"Friends" and "How I met your mother"

“How you doing?”, “it is going to be legen - wait for It - dary?” If you know whom I am referring to with these two famous phrases; well, let me tell that you are awesome! And suit up! I have always being a fan for TV series, but mostly for TV sitcoms. “How I met your mother?” and “Friends” are those types of TV shows that kept, week by week, waiting for a new episode to come that only last 22 minutes, but it was worth it. Their humor, their storyline, their characters, their romance and their inside jokes made them unique. Although “Friends” and “How I met your mother” remain in my top list of favorite TV comedies, they share similar aspects according to their characters, context and plot that makes me like them.

My personal HIMYM's complete series. Photograph by Eduado Cajar.

First, let me start by revealing that the relevance between their casts is the main reason for their similarity. In “Friends”, we have Ross who is nerdy guy that works as a college professor; also, his always struggling in love. Similarly, in “HIMYM”, we have Ted that is also a nerdy college professor who struggles at love. They both have that one persona that they cannot keep an eye of. In the case of Ross, is Rachel who is a girl that has never being focused on real relationships and instead keep her mind on job issues. Equally, in HIMYM, we have Robin who is a one night stand girl that always puts her reporter job first. In other words, Rachel and Robin are Ross and Ted’s kryptonite, respectively. Moreover, we have the perfect and romantic couple that respect marriage. In “friends”, Monica and chandler take this position, who only married couple in the show; but also, we have Lily and Marshall, high school sweethearts that got married once they were on their adult life. Last but least, we have the ladies-man of the show. Joey, a guy that knows how to pick his ladies as well his dinner. Similarly, we have Barney, from HIMYM, a guy that can be described with “awesome”, “suits”, “laser-tag” and “high five”, is the one that always end up with the girl.

My personal Friends' complete series. Photograph by Eduardo Cajar.

Second, besides the characters, “Friends” and “HIMYM” unwraps on the same context and with similar plots. Both shows focus on a group of young adults around the twenties, living and sharing apartments in the city that never sleeps. First, in “friends” this clan of six, spend their morning an afternoon in a local cafè; likewise, the HIMYM clan hang out at a local bar where they drink a couple of beers and eat some snacks. Both locals are below their apartments. Moreover, we have the plot. On both clans we have the endless couple that never stop breaking up or coming back together, Ross & Rachel; and, Ted & Robin. On the other side, in HIMYM, is focus on how Ted retells the story of how he met his wife to her own kids; at the same time, Friends, is focus on how the life of these guys unwraps together, and how they overpass them as friends. In contrast, only Ross’s life is similar to the plot of HIMYM, in other words, Ted’s life. Ross is struggling to find luck in love, and goes through horrible dates, as well as Ted. 

In conclusion, as we went through seeing the similarities between these top billed sitcoms I can say that my taste for this type of tv shows is clear. Maybe they wont coincide in the some details as, for example, the message, the plot and their humor, because first of all they are from different times; but they can distract and keep you tune in for 9 seasons. They can take a point that you can spend any watching any episode or any season as times you want. So if you haven’t seen neither both, I dare you to compare them…”Challenge Accepted!”