Why was Joey Left Alone in the 'Friends' Group?

The tenth season of "Friends" is over, and the six people have their endings.

Phoebe had a happy relationship. In the last two or three seasons, she met Mike, a gentleman from a wealthy Jewish family in the Upper West Side, and finally ended her life worrying about money... The rare thing is that he understands her well and vows to take risks with her all his life.

Ross and Rachel are on and off, but we know they will end up together. If not, the screenwriter would probably be kicked out of the entertainment industry by angry fans.

As for Chandler and Monica, after having twins with the help of the pregnant mother, they will move to a big house in the suburbs to start the typical "two children, one dog" American middle-class life.

It makes Joey the only one out of the group of six. Leaving aside the two possibilities that fans don't want him to get married and to make a single-man drama, from the perspective of character setting and character growth, it is inevitable to arrange for Joey to be alone at the end.

First of all, he is the only single one in the group of six. The story is not complete. The arc of Joey is a term that refers to the inner transformation or inner journey a character goes through as the story develops.

Situation comedy is a TV series that mainly produces jokes to serve the audience. The growth of a character requires a certain amount of dramatic conflict as the driving force.

In the first four seasons of Friends, Ross and Rachel are undoubtedly the absolute protagonists, and all the stories revolve around their growth and love. In the first episode, Rachel ran into the coffee shop wearing a wedding dress. At that time, she was a spoiled daughter, had no common sense, and didn't know what life was. Later, she slowly learned to get along with her roommates, take care of herself, make money, and forgive people she hated. She stumbled in the process but never stopped growing.

Correspondingly, although Ross did not change much, he went from secretly falling in love to abandoning Juliet and falling in love with Rachel. He completed his adolescent tasks and entered adult life dealing with his ex-wife Carol and raising a son.

When the fifth season began, the center shifted to the relationship between Chan and Mon. The writers spent a whole season hiding the relationship and preparing for the two to propose (in contrast, their progress was smooth), followed by married life and various couple stalks. So far, the character creation of the two is approaching perfection.

In comparison, Joey has changed very little before and after the ten seasons. When Joey appeared on the stage in the first season, he had a character of innocence, love, and loyalty. In the stories of all ten seasons, although he became a well-known TV star as an unknown advertising actor, his acting skills have also some progress. But in terms of personality, he is still the same as in the first season, and he didn't even change the apartment he lived in (assuming he didn't move to live with Chandler.

This kind of stagnation caused a difference between him and the remaining five.

Secondly, the psychological development of the character Joey is still in adolescence, and it is difficult to bear the heavy responsibility of getting married and having children.

At the beginning of Friends, the six started working shortly after graduating from college. This stage is called "early adulthood" in psychology. In the early stages of adulthood, people establish intimate relationships, choose career directions, and secure identities. Many tasks come one after another, so we can see different issues touched on in Friends.

In the first season, the six still carry the shadow of the previous stage:

Monica feels inferior because of her appearance; Chandler is not good at socializing and only uses jokes to get close to others; Rachel is spoiled by her beauty; Ross is clumsy, and pedantic and knows little about gender relations. Phoebe is amazing. She's in a mixed state. Life forces her to face the truth of the world too early, so she has an oversocialized side. Because she didn't have a normal childhood, the writers gave her that kind of lovable I like eccentricity and innocence.

Joey is the only one that has been through puberty. He has no interest in relationships; treats work vaguely. Only when dealing with friends, he goes forward bravely and gives everything he has. It is a typical image of American teenagers. It can be said that if you randomly pick an episode from the ten seasons, and throw Joey into a high school drama, it will not seem strange at all.

Joey's setting is somewhat similar to the "eternal boy" in analytical psychology.

As the name suggests, the eternal youth archetype represents a youth who will never grow up. In a positive sense, they are perpetually curious, have great growth potential, and love to dream; on the contrary, they can be irresponsible, difficult to overcome suffering, naive, and mischievous. And most importantly, he depends on his mother. In Friends, Monica takes on this motherly function: the door is always open, and there is always good food in the refrigerator.

Monica is the mother of the entire group of six; after marriage, Chandler also gradually played as a father. In the tenth season, at the end of Mike and Phoebe, Joey was supposed to hold Phoebe on the red carpet and finally replaced Chandler temporarily. When buying a house, Chandler mentioned that he wanted to leave room for Joey to retire, and he also bought ducklings and chickens to prevent him from being lonely. These are hints.

Finally, by the time of the final season of Friends, American society was shifting towards a single society. During the period from 1986 to 2001, about 35-40% of people aged 18-34 in American society did not have a fixed partner, and the data for the age group 35-49 was between 16-20%. Calculated according to the probability, it is almost one in every six people who is single.

The two lead screenwriters of "Friends" once said that their original intention was to show young people at a certain stage of life. Your friends are your family. In a sense, Joey, who has always been single, can be regarded as the last survivor of the spirit of the series when everyone else is getting married and starting a family, and moving on to the next stage of life.