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May 06, 2004
A VERY SPECIAL "FRIENDS"
Like most of America, I suppose, I watched the final episode of 'Friends' tonight. I haven't watched an episode in about six or seven years; I had no idea of most of the plot lines. But I do like to pretend that I am up on cultural events and media history, so I turned it on. I didn't love the show as a classic, as many did; I didn't share the disdain for it that others had. I enjoyed it for the brain candy it was.
I suppose part of my fondness for it originally (well, besides the weekly promise of Jennifer Anniston in tight outfits) was because the first year the show aired, I was living in DC -- and just about everyone in my office (there were only 20 of us, everyone knew everyone's friends and significant others) took to calling my roommate and I "Joey and Chandler." Since my roommate at the time was my Italian party-hound buddy Joe, I assumed that meant I was Chandler... and I figured that since people were making the comparison, I should find out whether I was flattered or not. (As it turned out, there were worse characters to be compared to.) But, over time, especially after I moved to Boston and then to New York, I stopped watching the show -- first the original episodes, then the reruns.
For me, the good thing about final episodes is that you pretty much know what's going to happen. Everything works out, you know it will... so the only thing left is to see how the writers get them there. (That's me - always observing the writing first and foremost, no matter what we're talking about.) And the writers on this show had a tough job; everyone knew Ross & Rachel were going to end up together, but they had to write enough tension and uncertainty to last 70 minutes (okay, 43 minutes of show and the rest was commercials). And I thought they did okay. They made their fans happy, and that's ultimately what their purpose was, wasn't it?
It's not fair to judge any show by its finale episode - the writers and actors have a job to do that's outside the parameters of the show's usual style or scope. And despite a little bit of gratuitous schmaltz, I think they wrapped this one up well. And the last line -- Jennifer Anniston asking everyone if they wanted to go grab coffee, and Matthew Perry answering, "Sure... where?" -- was the ultimate self-knowing nod. (Kudos to the writer who penned that one. I'm a fan of in-jokes.)
Will Friends go down in TV history in the pantheon reserved for Lucy, Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, M*A*S*H, Cheers, Cobsy and Seinfeld? Maybe; probably not. But it was harmless entertainment for ten years -- and was a respite from the garbage of reality TV for its last few years. For that, I'm grateful. And despite its shortcomings, I was glad to be there to bid the Friends goodbye tonight.
