Mates was a cultural phenomenon that TV audiences are nonetheless binge-watching now, greater than 20 years after its remaining episode. Nevertheless it’s additionally a product of the Nineteen Nineties, when sitcom writing was extra reckless and fewer accountable. And as Zoë Kravitz not too long ago identified, Mates definitely exhibits its age.
In a latest interview with Folks about her new ’90s-set film Caught Stealing, Kravitz stated she’s nostalgic for the last decade, besides in the case of “tremendous homophobic jokes on mainstream tv.”
“For those who watch Mates now, you’re like, ‘Whoa,’” she added. “Like, issues that aren’t punchlines are punchlines. It’s wild.”
She’s not mistaken, as you’ll see under. And sure, Mates was progressive in some points — it featured a same-sex romance from the soar, for instance, and it depicted interracial relationships and informal intercourse with out judgment. And maybe there’s an argument to be made that the six lead characters and their narcissistic, poisonous, fragile, biased traits are the punchline. However you continue to can’t excuse away Mates’ worst transgressions, together with the next fails — our picks for the sitcom’s most offensive moments, offered chronologically.