I will be there for you. Review on The Best Of Friends

When you come back home from a tiring day's work and almost instinctively reach for the remote what is it that you really want to watch?people killing each other all over the world in news channels, mind numbingly stupid saas bahu sagas or a nice honest comedy which doesn't just help you relax but is so incredibly funny that you actually don't need to be reminded by the "Canned laughter "(which, by the way.

I hate) all the time.Friends, the sitcom that was on air for 10 seasons starting 1994 is one such series which is considered an all time favorite all over the world.Created by DAvid Crane and Marta Kauffman this series revolves around six close buddies staying in New York , Ross(David Scwimmer), Rachel(Jennifer Aniston), Monica(Courtney Cox), Chandler(Matthew Perry), Phoebe(Lisa Kudrow) and Joey(Matt Le Blanc).

Relatively speaking- Ross and Monica are siblings, Rachel and Ross have an on-off(getting married and getting divorced kinda) relationship.Monica gets married to Chandler.Joey and Chandler were roommates for a long time.Monica and Rachel have grown up together.Phoebe is neither related nor had an affair with any one of them.

The Characters:- Chandler-Depicted as an ordinary guy who has this insurmountable urge to crack jokes all the time just to make himself look smart .In one of the episodes he himself says Hi, I am Chandler Bing, I crack jokes when I feel uncomfortable, after cracking this "I once walked into my parents bedroom and saw  both of them making love to the same man".Had one real relationship with a girl called Janice(Who makes frequent appearances with her trademark "OH MY GOD" and her really strange laugh) before getting married to Moinica which is a source of great embarassment all through his later life.Knows a lot of secrets of Ross as they were college mates.Works in an advertising firm but none of his friends really knows what he does for a living.Matthew Perry is just superb in this role with his crisp dialogues and awesome timing.

Monica- Calling her a cleanliness and  control freak will actually be an understatement.She is obsessed with the positioning of even the most tiny insignificant thing  in her house to the point of being irritative sometimes.She used to be really obese in her childhood and a comment from Chandler then prompted her to try to loose weight.Later on she falls in love with the same Chandler(while off to England to attend Ross' wedding).A chef by profession she has another obsession of "NOT Loosing" which she doesn't manage to achieve most of the times.Courtney Cox in this role is "perfect to the T" may it be her blown up version of the character's childhood which was adorable by the way, (where she keeps on referring to "loosing her virginity" as "giving my flower") or the grown up Monica.

Ross- He is a palaentologist(the dino doctor as the rest of the gang refer him) by profession and a very good one at that but none of the others actually care much for it.Has 3 failed marriages(his first wife later turns out to be a lesbian) and hence becomes scared of being divorced another time.Gets involved with a lot of women seriously with a  future in his mind yet it never actually happens for one reason or another.Always has a thingfor Rachel whether he is seeing her or not.He is the most qualified and perhaps the most sensitive of the gang who more often than not comes out with the right answers to the tough questions in life.Knows all the childhood secrets of voth Monica and Chandler.

An Excerpt-

ROSS-Chandler entered a Vanilla Ice look-alike contest and won!

CHANDLER:

Ross came fourth and cried!

I am sure nobody could have done it better than David Schiwmmer as the role seems to have been written keeping him in mind.

Phoebe

-By far the weirdest of all the characters.Has had a troubled childhood where her mother had committed suicide.A masseuse by profession she doesn't do anything conventional(wears a ring in each of her fingers) and is inclined to her own brand of spirituaity and is very harsh on hypocrisy.Dishes out the crappiest of songs(one of them was titled smelly cat) while playing her guitar(If we can call that playing).Lisa Kudrow is again excellent in this very tough role.In one scene she introduces herself as "Hi I am Phoebe that's p as in phoebe, h as in hoebe, o as in oebe, e as in ebe, b as in bebe and e as in Ello there mate.".

Rachel-* The most girly of all the characters, she has terrific fashion sense and actually works in big fashion houses like Ralph Lauren and Bloomingdale.Most of the times she is caught in two minds regarding men and more often than not makes wrong decisions.She later gives birth to Ross' daughter and settles down with him declining a big shot Paris Fashion house's offer.Jennifer Aniston owes all her stardom to this character (and maybe her affair /marriage /whatever with Brad Pitt)

An Excerpt-

Monica-Oh my god. How cute is the new eye doctor?

Rachel-So cute I'm thinking about jamming this pen in my eye.

Joey- Make way for Joseph Tribbiani, the funniest , really the stupidest and of course the most lovable of all the characters here.The guy who doesn't know how to spell any word or count properly above 10 and yet can make any girl go weak in her knees just by uttering his mantra "HOW YA DOIN" and is a voracious eater(will eat almost anything edible and huge quantities of it).Is an actor by profession though most of the times out of work because he doesn't know most of the stuff he has written in his CV.Although he ends up being the subject of many of Chandler's jokes shares a very close friendship with Chandler as they are shown as room mates for a lot of time.Unlike the other characters he is never confused excpet for the following occasion.Matt Le Blanc in this role is simply fantabulous.

*Phoebe:

Joey, if you had to give up sex or food, which would you pick?

Joey:

I don't know it's too hard.

Phoebe:

Come on, you have to answer.

Joey:

Okay... sex. No, food. No, uh... I want both! I want girls on bread!

And when these 6 friends are around, believe you me there is never a dull moment.

An Afterthought-I was surprised to see not a single review on this subject here when people keep on writing about crappy Ekta kapoor serials and I thought it wil be great to write one on "Friends" especially on the ocassion of friendship day(Hope you guys don't mind me being one day late).