The End of an Era

Last Christmas Ben gifted me the DVD box-set of Friends—all 10 seasons, with extra footage on each episode. Needless to say, this gift had all my friends and my sisters wishing they had my husband buying their Christmas gifts.

Last week we finished the final episode. After watching one to two episodes a night (sometimes three or four on weekend nights), for the last 11 months, our journey with the whole Friends gang has come to an end. As Monica would say, “It is the end of an era.” How true it is. And so sad all at once. Nevertheless, I emerged from said era with some observations:

• Monica is more selfish in one-to-two episode doses than just once-a-week prime time airing.
• Phoebe is less annoying than I originally thought. The writers also gave her all the funny lines.
• Rachel’s wardrobe got sort of funky toward the end of Season 10.
• Chandler is the person I would like to hang out with.
• Joey’s jeans always made his rear end look big. Couldn’t wardrobe have handled this sticky situation?
• Ross is (in Ben’s words) “a total Patsy.”
• Saddest Observation: I can last through two episodes (approximately 50 minutes) however, anything longer than 50 minutes is met by my closed eyelids. Our 11-month Friends indulgence has conditioned me to fall asleep one hour into anything on the TV.
• Triumphant Realization: We plan to focus our TV-on-DVD efforts on such shows as The Office, Arrested Development, and other things that come in snippets of 20 to 25 minutes.