Yahoo News A Friends reunion would be a terrible idea - and here's why
It's been 15 years since Friends finished but the appetite for more is still very much there.
With the series now available to stream on Netflix (well, at least for the time being), fans of the cult sitcom have become obsessed all over again. Whether it's picking apart blunders that went unnoticed during the first 25 viewings, or wondering what some of our favourite characters might be doing these days, Friends is never far from the headlines.
With shows getting the reboot treatment left, right and centre, the question of whether the much-loved Central Perk gang would ever reunite for a new series is one that crops up regularly.
We're talking about it right now because Jennifer Aniston (Rachel Green) has been asked (again) whether or not she would be on board. Having revealed that she'd love the idea, Aniston did also later admit that "there's no plans in the immediate future" but that "anything could happen" (via ET).
But we're going to go out on a limb and say that we don't want it. Before you grab the pitchforks, hear us out.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
As the now-infamous theme tune taught us, Friends will always be there for us.
Like a warm and cosy comfort blanket, the sitcom gives us a metaphorical hug whenever we're in need of something heartfelt.
Despite hindsight offering up a number of plot holes and flaws (Phoebe really was the worst), it's a show that we grew up with and, as such, it reflected our own transition from 20-something to fully-fledged adulthood.
With that in mind, if the characters were to return to our screens now, would they lose some of their magic?
"I don't think anyone wants to see Joey at his colonoscopy! I think it's better for people to just leave it," Matt LeBlanc himself previously explained.
Sure, that was a little more graphic than we were intending to get, but he does go on to make our point pretty clearly.
"I understand that people really want to see that reunion but that show was about a finite period in those characters' lives, between 20 and 30," he continued, while talking to 97.3FM Bianca, Terry & Bob back in February 2018.
"To see what those characters are doing now, I think it's almost a case of that the book is better than the movie. Everyone's imagination of what they're doing now is better."
It hasn't worked before, so why would it work now?
By the end of the 10 seasons, Ross and Rachel finally got together, Chandler and Monica had the family – and house – they'd always wanted and Joey, well, the less said about that spin-off the better.
And that right there is our point.
Previous attempts at continuing the show's character developments have failed so spectacularly (sorry, but even the producer of said spin-off admitted they made a "huge mistake") that we'd be nervous about any others.
Joey was axed midway through its second season, with eight episodes going unaired.
"It didn't allow Matt [LeBlanc] to have this carefree kind of lifestyle, and it tried to make Joey grow up – and I think that was a huge mistake," Kevin S Bright, an executive producer and director on both shows, previously told Digital Spy.
"I think the transformation of Joey into a guy who doesn't know how to get a date, who doesn't have any friends – I think that made the audience go away," he later added.
Problematic storylines
While you can argue that the show can still be appreciated within the timeframe it was set, there is absolutely no getting away from the fact that certain aspects of the show have not aged well.
A decade and a half after it first aired, the writers themselves have acknowledged that, if made today, they'd scrap the show's recurring 'jokes' at the expense of the transgender community.
"I think we didn't have the knowledge about transgender people back then, so I'm not sure if we used the appropriate terms," Marta Kauffman told USA Today.
You'll likely remember that Chandler's father was a drag artist. Kathleen Turner, who played that role, has previously also suggested that Friends has not stood the test of time.
"I don't think it's aged well," she said. "It was a 30-minute sitcom. It became a phenomenon, but no-one ever took it seriously as a social comment."
Other problematic threads included the fat-shaming of young Monica, as well as homophobia, misogyny and a general lack of diversity.
If the characters – and therefore their backstories – were to be reintroduced now, there'd be the clear dilemma of how to handle these plots through a 2019 lens.
The fans will never be satisfied.
Having said all of the above, it seems that a Friends reboot has been taken off the table (as Ross and Rachel would say).
Co-creator Marta Kauffman recently made it clear that it's never going to happen, when asked (again) by Associated Press.
"Why mess up a good thing? We wouldn’t want a reunion to disappoint fans."
And that, my friend, is what they call closure.
Friends is available to stream on Netflix in the UK, and currently airs on Channel 5.
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