Nine years is a long time for any group of Friends to stick so closely together, but somehow the gang are still as daftly charming as ever. After the birth of Emma, Rachel comes to terms with being a mother surprisingly well. It's how everyone else deals with it that makes things interesting. Joey's accidental proposal creates weird friction between him and Ross, who breaks his finger throwing the show's first ever punch. Monica becomes desperately broody and attempts all manner of convoluted ways of persuading Chandler to father a child (unfortunately he inadvertently bankrupts them in a move to Tulsa!). Phoebe, on the other hand, occupies herself in the dating game, holding on to Mike (Paul Rudd) in the longest guest-star relationship anyone's ever had. Other surprise guests this year include Freddie Prinze Jr as an overly sensitive nanny (in the 200th episode), Christina Applegate as another of Rachel's sisters and Jeff Goldblum playing himself on the set of another movie on which Joey is trying to get a break.

As always the sparks occasionally fly between Rachel and Ross, while the others manage to strain their own relationships to the max. The real reason for watching now is the one-off kooky scenarios in which they--or rather Joey--get into. His endless dating finally sees him stuck for remembering if he's already slept with a girl; he botches an attempt at eyebrow waxing; and he manages to make Chandler think Monica's after a breast enhancement. --Paul Tonks

Series 9 of Friends begins with Rachel saying yes to Joey's "proposal" at the hospital. It shows Ross and Rachel looking after baby Emma while living together. There are certain memorable scenes in the series including Ross getting hooked on Maple Candy and all six of them trying to win the lottery. This series sees the introduction of Mike Hannigan (Paul Rudd) as Phoebe's boyfriend and Charlie Wheeler (Aisha Tyler) as Joey and then Ross' girlfriend. The season finale in Barbados is probably one of the best two-parters in the whole series. Also, Phoebe's old boyfriend from Series 1, David, the scientist guy (Hank Azaria), returns from Minsk. Definitely a DVD for a true Friends fan.

So we're reaching the end but that doesn't mean the jokes are getting worse and the storylines are fading away; it just gives more of an opportunity to show off the geat talent behind the scenes. This time there's a new baby, more proposals and
"The one with the Sharks". Again, it makes for absolutely fabulous viewing and it's totally possible to watch them for an entire day. Thoroughly pleased with my purchase and I'm definately going to complete the set!

I don't believe there is a Friends fan out there who doesn't love them all.

I found this series way after everyone else, bought the lot and watched it every night for AGES .... I never tired of it once.

This one? A treasure, like all of them.

As lots of people, I love Friends, and feel that Series 8, 9 and 10 take on a different tone to previous series. Series 9 and 10 in particular certainly focus more on the relationships, with many storylines coming to a head. Adding to that, the humour becomes if possible even better, and more surreal (if that can be applied to Friends!) then this is an almost perfect series. The only quibble I do have is the box set itself; perhaps I have been spoilt on other box sets such as Frasier, Lord of the rings etc, but the 3 flimsy disc sets of an individual, plain disk, is rather disappointing. That said, its not the box you'll be looking at, but enjoying 24 wonderful episodes.

I bought this edition as the price was incredible, and owning all other 8 of the series - also thought it would be good to save some space. Be warned though - the sleeves are in ultra thin cases with no real defined spine to define them, and the paper used is very cheap - looks a bit like a good colour copy from the original. Dipping inside, we now have 4 episodes on each side of the disc which is great - but although picture quality is good enough - the sound has been downgraded from the 448kbps HQ track on the previous sets (4 to a disc with extended versions) to 192kbps of the older DVDs.

Also, the subtitles are enabled by default so I had to turn them off for each new side or disc played.

Altogether disappointing as there was plenty of room for Warners to leave the audio at high quality.