleheads still going on about friends, this is a quarterly thing i guess.
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Dec 26, 2017 22:26
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Yeah, Seinfeld is legitimately still hilarious. I'd seen a lot of the episodes over the years but finally sat down with the wife to watch it front to back a few years ago and whooo boy, it's funny. So funny. The race. The Frogger machine. George's mother's finding entirely new ways and reasons to be disappointed in him. "I'm Keith Hernandez!" SHRINKAGE! BUBBLE BOY! If you don't like idiots being unreasonable about idiot things, then you won't like Seinfeld. That's always been true. And I guess if you're used to Always Sunny's brand of "Seinfeld but drunk and/or high on cocaine", then yeah, it's gonna seem a little tame in comparison.
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Dec 26, 2017 23:16
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precision posted:Seinfeld has aged well because it's completely absurd, literally. It's easy to gloss over how loving brilliant it is to have an entire episode about waiting on a table in a restaurant. It's an completely amazing show, due in no small part to the non-Seinfeld cast standing out far more then Seinfeld himself, including the supporting cast and the guest stars. I think you could honestly say that replacing Jerry and still having a great show would've been far easier then replacing any of the other 3(aside from the name of the show). I'm sure people who watched it regularly could remember 10-15 distinct episodes with the story and pacing. Things like Friends people remember who married who and Joey being a doofus but each season pretty much blended together so you only remember something that was multi-episodes long. Other huge hit shows like Friends, Murphy Brown, Mad About You, Full House, Home Improvement, Cosby, Raymond etc. were your standard sitcoms geared towards family friendly or being the "hip" show to watch. Now no one really cares because they weren't that great and aside from standing out in a sea of generic trash looking back they are full of lovely writing, dumb gimmicks, and relatively banal banter that's written in such a way that you wait for the laugh tracks to drop to make people think its witty or funny.
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Dec 26, 2017 23:22
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lelandjs posted:And I guess if you're used to Always Sunny's brand of "Seinfeld but drunk and/or high on cocaine", then yeah, it's gonna seem a little tame in comparison. I want to say this might be part of why I didn't think it held up. Seinfeld is perhaps a victim of its own success in that way.
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Dec 26, 2017 23:25
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