Seinfeld and Friends – Harbingers of Hope

Image Credit: NBC

Written By: Amelia de Florinier

“So no one told you life was going to be this way”

Have you ever been hanging out with your friends and wondered where the laughing track is? Do you ever feel like your life is dull compare to what you’ve seen on the screen?

As your eighteenth birthday comes and passes, it is common to feel the crushing weight of adulthood fall onto your shoulders. There is no time left for dreaming, suddenly, your whole life is stretched ahead of you, waiting to be lived.

This brings me to perhaps two of the most successful TV shows to have ever aired; Seinfeld and Friends. The two share many similarities, both came onto air in the early-mid 90s (Seinfeld in 1993, Friends in 1995), both are set in New York, both center around a group of friends and the often-annoying people they knew.

It is not uncommon for people to either fall into the Seinfeld camp, or the Friends camp. Those who favour Seinfeld’s sarcastic humour, find humour in the pitfalls of life, have no interest in becoming the best versions of themselves, and do not mind that the characters they spend nine seasons watching.

Though they appreciate sarcasm, those who prefer Friends have a much more optimistic look on life. They seek to go somewhere, just as the characters in Friends do, they end up in different places to where they started, with families and children and dream jobs.

Personally, I prefer Seinfeld.

However, this is not an article on whether you are a Seinfeld person or a Friends person, rather it is about the hope that these two programmes instill within the spectator.

The pivotal fact that neither of the shows start until the characters are in their mid-20s, changes everything. When you are worrying about getting older and running out of time on your eighteenth birthday, you must remember that by the end of Friends the characters are only just starting their lives and they are well into their thirties.

 Life is more than your accomplishments, it is mostly about what you do with the mundane bits of your time, and who you chose to spend your time on. There is no checklist you need to complete before you reach the age of twenty-five, nor is there one for before you turn thirty. Friends (and Seinfeld’s) will come and go, as will jobs, houses, and ideas, but the possibility your life holds will stay, no matter how old you get.

So, next time things start feeling dire, or you start stressing about time passing you by too quickly, sit down somewhere, and watch some good old 90s sit-com

Edited By: Zara Hacker and Arwen Carr