February 2020, the month that six people broke Instagram. On the 21st February, the cast of Friends each took to their Instagram accounts to announce that they would be reuniting for a one-off special. 

Although there have been calls ever since the show ended to have a reunion, and countless rumours over the years these have always been shut down by the cast. However, speculations became more serious in October last year when Jennifer Aniston posted a picture of herself and the rest of the cast on her Instagram which sent the rumour mills into overdrive. Since then, the cast had posted about numerous other gatherings on their social media, so fans were understandably increasingly excited. 

The Friends reunion will apparently be unscripted and will be filmed on the Warner Bros lot where the entire series was originally filmed. It has been predicted that the format will be in the style of a chat show giving the cast a chance to reminisce about their time on the world’s most famous sitcom. I am a little bit disappointed that the reunion is not an episode in the original format as I would have loved to have seen what the characters are up to now. However, I am still extremely excited as I am a huge fan of the sitcom. The chance to reminisce alongside the cast – cheesy I know – sounds fabulous to me.

However, my excitement is not shared by everyone. Reunions are a risky business. Incredibly successful shows like Friends have a lot to live up to and therefore there is an immense pressure on those writing reunions to not let fans down. Some fans are worried that the Friends reunion will be reminiscent of the failed The Inbetweeners reunion which was heralded as disastrous. The chat show format of the Inbetweeners reunion was criticised with some fans claiming that Jimmy Carr, who was hosting the special was too overbearing and the cast looked disinterested. 

However, it is arguably true that reunions are not always doomed to fail. Last Christmas saw the cast of Gavin and Stacey reunite for a Christmas special. The special garnered huge success with a total of 17.1 million viewers tuning in live or on catch-up during the following week. The BBC reported that it was the most-watched TV comedy in the past 17 years. The figures are obviously a testament to its success. It was incredibly well done and left viewers wanting more. I think the key was the inclusion of the nation’s favourite jokes alongside new content that made it feel current. It would have been easy to try and recreate exactly the same show as before but this would have likely led to a lot less success. Humour evolves and jokes that hit the mark in 2008 may not have hit the mark in 2019 so it’s good that James Corden and Ruth Jones recognised this when creating the script.

So what is the likelihood of the Friends reunion experiencing similar success to the Gavin and Stacey special? Well, last year was the second year in a row that Friends was the most streamed show in the UK so evidently its popularity is not dying out anytime soon. 

There are some, particularly from younger generations who are increasingly critical of the storylines featured on the show with accusations that the plots are sexist, homophobic and racist (among other things). But, whilst these viewpoints are understandable,  I think it is important to watch the show with the context in mind. Obviously, I am not condoning deliberately sexist/homophobic/racist plotlines as they are outright not acceptable and I do agree that if these jokes were made in shows created today the response would need to be different. However, it is important to remember that the humour in the 90s was very different and the good bits of the show should not be forgotten about. 

Personally, Friends remains my favourite programme, always providing comedic relief when I need it. I can safely say that the number of times I have watched the entire series all the way through is in double figures and I am not even ashamed. I understand that some of the jokes miss the mark in today’s society however, I think the streaming statistics speak for themselves and clearly enough people can still watch it and enjoy it. I cannot wait to see the six friends reunite very soon.

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