Song: Theme song to 'FRIENDS' medley 1994 - 2004
Believe it or not...
I had never seen the great romantic comedy series called 'FRIENDS'...
until earlier this month.
I was browsing through Netflix when I had seen this series...all 10 years of it.
I have now seen all 235 episodes...twice.
I am on my third time at home...
and I started it again...to watch with my mother at her home.
This series has it all...
great acting...
great writing...
great directing...
great editing...
a catchy and well applying theme song.
It also ends well.
To start out our 'FRIENDS' marathon...
we made a super salad to eat before watching it on Netflix.
I always try to add plenty of color to the salads...
for the varying nutritional content.
This basic salad mix has a great combination of the best salad greens...
along with some craisins, pumpkin seeds...
and a tasty dressing.
I always add small tomatoes...
and some other dried fruit or nuts.
I prepped the salad area...
along with the cooking area...
while my mother did the veg prep for the super salad.
With all of the salad ingredients prepped...
I then added them to the mixing bowl...
one at a time.
This is all the dressing I use.
It is only to enhance the natural flavors of the vegetables.
After thoroughly mixing it.
This is presently our favorite fruit juice.
I evenly divided the salad between my mother and I.
This was my mother's salad.
My mother finished her salad at about the same time as had I.
She loves salad...
and she can eat a lot.
We then sat on her sofa and enjoyed many episodes of 'FRIENDS'.
I love this series because...
it is both, a great comedy, and it is, often times, heartwarming.
The character development is thorough...
and because of the great acting by all in the cast...
you cannot help but love each one of them.
Jennifer Aniston...
played a lovable and light hearted young woman (Rachael).
She was the socially aware...
yet, at times, impish character of the group.
Her acting abilities had surprised me.
Usually such beautiful women cannot pull off physical comedy well.
However, she made me burst out in laughter whenever she had demonstrated
her well timed, and played, physical comedy.
She was superb in not only the comedy aspect...
but in her ability to convey feelings of love, joy, as well as hurt.
Because her role involved the most in depth expression of emotions...
and because she had expressed these emotions so well in her verbal intonations...
the well placed and exercised rapidity and spacing of her line delivery...
and especially in her facial expressions and body language...
she had really proved her acting prowess.
Courteney Cox...
played a hyper organized and, well...hyper...young woman.
She was the mature adult, and organizer, of the group.
The depth of her character comes later in the series as she develops romantic attachments.
She...along with each cast member...
has great acting abilities.
At first...
I had a difficult time empathizing with her character
(although I understood her character...
as I am a bit hyper at times (not to her character's level)...
I felt uncomfortable watching her.
I like watching people quite different from me :)
However,
her deep loyalty to her friends and to her romantic partners quickly warmed me to her.
Lisa Kudrow...
played a very free spirited young woman (Phoebe).
She was the child like, and deeply lovable, character of the group.
This was the first time I had seen her, except for an interview she had done last year.
Her quirks and open heart quickly made her my favorite.
There is one scene with Joey which made me fall in love with her.
In my eyes...
she epitomizes feminine beauty...
and in my mind...
she is one of the most beautiful actresses ever to grace the screen.
She has a certain level of grace about her...
something you don't often see in modern day females.
In one episode where she acted as if she were greatly uncoordinated while running...
she was even graceful in those scenes.
This tells me that her grace comes naturally...
and so, made me like her even more.
In some of her scenes where she is dressed up nicely...
she is breathtaking.
Matt Le Blanc...
plays a very lovable and deeply loyal young man (Joey).
He was the protector and the rock of stability of the group.
He had a very simple, yet lovable, open heart and mind.
His, sometimes goofy, character made me laugh so much...
and when he started maturing through the pains of love...
you cannot help but really caring for Joey.
His deep loyalty to his friends made him such a pleasure to watch.
His facial and body expressions were superbly acted by Matt Le Blanc.
He was so funny to watch because you never knew when the comedy would come.
Matthew Perry...
plays an insecure, but very witty, young man (Chandler).
He was the funny man of the group.
His purposely over emphatic delivery of his great wit (sardonic humor)...
always made me bust up.
He was also a great friend to all.
He had it all in comedy.
His well timed reactions elicited laughter from me...
as well as his well delivered comedic lines and facial and body language.
David Schwimmer...
played the intellectual, and slightly nerdy and insecure young man, of the group (Ross).
His raw acting talent really shows up in his facial expressions.
Of all the characters...
except when he gets frustrated (which is so funny to watch)...
his character is more muted so far as physical comedy goes...
however, his facial expressions make up for it.
His face...
and especially his eyes...
tells so much about what his character is thinking.
He also excels in portraying insecurity through his body language.
If you haven't seen this series...
Netflix has all of the 235 episodes.
It is a must see.
You will laugh and cry throughout.
And...
perhaps most importantly...
it ends very well.
It will make you glad you had seen it.
After about two hours had passed watching our 'Friends' marathon...
I started cooking the main meal...spaghetti.
I will cook a tomato concentrated dish...
at least once a week.
The health benefits of such dishes are so important.
My mother helped by occasionally stirring the noodles.
We then ate our meal.
My mother had eaten all of her spaghetti...
as had I.
We then had an ice cream bar for dessert.
My mother and I then watched more episodes of our marathon.
We will continue to watch this series...
until all 235 episodes have been watched...
several at a time each night.
My mother especially loves the physical comedy of each character.
She laughed out loud hard with each one.
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As you have noticed...
as the salad was a super salad (greater in quantity and materials)...
we had waited a couple of hours to eat the main meal.
Both meals are part of a healthful diet.
It is also important to make supper a relaxing and enjoyable time.
We filled the lapse with a great comedy series.
It is always good to end the day with laughter.
I don't think I would have guessed that you would have liked Friends, but your analysis is spot on. I watched it in the old days when you had to wait a week to see the next episode. TV viewing has changed so much these days now that you can watch 10 seasons in a matter of a few weeks, or perhaps days in your case. :)
ReplyDeleteThis series has repeat playability. As soon as I finish watching the complete series, I start it again. The whole cast seems to meld into one smooth flowing verbal and physical comedic laugh fest. This series is just another reason I love Netflix.
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