The last episode of Friends, ever.

I've never written a Friends review before. I've never reviewed it, because, well, that's not what you do with Friends. Friends is just always there. In the background. And now it isn't.

What I am about to write may sound somewhat strange, but you lot are all fen. You can't say that something as ephemeral as a television show can't have an effect on your life, because it does. Fandom is about a similar sort of thing.

Friends. Yes. It's ten years old. Ten years ago, Pedar saw the first episode the first time it aired on American television, and enjoyed it. He made a point of watching out for it when it was picked up by Channel 4 some time later. I was seven years old at the time, and I didn't always get all the jokes, but it was something we did on Friday at nine. We watched Friends. Because it was a good show. I know people now say how much they hate it, because it was too perfect and didn't they have very nice apartments for people who never did any work, but I feel that's missing the point. It was supposed to be an escape, especially on British television because America is different from here. And in the beginning, it was funny, and had characters you cared about enough for the show to be engaging, and not so much they stopped being funny.

It sounds silly when I write about it, because I save this kind of indepth reviewing for other stuff, but the reason I have never written about it is because it would be like writing reviews about the table. The table is always there. Equally, Friends has always been there. I was seven then; I'm seventeen now, and I've grown up with this show on in the background. When I was in Lower Four, there was the usual school disco, and no-one went. They only found out later that it was the night Ross married Emily. Well, sort of.

Tonight, I was loopy from loneliness and hunger, and rang purplerainbow whilst eating pasta. We talked for about an hour, and decided many things, including a meeting of the resident lunatics next week which she will tell you about, and also we decided one important thing. If she is not attached by the time of the leavers' ball, I'll go with her. We decided not to go beyond friends at this time, but things may change.

At nine, I said, "It's time for Friends!"

And because we were both alone, we stayed on the phone for another hour and watched it together.

Cut for apestaartje:( The last one )

This might sound like an overly sentimental entry for the demise of a television show, especially one that peaked five years ago, but it's symbolic of more than that. Everything in my whole world is changing, step by wicked step, and the passing of something I grew up with ought to be noted.

There we go, then.