6 min readNew DelhiAug 18, 2026 05:19 PM IST
First published on: Aug 18, 2026 at 03:45 PM IST
One can imagine the inevitability of it, a fresh new generation picking up with interest what had once been in popular culture the favourites of those who came before them, and then finding to their horror how very offensive it had all been. If you have been a member of the older squad, ‘guilty’ of loving what is later seen as problematic, you might realise it is no good trying to be defensive about your favorite show.
Years ago, you might have done the same thing – called out the many mistakes of what was precious for an earlier generation. Defence therefore is useless, you will be written off as a relic who refuses to see light. But you could explain why, at the time, it had worked for you, and how it had helped.
The American sitcom F.R.I.E.N.D.S. sits near the top of this list of unfavoured sitcoms of the past.
Before you argue that it is not past enough, let’s grudgingly accept that 22 years, that too of the ending, is a long, long time. A comic series about the ins and outs of six mostly-regular young people navigating New York life dropped on television in the mid 1990s, a cosy period wedged between the birth of the internet and the smartphone era. That it managed to reach and connect with clueless adolescents sitting in another corner of the world (at a time when the internet did not put everything on your phone) should speak volumes of the popularity that F.R.I.E.N.D.S. enjoyed.
It was not just the opening up of a world so starkly different from the one that we lived in that made many of us glue ourselves to F.R.I.E.N.D.S. For a generation, with no easy access to the details of adult life and the many taboos that came with it, the sitcom was a masterclass. With a disclaimer that this is specifically about young people who had lived a cocooned life, everything from the portrayal of living independently to the casual references of sexual minorities was a revelation.
Used to seeing children growing up and continuing to live with their parents, groomed for white collar jobs, kept away from anything that deviated from the conventional straight person’s life, for a lot of us, the people in F.R.I.E.N.D.S. helped erase the many boundaries we had unknowingly drawn in our own lives.
Did our favourite sitcoms age poorly?
What F.R.I.E.N.D.S. taught us — and what it got wrong
There was Rachel – one of the six friends – working as a waitress and proud that she was finally earning her own income. Dignity of labour was not just a phrase on a sticker but practised very seriously as her friends encouraged her to work her way to her dream job of becoming a fashionista, and still have fun. It took away the shame you had unwittingly associated with blue collar work, it made you ashamed for your skewed thinking. Then there was Ross, divorced, because his ex wife was a lesbian. Throughout the series homosexuality is thrown about so matter-of-factly that you, at that formative age, could accept it without the prejudice of conditioning that was prevalent where you were from. It may not be easy for a later generation, with an early access to the diversities of life, to understand how difficult it would have been for someone with limited means of information that was outside of what was allowed.
The lack of representation (all six friends are white), the toxicity in relationships (Ross’ possessive guard over Rachel), the jokes around homosexuality (remarks at a lesbian wedding), are among the many issues Gen Z raises to the millennials guilty of embracing F.R.I.E.N.D.S. We can look back with their renewed sensibilities, but that seems like betrayal. We can accept the flaws, but we needn’t disown something that had shown us a lot of light when we needed it. That is why it’s important not to pluck a product from the time it was set in.
We have done the same to our predecessors, taking out the blatantly misogynistic lines from Indian movies of the 80s and questioning our elders about how they ever sat through it, let alone enjoy it! But to them, those movies were steps away from the ones before, with their modern clothes and music and the women making bolder moves and choices.
Shows that came after F.R.I.E.N.D.S. were still later called out for other problematic references.
Big Bang Theory, featuring the troubled social lives of young intellectuals, was adored for its satire until it was marked for the political incorrectness in stereotyping nerds. That ‘70s Show, featuring the character of Fez, was criticized for its racial jokes and for keeping his origins deliberately unclear. How I Met Your Mother, like F.R.I.E.N.D.S., had no Black member in the main cast.
The shows today, favoured by Gen Z, may as well be headed for the same road, to be torn apart by another generation that is growing up with newer values and sensibilities. Hopefully, the path ahead will not be a path backwards, given the regressive ideas revolving around the manosphere, promoted by new-age influencers, neatly portrayed in shows like Adolescence.
Until now, every new generation has been able to open up their worlds just a little bit wider to accommodate something more, and establish an invisible connection to unseen humans across the globe. Let’s hope it will continue that way.
The American sitcom F.R.I.E.N.D.S. sits near the top of this list of unfavoured sitcoms of the past. (AI generated image) 
Did our favourite sitcoms age poorly?
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