Friends in films

Most films where the protagonist isn't taken completely away from their world, have minor supporting characters who are 'the friends'

The friends are not the cause of the protagonists problems. Jeremy Renner in The town is not a friend in the sense I'm talking here. He's clearly an antagonist.

Friends aren't the cause of the problems in the protaganist's life. Nor are they the solution.

They are there for a number of reasons. To add comic relief. To act as confidants when otherwise dilemmas would be too internalized. To show other sides of a lead's character. In TV they often have counterpoint stories which act as a foil or contrast to the lead's story.

And sometimes they're there because you feel a need to make it clear that the lead has friends. I've just written a scene which essentially does this. I've never had much else I've wanted them to do so they get a scene like this. It's like those dreadful scenes in Bridget Jones with the friends but at least they're essentially a Greek chorus of her neuroses.

It's a romantic comedy which I'm trying to have each lead relatively equally focused on. Yet the lack of real friends for Lois, the female lead, makes it feel lopsided. She has some sort of sidekicks but the point of them is that they're not her friends. They're younger.

Her friends are starting to drift into a different life stage (her best friend Beth has a kid). So from a plot point of view she has sidekicks in Vicky and Tabitha but they are not confidants in the same way that Seb is for Toby.

So the way I see it there a three possibilities:

Don't worry about it. Make the script lean and get people along for the ride so they don't stop and go where are Lois's friends

Have the scene but make it very funny and watchable

Make sure Lois has a genuine friend and thread her through so she has an important role to play.