I want to address the issue of F•R•I•E•N•D•S criticism. Many of the hit 1994-2004 TV show’s present-day younger detractors tend to disparage F•R•I•E•N•D•S based on the fact that it was a sitcom, or more specifically, an “old” (1990s and Early ‘00s-era lol) sitcom which featured a laugh track and “problematic” gender-roles and \*gasp\* primarily centred its plotlines and humour around \*gasp!\* “heteronormative” romantic relationships and sociosexual norms. In actuality, the series should not be critiqued on this basis, especially not the former as, in my opinion, the 1990s and early 2000s (despite having been a rather poor era for popular music, as I see it) marked the Golden Age of Television. Nonetheless, F•R•I•E•N•D•S, despite having been one of the absolute most popular programmes during this otherwise watershed era for Western television, was, unlike Seinfeld (perhaps the only other NBC sitcom of the era to have enjoyed more success than Friends), ER, The Simpsons, Frasier, etc., remarkably mediocre and not especially humorous or innovative. Furthermore, it anticipated the more objectionable aspects of modern dating and mating norms which its detractors ironically fault the series for having violated. The male characters (Joey, Chandler, & Ross) for instance were tamed – if not even arguably emasculated – by their female lovers to a distressing degree and were shockingly weak, idiotic, and ineffectual (as well as physically similar to each other and unremarkable – even down to their numale homogenous haircuts) for how often they slept with attractive women. Rachel, Phoebe, & Monica, by contrast, were portrayed by highly attractive rising actresses in Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, and Courtney Cox, respectively, at the prime of their beauty and were generally depicted as smart, sensible, and successful modern career women with unique and vivacious personalities and fashion sensibilities which all differed from one another. And, of course, they were all highly promiscuous serial monogamists, anticipating Sex and The City, which debuted the fourth season of F•R•I•E•N•D•S. Certain minor characters were gay or lesbian and the women on the show exhibited the most agency, competence, and intelligence across the board.