The Friends Counterparts In This Is Us | Screen Rant
With the last season underway, This Is Us has many well-developed, interesting characters fans have learned to love and know well over the course of the beloved series.
One of the best things about having a slew of favorite shows is that fans know the characters well enough to understand their personalities and anticipate the decisions they are going to make. A few of the characters of This Is Us are quite similar to other beloved characters, like the iconic cast of the sitcom Friends.
Rachel is the oversensitive type that always wishes the best for her friends. However, she is also known to show a bit of narcissism, oftentimes being selfish and thinking highly of herself. Her friends throughout the show make comments about her frequent ability to be overly sensitive as well as completely full of herself.
One of Rebecca's worst decisions is when she chooses to keep William from Randall. She does this out of pure selfishness, scared Randall would love William more than his adopted family. However, Rachel and Rebecca's protectiveness towards their children is admirable. So, though they share certain toxic traits, they are also similarly caring and sensitive characters.
Ross, despite being taken down a couple of notches by heartbreaking relationships and having some reeling life changes, is someone who learns how to be confident in what he wants. However, he's also known for being quite awkward in social situations and too often indecisive, not being direct about what he wants.
Kate has had some bad relationships of her own and was so indecisive about what she wants that she goes many years stuck in limbo, not doing much with her life. However, Kate also learns to be confident in what she wants, recently making a decision that might end her marriage but is what she's been looking for her entire life.
Monica is the definition of a "control freak," highly competitive in nature and always expecting things to go the way she wants them. However, she's also a career-driven character that strives for love and a family, never giving up until she has everything she deserves.
Randall is an incredibly caring character, working so hard in his job and giving his family everything they need and want, trying so hard to the point where his piled stress leads to anxiety attacks. However, Randall is also like Monica in the sense he expects things to always go his way, often expecting others to simply see things the way he does.
Chandler is the most relatable of the friends, easy-going, and quick to make people feel better. Though one of the funniest and most uplifting of the group, he also has childhood trauma that fuels his humorous personality, quicker to crack a joke than work through his feelings.
Jack Pearson is the parent and friend who is always there to say the right thing and make someone feel better. However, he also buries a lot of trauma, avoiding talking about his time in the Vietnam War and his estranged younger brother. Though he doesn't hide his pain with humor, he is just as quick as Chandler to avoid talking about certain aspects of his life.
Responsible for many of the amazing moments in some of the funniest episodes of Friends, Phoebe is the most exceptional of the friends, quirky and outspoken about her feelings and what she believes. However, Phoebe's bold personality is also shadowed by a difficult childhood, and she makes it clear she sees herself as the most replaceable of her friends, given the others' relationships with one another.
Beth is the most outspoken of the Pearson family, letting the others know how she feels about a situation and what she's confident needs to be done. However, she also didn't have an easy childhood, with an overbearing mother and losing her father as a teenager. She's also like Phoebe in the sense that she often doesn't feel she can have any input when it comes to the Pearson Big Three and their mother.
Joey is the sweetest of the friends, there to lift their spirits and encourage good times when there's nothing else to be done. However, Joey is usually the friend with little interest in the things he doesn't want and is often oblivious to what's going on around him.
Nicky is a hard shell to crack when the Pearsons are first introduced to his family, but he quickly becomes one of the best side characters. When he finds his place in the family, he becomes an endearingly sweet uncle who cares about their happiness and is excited to meet his new great-niece and nephew. However, he's also like Joey in the sense that he's often confused about what's being talked about since he spent most of his life in solitude.