Until the cast of Friends decides to reward us with a sequel, or a prequel, or a bonus, or even a five minute reunion ... we will just sit here and imagine this: what if our favorite Friends characters were expats living in Dubai, in 2017?
Here's what we think it would look like.
The one where Al Burj smoothie bar = Central Perk
Central Perk is now a smoothie bar called “Al Burj” in Jumeirah.
The six friends: Rami, Rana, Mon, Chandak, Youssef and Flavia sit and mingle with all the Jumeirah Janes, tanned surfers and quinoa eaters (of course there is a drive through for coffee and a shisha terrace).
The one with Rana and Rami constantly in orbit
In this episode, Rana – a 30 something well-off third generation Palestinian expat, born and raised in Abu Dhabi who recently broke up with her boyfriend – is set up with Rami.
She tries not to stress about the fact that she’s over 30 and still not married.
The one with Rami's new apartment
Rami is a 35-year-old Iraqi consultant who just moved to Dubai from London where he grew up.
In this episode, Rami is finally moving into his new pad in Downtown, after four months spent at the MediaOne hotel. He is thinking of downloading Happn, but only after meeting Rana …
The one where Mon fires her cleaner
Mon is a busy real estate agent who moved from the UK 10 years ago to live under the sun. She’s a neat freak, but doesn’t have much time to dedicate to her obsessive compulsive disorder.
She spends most of her day driving on Sheikh Zayed Road and accumulating radar and Salik fines. So, she relies on her cleaning company that charges her 35 dirham an hour.
But, her being Mon means she’s never happy with the job the cleaners do and ends up doing it all again herself.
The one where Chandak discovers Mon's wedding Pinterest board
Chandak is an Indian expat who works for du telecom as an IT expert. He is also Mon’s boyfriend. Chandak grew up in a very traditional family, which believes an arranged marriage is the only legitimate marriage.
His mom shows him a photo of a new potential bride every time he Skypes her. In this episode, he finds out Mon has marriage plans for them and freaks out.
Not because of the marriage itself, but of how both families will react!
The one where Youssef discovers Tinder
His name is Youssef but he hates it and calls himself “Joe”. He’s an Egyptian expat who works in one of the most popular night clubs in Dubai.
He wears T-shirts with slogans like “Work Hard, Play Hard” and “Eat Clean, TrainDirty”. He's not the sharpest knife in the drawer, and so is still mesmerized by The Palm.
He loves two things in life: “el sit el waldah”, and all other women. In this episode he discovers Tinder ... 'nuf said!!
The one with Flavia's stunning performance
No one including Flavia, AKA Fifi, knows how or why she ended up in Dubai. She’s a Romanian girl who came to Dubai to work in hospitality, but now is part of Emirates' cabin crew.
Her salary is 8,000 dirhams but she maxes out her credit cards shopping at Harvey Nichols Dubai and brunching at Atlantis. In this episode we will see her convincing Rana to ditch her date with Tarek and join her for karaoke ladies night at Pier 7.
She usually sings “pisică urât mirositoare”… that’s Romanian for“Smelly Cat”!