Obsessive, Compulsive or Complete?

So last night I was mentioning to some friends how I've managed to watch nearly ten seasons of FRIENDS since June 16th. Once one gets past the question of why anyone would watch all 260some episodes, the bigger observation of the group was that I am obsessive compulsive. I guess just that I'm posing this question and not letting go proves their point but nonetheless I got a little offended.


It's not like I've not done this before. Last summer I vascillated about reading the Harry Potter books and so procrastinated fulfilling my long time plan of waiting to read all the books until the seventh one came out. This was a good plan until the promotional noise became so deafening that I briefly decided that I didn't care if I knew whether Harry lived or not, I was prepared to care less. Except that I had read the first book a few years earlier and had enjoyed it and had liked the movies. My mom had even given me the fourth book in hardcover and although I attempted to simply start there, it wasn't really a good idea to start in the middle of a series (Star Wars notwithstanding).


So I decided to systematically read all the books in the series but I'd have to do so quickly before news of the ending reached my pop culture saturated ears. I have to admit that I enjoyed the experience. Having the entire series at my fingertips and one volume as my constant companion for weeks was pretty cool. Once I'd bought the 7th volume I was practically speed reading though (although admittedly there are sections in the seventh book that deserve to be sped read) until the last day when I was 50 pages from the end, I actually was so excited that I took a cab home from work so that I could finish that much quicker. OK, some compulsion going on.


I ended up reading all seven volumes in 29 days which just goes to show me that I can do anything that I put my mind to, if putting my mind to something means merely accomplishing it by walking into a bookstore.


Anyway, I've always had a fondness for FRIENDS and over the years have bought all the seasons up and, alternately, gotten some seasons as presents. Not sure which ones anymore but it doesn't really matter. I vowed that 'someday' I would start watching the entire series in chron order. But like many people, my library is filled with many movies that have never been opened. I'm not sure I understand this. It seems like hoarding to some I suppose but it's also cool to have a collection. Granted, I think it should be a collection one actually watches but that's for rainy weekends. Or retirement. In New York there are always things to do and so we accummulate and actually watching our collection gets put off until.. 'someday'.


But after marathoning Sex and the City and LOST earlier this year, I decided to tackle Friends this summer. I was in a bad mood and Friends makes me laugh. So sue me.


Once I started though I couldn't and didnt' want to stop. I would lay for six hours or more on my bed watching disc after disc. At some point it became kind of obsessive - to see if I could get through the entire series.. and then at some point I wanted to be complete and see if the entire series actually hangs together narritively (it does.. there are a few lapses and leaps that the show makes but so much of it is so good that their mistakes are forgivable). After obsession and completion, then a sort of competition kicks in and sprinter-like I wanted to get to the finish line.



Currently I am about a dozen episodes away from the end of the tenth and final season. I will miss the shows when I finish sometime in the next week (if I wasn't hung up with work and other committments this weekend, I could finish tonight dammit! LOL) and the experience is a kind of rush. And I suppose that it's akin to the kind of intensity that one feels when one decides to read all the works of Jane Austen or Stephen King or Shakespeare. OK I'm not comparing the Friends creators with these creators but I do feel, like them, Friends is one of those pieces of art that will endure as a portrait of life in the end years of the 20th century and the start of the 21st.


For me I guess the appeal of the show has always been the wish fulfillment of having a group of people that you're close to, a family that you go through things with. I guess that's not really reflective of reality but it sure is a nice thought. That not just one but five people will be there for you is a pretty appealing feeling and in my book that's neither obsessive or competitive, but a component for me to feel complete.