Hi! (first post to this NG)
The last 10 days I've hardly done anything but being ill and watching Friends from the pilot to episode 813 (thanks, Internet). I've only watched occasionally (<10 eps) before. And it was the badly dubbed German version then -- I better understand English than I speak & write it, sorry.
It may be just because I'm still a bit febrile [1], but I have this strange feeling down in my stomach that whenever Friends will end [2] Rachel and Ross should, no, _must_ end up together. [Ally-McBeal-syndrome?] I don't really care what relationships [3] are going to happen until then, but _please_ let them make it. If you watch all the episodes in a row like I did, you really get the feeling that there has to be still something, even if the authors let them regularly say that there are no feelings left or to come up again. Maybe there should be a dramatic incident, like a disease, accident [4] and/or death in family (I'd prefer Ben to die or move) or the opportunity for a job in a different city, to get R&R together again. Well, although the baby in real life would be big enough [5]. Let's see what's gonna happen.
Btw, in an appropriate occasion I'd like to hear Ross say: "Don't let us ever have a break again." (or whatever would be correct Ross-English grammar).
Footnotes: [1] Friends made me have tears in my eyes while watching TV the first (R&R break-up), second (Ross saying Rachel at his wedding) and third (Chandler's proposal) time. The Ross-says-Rachel thing is IMHO the greatest declaration of love in TV history. Missed chance. [2] Hopefully there'll be at least a 9th season, but I don't want any character nor actor to be replaced or removed. [3] Please no Joey & Rachel. It doesn't feel neither right nor realistic. Mona is IMHO to be dropped soon, as Ross isn't serious about their relationship, additionally she's too perfect for him. There'll never be a Phoebe & Ross, there'd be a Phoebe & Rachel before. [4] I assume, a plane crash would still not be a good thought in the US? [5] Somehow it feels a bit artificial, too. Like J. Aniston got pregnant and it had to be included somehow into the show. Thank authors anyway that not Tag or some unintroduced character is the father.
Christoph
P.S.: My POV regarding the "We were on a break!" stuff is that Ross if he was really drunk should have said, when Rachel asks him how Chloe was: "I don't remember." Thus it's not been just the alcohol. I'm only with Rachel anyway because she says that she'd expected this behaviour from anyone but Ross, which made him a different person in her eyes.