News just in: Friends still sucks

Friends. That nineties American dream of tediously kooky white people drinking coffee and spewing a relentless barrage of smug one-liners just won't go away. As if constant repeats and threats of a film (surely more likely now that Sex and the City made the leap) aren't bad enough the cast keep trying to have careers outside of their sterile little bubble. Lisa Kudrow was the only one I liked, and she's secured an indie film afterlife for herself. The gawky one now wants to be in Lost, the stupid one had his own (thankfully doomed) spin-off for a while and the one with the hairdo spends her life on various high profile chat-shows and press junkets telling the media to leave her alone as she's a very private person.

But the really evil one was Ross. Ross. To be spat with all of the venom of Pauline from the League of Gentlemen. Ross. Not content to boil in the ooze of his own shitness he's now doing serious damage to the career of Simon Pegg, delightfully funny star of Spaced, and latterly two godawful films with David Schwimmer - Big Nothing, in which they co-starred, and the truly witless Run Fatboy Run, which Schwimmer directed. Someone needs to stop Ross before he brings down other British sitcom stars with his ham-fisted comedy ways.

One thing particularly struck me today as I watched the Corrie omnibus (bit of a leap, stay with me). Harish Patel, who gave an unwatchable and inexplicable performance in Run Fatboy Run as the supposedly comedy landlord is currently giving a sweet, funny turn as Umed in Corrie alongside the constantly insane Dev. Who's to blame for this discrepancy in Patel's performance? Ross. And proof, if it were needed, of the superiority of Corrie over Friends any day of the week.