*Spoilers Ahead*
“I want everyone to know that I am not here to judge how unhealthy or juvenile these friendships are."
These are the words Billy Eichner says as Felix on the Netflix show, Friends From College, the premise of which is a bored and uninspired group of friends making attempts at fulfillment by trying cliche after cliche and celebrating milestone after milestone -- getting married, having kids, making money, meeting career goals, traveling with friends, and having plenty of sex.
The show Friends took us on this tale of close and incestuous friends in the 90s with humor, wit, and thoughtfulness. How I Met Your Mother followed a similar theme in the 2000s. Needless to say, Friends From College, falls flat or maybe, it's inspiration (modern times), falls short. It makes Generation X seem idiotic yet educated, heartless yet playful, self-absorbed yet connected, and unhappy yet doing-their-best.
It's as though all the characters had nothing better to do so they chose the worst possible paths -- cheating on spouses, picking terrible jobs only to quit, and constant fighting. No matter how funny each character is individually, none of them are redeeming people. They bring out the worst in each other as if it is romantic or common. When did our expectations for human decency drop so low?
It's a hilarious sitcom if you can laugh at yourself and the way the world is turning. Assuming this show is at all a reflection of the world today, why aren't we deeply concerned? Why isn't there some sort of culture and values crisis? Why isn't anyone shaking us all awake and depending we stop treating each other like s**t?
Because the whole point is that we don't care. We are bored an overstimulated that anything we do that sparks a reaction is entertaining, and we live for our own amusement. In the case of Friends From College, the characters have replaced actual emotions and authenticity with a series of reactions.
It's as though they are toddlers fighting to get what they want and crying and whining when things don't go their way. They never left college or high school. After college, we should be more resilient and aware, but instead shows like this and everything else around us, tells us otherwise.
I was originally going to post a decent piece sharing my story of depression, but I pushed that one aside after I was told it was "too raw" to discuss at this time. Instead, I wrote this as a tale of why so many people find themselves on the spectrum of down to depressed -- empty relationships, guilt and shame, boredom, lack of confidence, and inability to articulate and communicate thoughts and feelings effectively.
Please, Billy a.k.a. Felix, judge, criticize, and question these relationships because they are not the model. They should not be the status quo. Let's stop reinforcing the point that young people and future generations are totally self-absorbed, incompetent, and inept. We can do better.
