quadro2000

Ehh...

Friends should have ended one season earlier. This whole season has been lame. The one-liners have still been funny - especially Chandler's - but the plot lines and situations, which used to be realistic, just became completely inane. Are we really supposed to believe that after 10 years of all of them essentially living together, they are still so uninformed about each other that they can be put into all sorts of deceitful situations? Or for example, in this last episode - are we really supposed to believe that Rachel can't see in Ross how much he cares for her?

But I digress. In terms of the finale. We all knew that Ross and Rachel would wind up back together. Or at least I did. Their relationship was the one constant of the show from the beginning. However, they waited until the last two episodes to do it, and that made it unbelievable. Last night was not the first time they slept together out of nowhere (remember the baby?), yet suddenly, now it means more? It means more NOW then it did when they had a baby??

Everybody loved that ending because it's what we always wanted from the two of them. But I didn't buy it. The stakes weren't high enough for me. I didn't believe that Rachel would go to Paris and not think of the baby first. (But then again, babies have always taken a backseat on Friends - Ross must be the worst father ever has Ben has only been in a handful of episodes, ever. Gunther gets more screentime.)

The twins for Monica and Chandler was a good surprise, albeit completely unrealistic because that was the worst childbirth scene I've ever seen. And what, Erica gives birth to the babies, goes to the recovery room, and Monica and Chandler just say "we'll call you?" Uh...it's little wrap-ups like those that make the show so difficult to believe.

The moment that was most touching for me was when Joey and Chandler were saying goodbye to the foosball table. Although the lines were so obviously supposed to encompass the writers and actors' external feelings about the show ending that they might as well just looked into the camera and said them to the audience watching.

There were some very funny lines - I enjoyed Chandler's line about separating the twins and giving each a medallion so they could find each other later in life. That gave me a big laugh.

In the end, the show played it safe and did a very storybook ending. The same ending that Growing Pains and a million other shows have had - everyone leaving their home. I was just surprised nobody did the traditional "look back wistfully and turn off the light" ending. Chandler's last line - when they all suggested going out for coffee and he said "Where?" - was a great ending. I didn't need the last shot of the apartment.

I realize I'm taking this way too seriously. I know that the goofy and unbelievable sub-plots are part of the charm of the show. After ten years, it doesn't take away from the fact that Friends was, overall, a very funny show, and managed to keep us really caring about the same central characters year after year. It had its high points and low points but overall was a very, very strong series. I just expected more from the finale. I will still enjoy watching it in reruns for years to come, and I am sad that it's over, even if it's definitely time. It's been enjoyable watching a cast of people that really didn't have careers beforehand blossom into huge stars, and still return to their day jobs, so to speak.

I will watch Joey's sitcom. I don't have high hopes but I'll definitely check it out. I think that Matthew Perry will be the first one to guest star and it'll happen in November when the ratings are measured.

On a final note - did anybody else notice how freaking PREGNANT Courteney Cox Arquette was??

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You have to laugh at yourself...because you'd cry your eyes out if you didn't. - Emily Saliers