Friends was the show that helped me so much through my childhood and teen years.
It's ability to transport me to a place I never thought I'd go (New York) and envision a kind, warm, fun adulthood in comparison to a rough time I was having was priceless.
It taught me so much tbh, children should not have to rely on sitcoms from the states tbh. It made me obsessed with the State's and NYC and the importance of cultivating friendships, which I benefit from to this day.
It was an escape and a much needed one.
I remember never believing I could ever visit NYC, child to a single mum with no money, so when I did manage to scrap together some funds my early twenties, I took a few hours out and went to go see the eponymous friends apartment building. Was like visiting Mecca. I remember just staring at it, with a coffee for half an hour, replaying episodes and quotes in my head and smiling. Honestly, I actually cried a bit. Because that show and that apartment symbolised something to me, to the childhood me, that was so important and supportive, that it felt like a unrealistic, unachievable dream come true.
Chandler was always my favourite and I started to understand comedy in a way I didn't from other UK shows like Bottom or Blackadder etc.
I think like most fans, you become of the situation around Matt's struggles with addiction, especially as I got older and would have the show on as a comfort, it was clear he was struggling.
As he said in that interview, while he didn't think so, I imagine most people could tell what issues he was having given the changes to his physique and face during the ten years of the show, the tell tale signs of coming off of and back onto drugs.
It was clear the guy was struggling and fame wasn't helping, as were the expectations of comedy and celebrity.
But the joy he gave this young boy from the UK, along with the rest of the cast was magical and I really wish I could have told him this, face to face. Albeit, likely in a very awkward way, awkward in how oversharing childhood trauma and emotions via a paradoxical relationship to a strange is awkward, even more as as a nearly forty year old man.
It's super sad, god bless you Matthew Perry.
https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-s...=900:*&output-format=auto&output-quality=auto