Friends: The Reunion Review
I was seven years old when NBC’s Friends aired its final episode. Like so many other late Millennials and early Gen-Zers, I found love for one of the last truly huge sitcoms years after its finale through streaming. Since then, I have watched the 236 episodes of the opener of Must See TV around ten times through. Something that I think a younger audience who watched Friends years after its initial run is able to appreciate about it that the audience of its original run may not is how nostalgic it is. Of course, those who watched the show back in the 90s and the early 2000s who have returned to the show will also recognize the nostalgia, although, they have already seen the show – their first impression was made years ago.
For those who stumble onto the mega-hit that is Friends for the first time in the 2010s or even the 2020s now (wow, that feels weird to say), the show acts as a time capsule of life before peak TV. It gives a glimpse of crew neck sweatshirts before they were thought of as vintage, coffee shops where not everyone is there pretending to do work on their laptop, and ultimately it shows that time in your life where your friends are your family, (the quick pitch of the show referenced by co-creator, David Crane), which is something that regardless of the decade, people can relate to.
When it was teased and then officially announced that all six cast members of the show were going to do a reunion, fans were chomping at the bit. I am not sure there was a clear consensus amongst fans on what to really expect, but it didn’t matter. People just wanted to see Rachel Green, Monica Geller, Phoebe Buffay, Joey Tribbiani, Chandler Bing, and Ross Geller again. More importantly though, seeing Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer together was the real draw. The characters of Friends are all amazing, but the six actors, the real-life human beings that brought them to life, they are the reason the show works, and they are the best part, and the only necessary part of Friends: The Reunion. Overall, the reunion works, but it isn’t without its missteps, like focusing on anything other than the six actors of the show. When it veers away from both the intimate and humorous moments that the cast shares together, that is when it seems like production felt that more is more, where in this case, less is definitely more.
There was never a moment in the reunion where I found myself unhappy with what I was watching, but there are those substantial pieces of “content” (ugh, I loathe that word) that I was longing to get back to whenever there was a transition to a side bit. The anecdotes from fans across the world are nice and seem sincere, but don’t really do anything as far as elevate the material. Everyone who has watched Friends knows that it is a comforting show and can put a smile on your face, attributes of the show that were echoed by people interviewed for the reunion from different corners of the world.
I thought that the inclusion of several side characters was a nice touch, but it didn’t really add anything because of how limited their appearances were. I could have guessed that the show was a pivotal time for James Michael Tyler, who played Gunther, which is what he confirmed in his 15 seconds of screen time.
James Corden as host did okay. He didn’t hurt the occasion, but also didn’t do anything that I felt proved him necessary. Because of the inclusion of a host, production surely felt that much of the special had to be run through him and that interview style, which is not what people are here to see. Admittedly, the fashion show that ensued was comical and it was nice to see the likes of Halloween costume, Spud-nik, and fan-favorite, the Holiday Armadillo.
The input from co-creators, Mara Kauffman and David Crane was beneficial, but I did want more. I felt that there was not much to be learned from their so-called, “look behind the curtain” as any moderate fan of the show who has done their own research of it would have known many of the things they highlighted.
The best part of the reunion was the actual reunion part. The simplicity of having six friends together that worked from 1994-2004 worked again in 2021. Seeing each cast member return to the set of the show was magical. The glimmer in their eyes, whether it be the creative juices flowing back or the tears of endearment, showed how much this reunion meant to them as well. While I don’t think all of the added antics of the special bog down the entirety of it too much, in a perfect world, the hour and 43-minute runtime would stay the same, but it would consist of the six actors in a room talking and that’s it. In the special, David Schwimmer says, “No one was going through what we were going through,” and this fact is why it is so captivating to hear the six real-life friends talk. It was nice to learn about everyone’s first impressions like how Schwimmer acknowledged that when he saw LeBlanc for the first time, he realized why he was missing out on roles for so many years before (LeBlanc being such a hunk), or that Aniston could remember exactly what Cox and Kudrow were wearing.
Reliving big moments of the show like when it was revealed that Chandler and Monica had slept together in London, IN LONDON?! (as Joey would put so eloquently), or the first kiss shared between Ross and Rachel, which confirmed by Schwimmer and Aniston, was in fact, their first kiss at all – something that either party may not have wanted to be the case, was a real treat. That scene of the first kiss between Ross and Rachel is shown by Schwimmer and Aniston reading the lines in a table read fashion intercut with the original scene. This is a high point of the special. It takes you back to that feeling you got the first time you saw the “would they”, “won’t they” relationship be solidified to at least a partial “would”.
When it comes down to it, if you liked Friends you will like this special. Could they have cut a little deeper? Sure, but as it stands, they kept things just a bit deeper than surface level, much like the show did. Unfortunately, this is our last look into the lives of our six dear friends, all but confirmed by all of them, however, it is a nice treat regardless.
Jaymen Neff-Strickland, @1jaymen on everything