FRIENDS maniac

Last week I completed 10 rounds of 10 seasons of FRIENDS. Quite a landmark achievement! Roughly calculating the total time spent considering 21 minutes of each episode and 24 episodes in a season,

10 * 10 * 24 * 21 = 50400 minutes or 840 hours or 35 days.

The staggering figure is over a 3 year period since Jan 2006. It was my 3-2 at BITS. I was averse to sitcoms before this. Even now, any other series doesn't elicit the same amount of enthusiasm as FRIENDS does. Getting used to the new characters is awkward having been accustomed to the 'Sooper Six' and I tend to draw out comparisons between the characters which is quite unfair on my part.

After ending each round, I would tell myself to stop this addictive behaviour, the results of which have been devastating since the "break time" between successive rounds has only kept decreasing till now.

So, why this craze?
One thing is for sure - Easy access. I secured all 10 seasons while I was in BITS. So no need to hunt for them now. Youtube does have it but in bits and pieces which is quite a mood killer when you want to watch a sitcom.
Useless TV programs - Entertainment on TV has become horrendous oflate. Nothing more terrible than poor 'Dada' forcing to judge dancing girls to cheerlead his team. What a waste of intelligence, time and money! And our NEWS channels continue to make an overkill of whatever story they are able to get.

Small pockets of entertainment with a good dose of meaningful humour served by FRIENDS is a major highlight. Moreover, watching a series just once doesn't give you the exposure to appreciate all the jokes. This is quite true as every time I watch the repeated episodes I happen to listen to a new joke that I haven't understood or missed before.

So, gearing for the eleventh round? Of course!