“Friends” From College And The Horror We Expect From Adulthood

A few months ago, I started hearing people say that “Friends from College” would be an adult version of How I Met Your Mother with a Friends twist. I confess that, after some research into the story, I got excited about the series and had high expectations precisely because it has the same theme as these two series, which are my favorites. The problem is that with great expectations can come great disappointments… And that’s exactly what happened.

Lisa (Colbie Smulders), Ethan (Keegan-Michael Key), Max (Fred Savage), Samantha (Max Adler), Nick (Nat Faxon) and Marianne (Jae W. Suh) have been friends since college, as you might expect from the title of the series. Just don’t think that their relationship will remind you of your high school/college friendships and happy times. The production presents a terrible reality of betrayal and secrets among the group members. In fact, it was at this point that I started to rethink everything I expected from the series and prepare myself for the worst.

Let’s get to the facts: Lisa and Ethan are married and are moving back to New York, the city where all the other members of the group live [who thought about Friends?], but, even before finding out this, we find out (in the first few minutes of the first episode) that the husband is having an affair with Sam (yes, you didn’t read that wrong… She’s one of the friends). THAT’S RIGHT, AN AFFAIR! And this affair has been going on for years. Detail: Marianne knows everything.

Watching five minutes of this first episode was enough to make me completely discouraged. But, “I’m Brazilian and I never give up”. So, I took a deep breath and kept going, even though I could only imagine that it would be the same as finding out that Phoebe was having an affair with Chandler and Rachel was aware of everything. Can you imagine how disappointed I would be if Monica knew about this? Yes, yes. However, since there are only 8 episodes, I watched it until the end.

Friends from College is not a bad series, but if you are expecting a comedy about happy friends, the kind that gives you a good laugh and a taste of nostalgia, it is not for you. Despite being in the comedy category in the Netflix catalog, there are few scenes that make you get excited and laugh out loud. It is more like a drama with some comic relief during the episodes.

Oh, and get ready to follow several “problems” throughout this micro season, such as: betrayals, characters wanting to go back in time and experience things they had when they were younger, and many decisions made in the wrong way, based on very childish arguments – zero maturity. All of this, without going into too much detail, by the way.

In short: the series is about friends, but it revolves around the theme of infidelity – including the betrayals they commit against each other (and there are many) -, some unnecessary sex scenes, which I believe are there just because it is an adult series, and no solution to the problems presented. In addition, the characters are not well explored, which leaves everything lost and meaningless.

• This post was originally posted on the website Travessia Cult in 2017. You may check the original post clicking here.