Title A buzz word in society in more recent years has been “community.” We’ve been told that a healthy lifestyle involves community and requires relationship. The television show, Friends points to society’s hunger for this. The show is centered around a group of friends who all live together and share life with each other, on every level. Initially none of the guys or the girls in the group are dating each other, but that quickly changes with the emerging love story of Ross and Rachel and eventually Monica and Chandler. The theme song is telling of what the entire show is about, “no one told you life would be this way. Your job’s a joke, your broke...you’re always stuck in second gear. It hasn’t been your day, your month, or even your year...but
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Friends redefined family as the community in which you live, not the parents and siblings to which you are born. Young adults and teens found role models in the TV show characters when they found negative ones in their families (digitalcommons.liberty.edu p.45) Ross and Monica, siblings, are the only two characters who are related. Patriarchal figures are nowhere to be seen and are referenced briefly in a negative light when we discover that Ross and Monica’s parents did not allow them to play football anymore after Monica broke Ross’ nose one year. Younger children are seen once in the background of the tag football game being played. The episode pivots off of the competitive sibling rivalry. Insults, chants, and taunts fly. No matter how they mix of the teams, the authors are clear to show the game is Ross versus Monica the whole …show more content…
My family has at times been fixated around a television show or game together, and I can relate to the sibling rivalry of Monica and Ross. It saddens me, though, because so often we all miss the point. The authors of the episode even hint at this point at the end of the show without saying what it really is when Chandler says, “It doesn’t matter who won the game…” hinting at the fact that there is more to the day of Thanksgiving than a football game. He briefly alludes to this before wittingly remarking, “What matters is she [an attractive Dutch girl he and Joey were fighting over] chose me!” showing he has entirely missed the point as well. The sad part of this episode is that though the writers allude to the fact that this day of Thanksgiving should be about more, they never tell us what it is. Just like our modern-day culture, we have become shy at calling many things right or wrong, true or false. To say Americans are missing the point when we make Thanksgiving about food and football is too harsh; to display it in a comedic form without suggestion of an alternative is easier to swallow. Is it not up to each individual what that holiday should mean? Everyone has their various traditions and memories, but ultimately, should we have a running theme? Does it matter what the true meaning is? What are we giving thanks for? Whom are we thanking? Society leaves us to answer these questions for ourselves now, or
Friends redefined family as the community in which you live, not the parents and siblings to which you are born. Young adults and teens found role models in the TV show characters when they found negative ones in their families (digitalcommons.liberty.edu p.45) Ross and Monica, siblings, are the only two characters who are related. Patriarchal figures are nowhere to be seen and are referenced briefly in a negative light when we discover that Ross and Monica’s parents did not allow them to play football anymore after Monica broke Ross’ nose one year. Younger children are seen once in the background of the tag football game being played. The episode pivots off of the competitive sibling rivalry. Insults, chants, and taunts fly. No matter how they mix of the teams, the authors are clear to show the game is Ross versus Monica the whole …show more content…
My family has at times been fixated around a television show or game together, and I can relate to the sibling rivalry of Monica and Ross. It saddens me, though, because so often we all miss the point. The authors of the episode even hint at this point at the end of the show without saying what it really is when Chandler says, “It doesn’t matter who won the game…” hinting at the fact that there is more to the day of Thanksgiving than a football game. He briefly alludes to this before wittingly remarking, “What matters is she [an attractive Dutch girl he and Joey were fighting over] chose me!” showing he has entirely missed the point as well. The sad part of this episode is that though the writers allude to the fact that this day of Thanksgiving should be about more, they never tell us what it is. Just like our modern-day culture, we have become shy at calling many things right or wrong, true or false. To say Americans are missing the point when we make Thanksgiving about food and football is too harsh; to display it in a comedic form without suggestion of an alternative is easier to swallow. Is it not up to each individual what that holiday should mean? Everyone has their various traditions and memories, but ultimately, should we have a running theme? Does it matter what the true meaning is? What are we giving thanks for? Whom are we thanking? Society leaves us to answer these questions for ourselves now, or