10-04-2014, 12:40 AM
'Worse, the "singles bouncing in and out of love" genre has a tendency to immediately devolve into a conflict-less "hang-out sitcom," the sorts of shows that rarely push their characters beyond the most surface-level tension. Comedy thrives on conflict, and the hang-out sitcom needs to deflate it, lest we wonder why these people hang out together.' '"For better or worse, the basic idea of the sitcom since its inception — that most of the characters are basically in the same place all the time, and so are their relationships — was threatened by Cheers but really demolished by Friends," said Weinman. "Now, we expect character relationships to be constantly evolving, to the point that we're surprised if characters don't get together and break up multiple times during a run."' ' from http://www.vox.com/2014/9/29/6857745/friends-ruined-TV A sit com like Friends has distorted TV time and space. Unfortunately alot of good programmes from around the world are put in shadow. Alot of the more experimental programmes; like Peep Show (here), are superior but don't get ratings.