• Network: NBC
  • Series Premiere Date: Sep 22, 1994
  • Season #: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10
Metascore
59 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 16 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 16
  2. Negative: 2 out of 16
  1. Reviewed by: Howard Rosenberg
    Feb 27, 2013
    90
    The sexy, urbane Friends -- from Marta Kauffman, David Crane and Kevin Bright, the people responsible for the HBO super-comedy "Dream On" -- starts fairly strongly tonight, improves next Thursday and in week three gets on a grand, hilarious, rip-roaring roll. It's the perfect series to bridge "Mad About You" and "Seinfeld." [22 Sept 1994, p.F1]
  2. Reviewed by: Michael Sragow
    Feb 27, 2013
    90
    The best new sitcom of the fall...It's a very strong cast. [22 Sept 1994, p.1D]
  3. Reviewed by: Mike Antonucci
    Feb 27, 2013
    88
    All the weird, impulsive jokes are as outrageously funny as they aspire to be. [22 Sept 1994, p.1C]
  4. Reviewed by: Ken Parish Perkins
    Feb 27, 2013
    80
    What helps Friends is that the show's creators have come up with a highly likable group of actors who are talented and charming, if not rip-roaringly funny. [21 Sept 1994, p.C2]
  5. Reviewed by: Matt Roush
    Feb 27, 2013
    75
    Though it has its share of irritating characters and moronic moments - especially in the pilot - this is far and away the best of this season's so-called Gen X comedies. [22 Sept 1994, p.3D]
  6. Reviewed by: Ginny Holbert
    Feb 27, 2013
    75
    The clever series, from the creators of HBO's "Dream On", stars an appealing group of actors who are just a bit funnier and better-looking than your average friend. [22 Sept 1994, p.43]
  7. Reviewed by: Ed Bark
    Feb 27, 2013
    70
    None of the six main actors is a stand-up comic, but they're appealing nonetheless...If the scripts get a little sharper, Friends may attract enough of the right demographics to become a hit. [22 Sept 1994]
  8. Reviewed by: Robert Bianco
    Feb 27, 2013
    60
    In short, they do what friends do, only they do more of it more often. Too often, actually. That constant comic bantering grows a little tired, just as it would if it ever actually happened in real life. [22 Sept 1994, p.C1]
  9. Reviewed by: Tony Scott
    Feb 27, 2013
    60
    Concept is OK, but the humor's less sophisticated than expected from the exec producers of HBO's comedy series "Dream On," and the dialogue is not exactly snappy. Ross: "I honestly don't know if I'm hungry or horny!" Chandler: "Stay out of my freezer."
  10. 50
    Tonight's new NBC sitcom from the producers of HBO's "Dream On" hands us still one more batch of self-consciously quirky, single, more-or-less charming twentysomething characters and lets them hang for a half-hour reading faux Woody Allen lines. [22 Sept 1994, p.36]
  11. Reviewed by: Tom Feran
    Feb 27, 2013
    50
    Amiable but not memorable, Friends becomes an overcrowded "Ellen," which remains a junior-varsity "Seinfeld" wannabe. [22 Sept 1994, p.7E]
  12. Reviewed by: Hal Boedeker
    Feb 27, 2013
    50
    Wildly uneven. [22 Sept 1994]
  13. Reviewed by: Barry Garron
    Feb 27, 2013
    40
    So it's come to this - all talk and no action... Some of the lines are funny and several of the stars, particularly Aniston and David Schwimmer, who plays Ross, are appealing. But something is missing here and that something is a story. Where's the beef?[22 Sept 1994, p.F1]
  14. Reviewed by: Ann Hodges
    Feb 27, 2013
    40
    Friends is the new "Seinfeld" wannabe, but it will never be as funny as "Seinfeld." Even as "Seinfeld" is now, which isn't as funny as it used to be.[22 Sept 1994, p.10]
  15. Reviewed by: Gail Pennington
    Feb 27, 2013
    30
    All the characters lie on the couch a lot. While it's noted that they do have jobs, they seem to spend most of their time eating Oreos and watching TV. (Hey, that's my life. . . .) And they talk, but most of what they have to say isn't very funny. [22 Sept 1994, p.6G]
  16. Reviewed by: Tom Shales
    Feb 27, 2013
    0
    Friends comes across like a 30-minute commercial for Dockers or Ikea or light beer, except it's smuttier. One character says he dreamed he had a telephone for a penis and when it rang, "it turns out it's my mother." And this is in the first five minutes...Another ghastly creation from professional panderers Marta Kauffman and David Crane, the witless duo who do "Dream On" for HBO, Friends is more a scripted talk show than a sitcom. You keep waiting for Sally Jessy or some other cluck to interrupt the jabbering. The show is so bad that Sally Jessy would actually come as a relief. [22 Sept 1994, p.D1]
User Score

Universal acclaim- based on 146 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 31 out of 32
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 32
  3. Negative: 1 out of 32
  1. 10
    This show is my all time favourite of ... well all time.

    Priceless and genius. Is one of the few shows where I don't care what episode or sea
    son I watch. I can just close my eye's and pick a disk from my collection and watch it. The show is painfully funny and each character has a joke "style" that matches their personality perfectly. Full Review »
  2. 10
    This tv show has redefined'''' BRILLIANCE''
  3. Funny, heart warming and simply hilarious, the first season of Friends introduces us to the charming characters who we have all come to love over the years, this season unlike the later ones was mostly about how the Friends were living in the city at the age of 25-26 and it contains some of the most classic episodes like the One with all the Poker, the One with the Fake Monica and the One with the Thumb. Full Review »