Growing up watching Friends, I’ve always been biased toward shows where a group of friends figures out life together. Whether they’re living in a spacious apartment in New York or a slightly cramped house in LA, there’s something incredibly comforting about watching people build a life around each other.
I’ve firmly believe that, after a certain point, your friends play a huge role in your life. They shape your ideas, your personality, your aspirations and, ultimately, to some extent, the person you become. Luckily, I’ve always happened to pick good friends. I’m still extremely close to my school friends, and I believe they played a major part in shaping who I am. But watching these shows, where a group of friends becomes family to the point that crossing boundaries feels completely normal, has always felt slightly foreign to me.
Most of my friends have scattered across the world, while the ones who live close to me are mostly still living with their parents. And I think that makes a difference. When you live with your friends, they naturally become a huge part of your everyday life. They help you figure yourself out, give you a clearer idea of who you are and hold your hand through the good, the bad and everything in between.
So, when I watch these shows, it feels a little like escaping into a fantasy of what could have been.
And with the rise of shows centred around friendships, I’m clearly not the only one who feels this way.
According to a study by UCLA, 59.7% of teens want to see TV shows where friendship is the central relationship, with more than 54% saying they want to see mixed-gender friendships and 49% wanting to see same-gender friendships. It points to a significant shift in what young audiences want to see on screen. Prioritising friendships over romantic relationships seems to have become a much more common idea among teenagers today.
That being said, finding a good friend can be just as difficult as finding a partner. Someone who has the time, lives close by, shares your interests and actually wants to put in the effort can be surprisingly hard to find.
Maybe we’re not too far away from having a dating app equivalent for friendships. A swipe-right app for finding your new best friend. Or perhaps a giant single friend mixer for adults who have no idea how to make friends.
Because I don’t think we talk enough about how difficult it is to make new friends once you leave college.
People often say that your work friends can never truly become your best friends. I don’t necessarily agree. Some of the strongest friendships can come from the people you spend most of your time with. But even then, adult friendships take time to build. You have work, responsibilities, relationships and a hundred other things competing for the little free time you have.
Still, I’m sure there are plenty of people like me who find comfort in watching shows where friends live together, fight together, fall in love, make terrible decisions, show up for each other and somehow become a family along the way.
So, here are a few of my recommendations.
1. I Love LA
Streaming on Hotstar, I Love LA follows a group of friends living together after years apart as they navigate work, ambition, relationships and the uncomfortable reality of how much time has changed each of them.
Ranked 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, this is a must-watch if you’ve ever reunited with your friends after years apart and realised that everyone has become a slightly different version of themselves.
2. Overcompensating
Streaming on Prime Video, Overcompensating follows a closeted former football player who becomes friends with a college outsider desperately trying to fit in. The show beautifully explores the lengths we go to in order to compensate for the parts of ourselves we’re still trying to understand.
Ranked 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s perfect for anyone who has ever looked at a friend and thought, “How did we even become friends? We are so different.”
Well, maybe you’re not as different as you think.
3. Adults
One of my favourite shows, hands down, Adults is streaming on Hotstar. The show follows a group of five friends who come together from different parts of each other’s lives. Some are college friends, some are school friends, but somehow, they all end up becoming one big family.
They’re figuring out love, life, personal crises and everything else together. What I love most is the comfort level between the characters. There’s something about watching a group that knows each other so well that they can be completely themselves without having to explain every little thing.
And a special +1 for the sassy gay guy who somehow feels like the adult member of the group.
Ranked 88% on Rotten Tomatoes, the show is also known for breaking stereotypes. And if you’ve ever wondered whether mixing completely different friend groups is a terrible idea, Adults might just give you a surprisingly positive outlook.
4. Not Suitable for Work
I think I’ve spoken about this show enough times on my previous blog to make my love for it very obvious, but for starters, Not Suitable for Work revolves around a group of five friends who are neighbours and are mostly fumbling their way through work and adulthood.
Each of them shows up for the others when things fall apart, and that is exactly what makes the friendship so comforting to watch. I’m a sucker for strong female friendships being at the centre of a story, and this show gives you exactly that.
If you’ve ever dreamt of living in a cosy New York apartment with a bunch of strangers who slowly turn into your closest friends, this one is for you.
I’m always a sucker to watch a show that begins with a group of friends and ends with that friendship becoming deeper through all the thick and thin. Maybe it’s because I know how lucky I am to have good friends, while also knowing how difficult it is to keep everyone close as life moves on. Or maybe I just like watching the version of friendship where everyone somehow lives in the same building, shows up at the same apartment and always has time for each other.
Either way, I’m not complaining.
If you have any more friendship-show recommendations, let me know in the comments below.
Until then,
See you next time!
Image credits: Pinterest