All About the Friends Reunion you need to know
On HBO Max, the actors of Friends reunited after 17 years.
Once upon a time, tens of millions of viewers tuned in to the same TV show at the same time every week. That's a staggering number of people all focused on the same story, intermittently broken by advertising for fast food and four-door automobiles. If you had an opinion about a TV show you had just finished that you needed to share with strangers back then, your only option was to hang out at a bus stop and ask people what they thought of Friends.
Friends is a popular television show, and even its cringe-worthy heteronormative jokes are quickly forgotten. The show was best described as an urban slapstick romantic comedy. Sarcastic zingers, pricey haircuts, and really good winter coats dominated the presentation.
Friends was, at its worst, a patronizing Baby Boomer fantasy about obnoxious young white individuals in their twenties who enjoyed a life of leisure and minor strife. These dingbats can hang out and not do much thanks to the invincible, ever-growing economy of 1990s America—steered with confidence by the progeny of the men and women who defeated Nazism.
The Friends theme song was a catchy soft rock tune that began with the line "So no one told you life was going to be this way." Nobody warned me that life would be like this.
Joey (LeBlanc), an actor, and horndog were present, and you just knew he had some skeletons in his closet. Chandler (Perry) worked at a desk job and was a caustic one-liner lobber. Chandler was, in some respects, a living Twitter account a decade or more before the network ever existed. The show's secret hero, quirky nonconformist Phoebe (Kudrow), came next. Monica (Cox), Ross's sister, is an overachieving, uptight nag with culinary ambitions, and Rachel (Aniston) is a princess-turned-waitress.
Each episode followed their dating, working, and living mishaps in New York City, the finest city on the planet. They had employment, but they didn't seem to put in any effort. The sextet spent their days and evenings chillaxin' in coffee shops and big flats, and you'd never think that this generation, and those who came after them, would confront a future of war, crippling debt, and internecine political struggle if you watched it.
Now, The six middle-aged stars of the enormously famous Gen X sitcom, which aired on NBC from 1994 to 2004, sat on a couch in front of the iconic fountain featured in each episode's memorable opening and took questions from James Corden, Hollywood's favorite softie.
If you like the show, I'm sure this two-hour special was more than enough — a delightful, just-sentimental-enough trip down memory lane. It was like attending a high school reunion with incredibly wealthy old classmates who can afford costly skin treatments and trainers and look terrific if you were in your late teens and early twenties when Friends first aired. The Grim Reaper was the only one who wasn't on the couch.
The amiable actor's members spent what appears to be an unproductive afternoon reminiscing on the series' rebuilt set, playing trivia games, and watching vintage blooper videos. Eliot Gould and Christina Pickles were great to watch. But Justin Bieber unexpectedly appearing at a Friends fashion catwalk show? That was fine, as well. My favorite Justin Bieber is the strange Bieber.
The Friends reunion served as a stark reminder that life is divided into three distinct stages. Phase one: I'm going to stay young for the rest of my life! Phase two: How did I get this old? And now it's time for the final phase: I'm going to sleep for the rest of my life. I suppose if sturdy silver fox Joey Tribbiani can gracefully approach phase two, so can I.
The gathering was clearly held during the pandemic, and the live crowd is veiled and socially isolated.
However, because Jennifer Aniston, Matthew Perry, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow, and David Schwimmer had chemistry as an ensemble 17 years ago when Friends ended, they still have chemistry this seeming rush job did not affect what was on screen.
The entire production was far more authentic than anticipated. I was expecting monosyllabic comments from celebs wearing sunglasses and sitting on old-fashioned money bag thrones. What I got was a group of incredibly accomplished people who have spent their whole adult life in the public glare and are still surprised by it all.
The show's continued popularity is a testament to the show's universal idea (both Star Wars and Lord of the Rings are about friends and chosen families) and the unique historical period during which it aired. It was one of the final great sitcoms to be produced by one of the three major networks.
Friends is a cultural colossus that spans two centuries. One of its huge feet is planted in an age before the internet, while the other is placed in the future, populated by fans who weren't even alive when the show first aired but discovered it owing to the internet, wifi, and streaming services.
Even if it appeared like everyone was watching (and many people were), Friends was not for everyone. Here's the rundown, in case you've forgotten or never cared: There was unlucky in love sadsack Ross (Schwimmer), a paleontologist whose wife divorced him after he came out of the closet. This story point, I believe, was meant to be foresightful at the time, but it was always played for laughs.
Was the show well-rounded? No, it's not true. Not in the least. I'd be amazed if there were more than 20 persons of color with lines in 236 episodes in ten years. Between 1994 and 2004, racism was mysteriously cured in a dimension called Friends.
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