Yes, Your Friends Are Aging

Commentary on the hit 90s show reunion.

Image: Outside view of Friends’ Apartment Building Photo credit: Rikka Sato Unsplash

Instagram is all a rage over the fanatically popular hit 90s tv show Friends 20th-anniversary reunion on HBO Max. All of these Millennials who didn’t see the show when it first aired are hanging out with perpetual 30-somethings Ross, Rachel, Monica, Joey, Phoebe, and Chandler in the famed purple New York City apartment via reruns.

Teasers of the long-awaited reunion have been released, and Millennials are all upset to see the Friends cast are no longer in their 30s but 50s. Some saying, “It’s so sad” and “Why did they get old?” Why did they get old? Because everyone gets old. They’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t. According to some fans, Matthew Perry looks too old, but Jennifer Aniston has too much Botox. There’s a fine line of what is acceptable.

I am among the demographic that watched Friends when it first aired. When my friends and I were in our 20s and 30s, we never thought we would ever get old either. We were always the young ones. Then all of a sudden, birthdays, weddings, and baby showers came and went. Not always in that order. But to our surprise, we wound up becoming 40–50 somethings on the other side. Yet, whenever I see childhood friends, I am 15 years old again or college-age when I am with my college friends.

As these 20-somethings reach their 40s-50s, they too will…