I saw this 'friends' episode again today (I know I'm a bit obsessed) and it struck me again, how amazing the writing of this series is. It's from the first series, when Phoebe is dating this obnoxious shrink that pisses off everybody. Phoebe confronts him with her friends disliking of him and here is his response.
Phoebe: It's, I mean, it's nothing, I'm fine. It's my friends. They-they have a liking problem with you. In that, um, they don't.
Roger: Oh. They don't.
Phoebe: But they don't see all the wonderfulness that I see. They don't see all the good stuff and all the sweet stuff. They just think you're a little...
Roger: What?
Phoebe: Intense and creepy.
Roger: Oh.
Phoebe: But I don't. Me, Phoebe.
Roger: Well, I'm not I'm not at all surprised they feel that way.
Phoebe: You're not? See, that's why you're so great!
Roger: Actually it's, it's quite, y'know, typical behaviour when you have this kind of dysfunctional group dynamic. Y'know, this kind of co-dependant, emotionally stunted, sitting in your stupid coffee house with your stupid big cups which, I'm sorry, might as well have nipples on them, and you're like all 'Oh, define me! Define me! Love me, I need love!'.
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The important line here being 'define me'. I mean, c'mon, american sitcoms are not meant to be so genius. 'Define me'??? I'm amazed.... (and obsessed)
1 comment:
This dialogue is actually very cool.
What amazes me about definitions is how different other people's definitions are from ours. I always think people define me as very cool. But then I realize that is merely my own definition.
I understand your obsession with Friends. When we start watching a series we midly like, it only takes a few episodes to get addicted.
I feel the same way about Seinfeld. The narrative intricacy of every episode, oh my God, I'm in awe. Finished watching series 8 yesterday and I'm still in awe. Love, love, love Seinfeld.
But to come back to your post, there's definitely something precious about Seinfeld and also Friends which should be appreciated a lot more and that you rightly point out - the writing. some of the writing in these series is brilliant, it really deserves accolades and a proper award. And the way both Seinfeld and Friends are able to make writing consistent with each character is amazing. When you compare it with anodyne, boring, middle-of-the road-piece-of-shit series like Grey's Anatomy (I know it's not a sitcome, but still), where they all act the same way and worse, they all speak the same way, you realise the fundamental importance of brilliant writing.
And Seinfeld and Friends are actually so funny, which is so hard to achieve.
Please, let's a start a campaign against Grey's Anatomy. It's on TV every f***** time here, it's driving me crazy,it's so bad. Really, it's so bad. And it's always on, always on, I try to watch TV and there they are, those blank eyes of those awful actors, those ridiculous lines ("totally", "seriously", "you're so gonna kill him", "I'm so not", McDreamy, McDempsey, Mcshit, oh my God!!!!!!!), I'm so miserable, I've been abandoned by TV, oooooh.
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