The 'Friends' Reunion That Lost Its Nerve
Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, Jennifer Aniston, Kourtney Cox and Lisa Kudrow appear in Special Friends: The Reunion (with David Schwimmer).
Originally, nostalgia was understood as a loaded and tragic emotion - a disorder, even, a disruptive and painful longing for home. It comes from similar origins to pain-related terms such as fibromyalgia and analgesics. Memorizing with your college friends or telling funny stories about your children when they were growing up was not at all the same. And it certainly wasn't the same as a clip show.
What's funny about the Delayed Friends reunion special, now available after a one-year COVID delay on HBO Max, is that it flirts with an emotionally satisfying definition of melancholy. The six actors - you probably know them if you're reading this yet: Kourtney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer - return to talk about the show that made them all big stars Made, at least for the period between the fall of 1994 and the spring of 2004. Since then, his fate has changed a lot.
It is not easy to reach this reunion with a note of cynicism; It is almost mandatory. In a bid to hug and cry for all, The Hollywood Reporter has paid each of the six actors who landed exclusively to gross $ 2.5 million to $ 3 million. And it is not that without money they would have collected anyway, but privately. No, they say in particular that they have not all been in the same room together since the end of the show - except once (circumstances not specified). These are people who cry and hug and have paid a collective $ 15 million to spend at least this precious time together.
We see them wandering over the re-creation of their sets one by one (who, no, have not been sitting and waiting for the last 17 years). It seems that this really makes them emotional, both because they don't see each other that much and because places provoke emotions. LeBlanc remembers the lines written on Cox's table; Perry and Leblanc sit in their Chandler-and-Joy recliner; Kudrow and Schwimmer talk about a wooden outpost in Rachel and Monica's living room that was part of the original set but was removed as the shoot ensued. They go to the dressing room where they all notice that for the first few years they all dined together. They do not discuss why they did not have a meal together after that.
There is a sorrow that creeps around the edges of these segments, for the simple reason that it was 17 years ago. Well - it was over 17 years ago. It started 27 years ago. The longer it has run, the more it is almost twice finished. There is no reason to believe that they will all define this as the best period of their lives, but it is, of course, the most commercial success they have ever had, for almost anyone Will have any resume. And it was definitely an intense experience. But with that sadness, sometimes, the camp counselors or actors of a play have the raucous energy: the people you choose not to, but when the situation pulls you into the same class and again when it separates. Learns to be That gravity ceases.
The disappointing thing about the reunion is that it refuses to sit with this dynamic, which is often both sweet and funny, in favor of spending time on one thing absolutely no one needs: a genuine retrospective paranormal television The show is looking back at Friends. Instead of being prepared to accept that notes of sadness are a perfectly normal part of reminiscing, it becomes clear every time that the time for these actors is increasing in some way, and that it is completely familiar. Takes shelter in some: clip shows.
Friends: There have been plenty of opportunities to watch the end of the show, the DVD release of the show, the moment when the show came on Netflix, and the moment when the show came out on HBO Max. It has been written about, it has been reported, Think Peace has been written and rewritten. (See this young dung in 2003, writing about why Ross and Rachel should not end up together!)
Stories about how both Aniston and Perry were cast when they had other shows have been told and told and told. Not the way any of them were famous, but Cox was in that Bruce Springsteen video: told. The way Monica and Joey were originally going to be couple: told. While producers Kevin Bright, Marta Kaufman and David Crane offer some memories, they are largely the same memories they have offered repeatedly - and it's nobody's fault! How many times can you come up with new stories about a time in your life that goes back and forth every year? Anyone who cares enough about Friends to tune into the reunion has had many opportunities to listen to this stuff, though perhaps this is less so as things have moved towards streaming and away from the golden age of sitcom DVDs Are, in which there was commentary.
