The last episode of Friends, ever.
May. 28th, 2004 10:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ravenI'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![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
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 forapestaartje:The last episode, then. I didn't know what was going to happen, but Hannah did and made meaningful noises every time I said anything.
I thought the babies storyline was dealt with too quickly. It should have taken longer and thus dispensed with the faintly ridiculous idea of the chick and the duck in the foosball table, but Phoebe and Ross rushing all the way to JFK when they should have gone to Newark was funny and also ultimately touching, when Rachel leaves.
And Rachel comes back. I wish she'd taken Ross with her, that might have made more sense, but as it was, it still worked out, and I rather liked the mention of "We were on a break!", as I'd just that minute said that to Hannah.
She comes back, and they move out of their apartment. I liked that added touch - Monica saying to Ross, "Remember the summer you spent with Grandma? When you were trying to make it as a dancer?"
And Ross, quite rightly, says, "We almost went ten years without that coming up!"
And then they hand over their keys. And surprise, surprise, they all have one. They walk out slowly, and someone (I think Ross) says, "You don't have to go to your new house straight away, do you?"
"No..."
"Let's get coffee or something."
And the last line of dialogue in the entire series is Chandler saying, "Where?"
They leave, one by one, with the two babies, go out in the hallway and out. And the camera pans back to see a deserted apartment. Such is ten years, that everyone (well, Hannah and me) knew what was different. "Nothing on the fridge! No alphabetised mugs!"
The keys, abandoned on the worksurface, and fade out.
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.
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 episode, then. I didn't know what was going to happen, but Hannah did and made meaningful noises every time I said anything. I thought the babies storyline was dealt with too quickly. It should have taken longer and thus dispensed with the faintly ridiculous idea of the chick and the duck in the foosball table, but Phoebe and Ross rushing all the way to JFK when they should have gone to Newark was funny and also ultimately touching, when Rachel leaves.
And Rachel comes back. I wish she'd taken Ross with her, that might have made more sense, but as it was, it still worked out, and I rather liked the mention of "We were on a break!", as I'd just that minute said that to Hannah.
She comes back, and they move out of their apartment. I liked that added touch - Monica saying to Ross, "Remember the summer you spent with Grandma? When you were trying to make it as a dancer?"
And Ross, quite rightly, says, "We almost went ten years without that coming up!"
And then they hand over their keys. And surprise, surprise, they all have one. They walk out slowly, and someone (I think Ross) says, "You don't have to go to your new house straight away, do you?"
"No..."
"Let's get coffee or something."
And the last line of dialogue in the entire series is Chandler saying, "Where?"
They leave, one by one, with the two babies, go out in the hallway and out. And the camera pans back to see a deserted apartment. Such is ten years, that everyone (well, Hannah and me) knew what was different. "Nothing on the fridge! No alphabetised mugs!"
The keys, abandoned on the worksurface, and fade out.
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.
