Honestly, I love friends, but I would never recommend it to younger audiences.
Humour is a very personal choice, and like colors, not everything being fun for the same people. On top of that, A TON of today’s humour descends from friends, so the jokes feel dated and simple, but they were the literal origin of many tropes, at the time it was perfection, like a chewing gum.
And most importantly, nowadays people (specially chronically online people) can’t just sit back and relax, they are always being judgemental little pricks to feel superior to everyone else, while not even trying to contextualise the time when what they are seeing was made.
Not to mention how sad it is that all the media, no matter the genre, have to pass their stupid moral compass (whether the progressive one or the conservative one). The whole sit back, relax and have a laugh is lost to them.
Is a very sad reality of hyper judgement they lived in, probably fueled by the cancer that is social media. I’m sad for them, they keep chasing the internet points thinking it will make them happy somehow, they don’t just watch something, they keep filling the checklist to then “have something to say”.
I’m so happy the internet was not a thing when I was growing up, what a brain worm I dodged, just in time to enjoy it as an adult as well. I’m really sorry for the young people today.
as always there is nuanced to everything, if I see a comedy or horror I’m not going to hold it to the same standards as a drama that is trying to convey a message, there will be a limit if it goes against my values in a crazy way, and I’ll stop watching it, but my main mentality is not there, I don’t watch it from a “defensive” position, so my alarms don’t go off as easily as other people’s, and I assume more good intent by default, which allows me to enjoy more of them, even if they “make fun” of my way of thinking or morals.
Being able to laugh about yourself or your beliefs without thinking you are “helping the other side win” in some kind of imaginary online culture war is quite healthy actually.