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[Odler]

May 9, 2004

About 51 million Americans (more than 1 out of 6) tuned in, at some point, on Thursday night, to catch up with the grand finale of Friends, the sitcom that ran a 10-year course on NBC. This is a staggering statistics considering the average American nowadays has a choice of 120 TV channels.

This number is the result of the hype initiated and maintained by NBC, all throughout the season, and that spilled onto the other networks. CNN, ABC, Fox had their own end-of-Friends newscasts. Oprah had an entire show dedicated to it. In America, few escaped the event of the day.

The last episode of Friends was not a letdown like the last Seinfeld was. The writers and producers did an excellent thing: they made sure that it looked like a Friends episode, not a docudrama played by the actors of Friends.

Should it be reminded to the 229 millions of us who did not bother to watch, what the twists of the plot were and where all the loose ends tied? Phoebe, married to Mike, was not a topic for the finale. Monica and Chandler, moving to the suburbs, attended the birth of their adopted child, who turned out to be a pair of twins. They did not know about it! Joey will remain in his apartment, and live his bachelor life, but we know that the actor and the character will move to L.A to pursue their career, in a spin-off named Joey. Finally, Rachel and Ross got together.

The last episode of Friends was funny. The funniest situation is not about the fact that Monica and Chandler did not know they were having two children, while they ?only ordered one?. This twist looks contrived.

The funniest part was probably a call from Phoebe to Rachel informing her that she had to get off the plane bound to Paris, because of a dysfunction of the aircraft?s left filange. Of course, in this day and age, of aviation terrorism, in the real, Rachel and Phoebe would have been jailed for the disturbance. But, in the last of Friends, the call served the plot. The airline decided to add ?loads of extra filanges on board?, which gave time to Ross to catch up with Rachel. (NB: there is no such a thing as a filange.)

Question: Paris being at $500 and six hours from New York, why did Ross give himself so much trouble trying to catch up with Rachel before she leaves for a job in the City of Lights? Would it not be simpler that he visit her next weekend with some flowers? She would come back with him; she has a return ticket?

Anyway, for a couple that has been so many times on, and so many times off, during the last ten years, how many weeks do you think their love will last before they go again ?on a break?? That is the reality outside of Friends.

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(OdlerRobert Jeanlouie, Sunday, May 09, 2004)