There is another problem. "Why do people keep hosting James Corden?" The answer is clearly "Some people like it when he hosts things," but he seems particularly in soul-sucking phone-in-mode when moderating conversations with the cast in front of an audience. Questions are rife, there is no naturalness, and he comes across as a person who reads cards for money only. Which, of course, is that (you can't expect surprising questions when you're the creator of the subject matter of the interview), but it seems like you're not just a card-reading person for the money, this skill. Hosting is for call.
And while the show's global reach is certainly impressive, and any creative person has the right to be proud to reach people around the world, a montage of people are saying that Friends Sound Bite Less Work from their locations in different countries Does. The universality of comedy and more as a solemn reminder that Friends were interested in the life of a fading little piece of New York.
Worse is a series of bizarre walk-ons by supporting cast members, including Maggie Wheeler (Janice), who is so briefly welcomed that she can only sit on the arm of the couch for so long that she catches her phrase. Could say once or twice. And get out. For Tom Selleck and Heaven's sake, Elliot Gould and Christina Pickle (!!) 's similarly vague glances do nothing to honor their contributions.
But the award for the most interesting drop-in goes to celebrities - including David Beckham and BTS - who are shown as saying they like friends, and sometimes naming an episode that makes them like. It seems the least thoughtful way to use a celebrity in this way until you see Justin Bieber and Cindy Crawford walking down the runway in old Friends costumes, among others.
We can all agree how unrealistic it is to hope that it will be something special that can focus on what is really different now than the end of the show - to focus on those things For which we could not show a week after the finale. in 2004. They were never going to talk about it, even though it's all true: the show's legacy only got more complicated because of its excessive whiteness and dated deployment of gay terror and transphobia that gained it new fans on streaming Has not stopped doing. . How do the people who make the show feel about the way they see it now? How do they feel that has affected other shows? How did it piggyback on other properties like Living Singles? How did their decision to negotiate their contracts together affect the ensemble cast? How does it feel to see projects fail even after years of nothing but success? Of course they were not going to talk about this stuff - of course they were not.
In fairness, however, the recent Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reunion bowed to the show's biggest controversy: Janet Hubert's sizzling exit as the first Aunt Viv and how hurt and angry she was in Will Smith, privately and publicly. Some found Smith's apology more satisfying than others, but at least they sat with its discomfort. Likewise, it would be perfectly fine for this group to say "I'm very uncomfortable now when I think of some comedy, and fortunately there is no way that a set of networked characters would be so white and straightforward in 2021 Will, "Or what do you have, but they just ... no. This is an option.
Nevertheless, on that set, there are moments in which resonance occurs. For example, you'll see that Aniston might not be able to beat in the Friends Trivia contest ... well, me. Or maybe you are, if you are or were fans of the show. Most artists will not. It is a good reminder that they were working; They were part of something they no longer think about as many others do. What do they think of those who are still superfans? Do they remember what it was like to be on the most popular comedy in the country? Is it relief It is possible.
Late in the reunion special, they agree that they will not wait so long to come together again. And in that moment, it's hard to doubt that they mean it, one of a kind, and that they can do it privately as well. But even at that moment, it is hard to remember every last day of camp, every last day on the job, every last day at school, and every other goodbye that we get closer to the circumstances. There are promises to always stay in touch. And if contact is lost, it is always promised not to let it happen again. Those promises are generally honest, and are usually not fulfilled. The cynic is that they are false from the beginning; The more realistic view is that once your life is away from people, it takes a lot of effort to turn it back towards them.
Perhaps it's all isolation and all the reunions that happen in real life, or maybe it's that I'm largely a contemporary of these characters - maybe that's why I'm more interested in personal reflections on the way the world revolves Has been for these actors for the last 14 years and how they look back on it with such a distance that I "once and for all, were they on a break?" interview questions. (The cast is strangely uninterested in this, by the way, given that I think they knew it was coming, which is another example of spoiling production choices.)
But if you want to hear Schwimmer again talking about how much he didn't like working with the monkey, then this particular will, as they say, is for you.