f l o o d

'Friends' No More

i didn't watch the "friends" series finale, unlike the rest of america.

why? because i thought the show lost most of its funny after the 1st season. interestingly enough, i found an opinion that matched mine the most in an espn.com article.

The first season of "Friends" was the closest anyone ever came to capturing Generation X on TV. The characters discussed misunderstandings from "Three's Company," made jokes about "Joanie Loves Chachi," even hummed the theme from "The Odd Couple." They were constantly fending off nitpicking parents and nosy neighbors. They busted each other's chops, made constant wisecracks, ripped each other's latest boyfriends and girlfriends. Some of them had a little money, others were pretty much broke, and there was always tension between the haves and the have-nots. And they were always happiest just sitting around and doing nothing.

To everyone's eternal horror, "Friends" had evolved into a Chick Show (the dreaded cousin to the Chick Flick). Episodes revolved around Ross and Rachel's on-again/off-again romance, or Monica dating Tom Selleck, or some B-list celebrity making a cameo. Meanwhile, Matthew Perry was losing weight at warp speed and taking all the comedy with him. Suddenly, male characters were confessing "I love you" while the studio audience went bonkers -- just a room full of females shrieking in delight, like one of those Oprah episodes where Oprah gives away blenders to the entire audience. When Ross and Rachel started having problems and bickering for entire episodes, that was it for me. What was this, the Lifetime Network?

once they all started becoming successful, the show just wasn't as fun for me anymore. though i suppose in a way it followed the progression of generation x from slackers to corporate zombies. the show sold out just like most of gen x did, so it maintained it's success. read the article. there's some good stuff in there. i don't agree with him about "the OC" though. i've seen a couple episodes and it seems pretty ridiculous to me, though this guy's point seems to be that it's good because it's ridiculous. maybe my standards for television are just too high. oh wait...it's tv. i shouldn't have any standards at all. it's not called the idiot box for nothing.