As usual, I refuse to be caught up in the hype of the day — this particular day, it’s the “Friends” finale.
While I do watch sometimes, and find it funny, I just can’t understand the devotion that’s paid to this show. Yeah, I’ll watch the finale (I’ll TiVo it so I can watch it later, sans the $2 million commercials, promos, and other clutter). But I’m not going to engage in any reviews, retrospectives, or eulogies for it. Nor do I intend to watch the Joey spin-off, not matter how cute he is. That’s a 1-season show right there. Remember “After M*A*S*H”?
Although, I’ll link you up with this one that I found amusing:
Call it “The One Where They Finally Grow Up.”
Or maybe not.
What will happen Thursday night, when NBC’s famous sextet of “Friends” finishes its mad dash toward sitcom completion — and, it appears, delayed adulthood?
Will Rachel suddenly realize that taking the job in Paris means moving her small daughter a continent away from daddy Ross, and calculate little Emma’s well-being into the equation? Will it dawn on Chandler, as he stands in the delivery room waiting for his adoptive child to be born, that he forgot to check out the quality of the school system in his new suburban neighborhood? Will Ross remember that he has another kid, by his first wife, somewhere in New York? Will Phoebe start having Sunday dinners with her estranged twin, Ursula?
Will Joey buy a real kitchen table?
Oh, please. This is “Friends” we’re talking about. “Friends,” that homage to endless adolescence, that fantasy world where no one has to grow up, not even when grown-up things happen to them.
Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), Monica (Courteney Cox Arquette), Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow), Ross (David Schwimmer), Chandler (Matthew Perry) and Joey (Matt LeBlanc) live in an alternate universe, one populated with Ralph Lauren clothes, designer coffeehouses and Pottery Barn furniture. One where Manhattan apartments are simultaneously big and affordable, where no tragedy occurs unless it is a vehicle to a punch line, and where mistakes may be repeatedly made, but none results in any of those icky “life lessons.”
Update: I was just checking TiVo to make sure that tonight’s “West Wing” is all queued for recording, when I discovered — much to my annoyance — it’s been preempted to make way for re-runs of last week’s “Friends” episodes. Looks like they’re trying to milk that hype for all it’s worth.
Maybe that’s what made the show so appealing to so many people, it masks reality- after all, it’s a tv show and shouldn’t be taken to seriously.