Dr. Dolly Alderton

Rob went to that tennis club or whatever.

You know, there's always something that somebody's done already.

Yeah, yeah.

And again, a choice so strong, it doesn't, so strong and so natural, it doesn't feel like a choice at all.

Yeah.

It just feels like something that has happened because that's how life's turned out, you know, but actually everything is a sort of a cheap psychological choice born from somewhere.

Yeah.

Freudian therapy.

I think the truth of that Philip Larkin poem, What's It Called Again?

The one, they fuck you up, your mum and dad, they don't mean to, but they do.

What's that?

I can't remember what it's called.

The penises of history In this be the verse They fuck you up Your mum and dad They don't mean to But they do I think that is a great Sort of like case study For the Jack and Judy Gellar of it all Because as you say A comfortable Wonderful home Where they love their children They love their children so much That their children's friends Come over for Thanksgiving Every year Exactly

This is one of those homes that everyone wishes they could recreate in real life Which is that like The kind of place where waifs and strays feel comfortable during holidays Like surely that's the fantasy And the parents love each other And doesn't matter because Monica and Ross are still fucked up beyond belief People are just fucked up in different ways Even from the most beautiful parenting one can imagine My friend Peach said once to another friend of mine Which I think about all the time

It still happens Because it's not like Yeah It's not Parenting is not a pass-fail Sort of exam It is this Thing that you do Every day for years And some days You are very bad at it Yeah And the days in which The Gellers are very bad at it Are Obviously Judy And her relationship with Monica And again The reason why Friends has been so timeless And is re-watched constantly Is because people do see Their family dynamics in it So yes

Are we talking about the inner turmoil of made-up people?

Sure.

But are there Judy and Monica Gellers all over the world having, like, terse arguments about lasagnas and nails in kitchens all over the world?

Yeah.

And I think the way in which that pain is rendered...