Name: Friends: The Romance of Friendship
Uploaded: 2017-11-04T16:04:28.000Z
Duration: 10 min 42 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

[You know, boyfriends and girlfriends are gonna come and go, but this is for life!]

Friends opens with Monica coming to the rescue of runaway bride Rachel.

The image of Rachel in her wedding dress, choosing this new group of friends over her

fiancee, sets up the show’s central theme of the romance of friendship.

[Are you asking me to have a friend-naissance?]

[Alright - although I don't think we really need one, baby, I've never stopped loving

Ross is also newly single in the pilot, and finds comfort in his group of friends in place

In fact, it’s key that none of the six characters is in a serious relationship when the series

The show portrayed lovers as friends, and friends as the loves of each other’s lives.

Friends illustrates that friendship and romance are two interconnected sides of the same love

Throughout the show, we see familiar romantic behavior transplanted onto platonic situations,

The friends pay each other’s bills, [I'll just cover you for a while.]

own pets together, and share their possessions.

[I was thinking maybe we should start dividing up our stuff.]

There’s the exchange of jewelry as a token of affection, the expectation of being the

first to hear big news, [Ever since high school Rachel was the one person I told everything

knowing the details of each other’s sex lives, [You know, I once dated this guy who

wanted to pretend that he was an archeologist, and that I was this naughty cavewoman whom

[Yeah I didn't disguise that very well, did I?] and being mistaken for a couple.

[You know - my brother and his boyfriend have been trying to adopt for three years.

At many points, characters use the language of romance or sex in innocent situations to

This comedy technique relies on the fact that innuendo and double meanings are funnier than

[How do you expect me to grow if you won't let me blow?]

[You know I don't have a problem with that.]

So using the language of couples to talk about friends is the basis of countless jokes throughout

Moving away from a roommate represents a breakup.

When Joey considers getting his own apartment in season 2, Chandler responds as if his boyfriend

I am not interested in the guy's apartment.]

[Oh please - I saw the way you were checking out his moldings.]

And Chandler’s new roommate Eddie is viewed as a challenge to Joey, as if he's a post-breakup

[It’ll never last, he’s just a rebound roommate] Monica lies so Rachel won’t find

out about her going shopping with Ross’ girlfriend.

In this scene, the receipt that Rachel finds in Monica’s pocket is the telltale lipstick

on the collar, [One thing led to another, and before I knew it, we were shopping.

Rachel, I was thinking of you the whole time!] and characters’ jealousy suggests an expectation

[Whose eggs do you like better, his or mine?

Nobody likes two different kinds of eggs equally - you like one better than the other, and

Your eggs aren’t here anymore, are they?

Did you really expect me to never find new eggs?]

Later in the series, Monica wants Rachel to mourn the end of their time living together.

Aren’t you going to be sad that we’re not living together anymore?

Her insistence on the magnitude of this event tells us that it truly is a kind of break-up.

It’s the end to the era which friendship came before romance.

Monica’s relationship with Chandler is replacing the intimacy that she and Rachel shared as

roommates, [When I take a shower, she leaves me little notes on the mirror.] and this taps

into a true insight that when our friends enter serious relationships we do lose them

The two major successful love relationships in the show start as friendships, and this illuminates

a key thesis of Friends -- that all the best love stories are really friendships.

Good romances are based on humor and a strong emotional bond, not sex alone.

[I mean you care about me, you’re loving, you make me laugh.]

In season eight, Ross and Rachel become a strong parenting team still as friends, symbolizing

that this sacred bond is actually born of friendship, not romantic attraction.

Monica and Chandler’s proves even more explicitly that friendship is the foundation of romantic

His friendship with Monica is what allows Chandler to finally put aside his sarcasm

[What if we live together and you'll understand what I'm saying.]

These romances also take place almost entirely in the presence of the other friends.

Ross and Rachel’s romance isn’t theirs alone - it belongs to all six of the friends,

and we see the group’s investment in both the high points - [Ross kissed me.]

The friends wait outside the door as Chandler proposes to Monica, and they celebrate the

Active group participation in romances underlines how at this stage in their lives romance never

Subtitles ListPlay Video

Friends: The Romance of Friendship

demonstrate

intimacy

consider

expect