​An Analysis of John Storey's Popular Culture in Friends 

     Within 22 minutes of the first episode, the entire show contains a central message for the viewers. The episode discusses love, divorce, marriage, friendship, death and family. Every realistic concept is discussed in the very first episode aired. This episode sets up the rest of the season leaving the viewer wanting to know more and to watch another episode so they can relate. This is what Storey means by talking about a system of ideals of a particular group. The viewer can tell that the characters are young adults trying to make it in the real world. Their ‘professional ideology’ speaks to the working middle class.   

      Although the show is trying to show that the characters are the average everyday people the first episode creates a false consciousness. Realistically, if someone has visited New York or has lived in New York they would know that the apartment they are living in isn’t realistic for their income. This distortion works in the interests of the powerful against the interests of the powerless. When presenting the idea of relating to society, the ideology has to match the concept of the storyline.     

     When Ross speaks about his divorce in the episode, it parallels with the idea of ideological forms. Many people have gone through divorce and this idea creates a collective social understanding that others can relate too. Or, if people have not gotten divorced or broken up with then this is the show’s way of getting the viewer to see divorce through a particular set of lenses.     

     The rituals and practices of all of the characters are symbolic of Althusser’s material practices that bind society to the social order. When Rachel buys the boots, she is exhibiting a social order which is marked by enormous inequalities of wealth, status and power. Rachel is considered to be a member of the upper class which then re-states capitalist ideals. When her roommates chant her on to cut the credit cards, it shows Rachel breaking away from capitalist ideology.     

     The whole show speaks to the crowd by exhibiting mythology. Barth’s explains mythology as the attempt to make universal what is in fact partial and particular. By the end of the episode the viewer can feel that they can relate to the problems the protagonists are going through. For me, by the end of the episode I felt almost a feeling of relief because the problems that they have can make one feel as though they’re normal and a normality of life.