Did Rachel and Ross break up for a moment? What is Chandler Bing’s profession? And how many erogenous zones, according to Monika, are on a woman’s body? You don’t have to know the answers to the questions that are falling off the sleeves of the fans of the Friends series by far. But if you should know one thing about one of the most successful sitcoms of the 1990s and the turn of the millennium, it is that his works on all platforms together collected a hundred billion plays.
The dizzying number points to the series’ unfailing popularity about six friends from Manhattan who share life, success, loss and love. Friends has become a streaming evergreen that is being contested by online video libraries. Those who saw him in the 1990s return to him, and are discovered by those who were not yet born at the time. Not so surprisingly, the special called Friends: Together Again, or The One When They Reunited, broadcast by HBO on Thursday, attracted a lot of attention. Tensioning producers, what they will be about and what they will look like, has fueled further speculation about the possible return of Friends in another form. So are we wiser after watching it?
The monkey is to blame for everything
Friends’ actors spent a decade together in front of the cameras. During it, they became perhaps the most popular global celebrities. But as is well known, after the end of the series, their paths mostly parted. In some cases, to the relief of the participants, who, despite the television proximity, allegedly did not catch their eye. The tension between Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox was also interesting during the first minutes of the special, when the six slowly spread to the studio, where the production rebuilt the interiors of New York apartments and the Central Perk cafe for them.
The first spectator attraction was supposed to be the fact that after a long time, Friends will meet in public and remember the phenomenon of which they were a part. The relationships that developed between them, the chemistry, the filming, the episodes and moments in the story that twenty-five million viewers experienced with the television characters watching each episode.
Perhaps the most iconic moment, the kiss between Ross and Rachel, was first mentioned by Ross representative David Schwimmer. The show then inevitably returned to him in the next hour and forty minutes. And she revealed a secret that must have ignited all the fans. Which was also one of the few moments when the viewer really felt like he was watching the show he wanted. In which he looks behind the scenes, behind the scenes, where he learns something authentic about the origin of the series and its success. Why and how did a certain magic work between the group, which was imprinted in the story. Or when, on the contrary, it did not work…
Although wandering around the study and reminiscing together portrayed unplayed friendships, it was clear from the beginning that nothing fundamentally new or unexpected would penetrate the public. To some extent, because many viewers want to return to what they already know. The aim of the special, after all, was to strengthen the reputation and legend called Friends on the wings of nostalgia and tears. When a mandatory question came from the audience as to whether there was something they didn’t like during the filming, David Schwimmer played a nice answer in the car: He didn’t like the monkey Marcel.
The parade of enthusiastic millennials, professing how much the series meant to them, how he accompanied them through difficult life situations, how he taught them to feel, act, make their own friendships, was touching. But at the same time, the question arose as to whether he should not at the same time obscure the criticism from young viewers that the Friends are too “white”, too sexist, homophobic, too cruel to their body proportions.
Anything too personal that did not fit into a happy memory was also suppressed. Matthew Perry (the joker Chandler), who is the most shouted and whose life and addiction signed, was at one point openly talking about the agony he experienced whenever his jokes were not laughed at by a live audience. “I felt like I was going to die if I wasn’t funny – I was sweating and I had cramps,” he confides. Lisa Kudrow’s slightly embarrassing sympathy but sadness swept away.
A pavilion for 15 million
Formally, the special resembled a kind of pavilion. In addition to wanderings between the scenes, there was a quiz about how well Friends know Friends, scenes from selected episodes, rehearsals of old scripts, talks by producers Marta Kauffman and David Crane, confessions of familiar faces from actress Reese Witherspoon to footballer David Beckham, who knew that she feels like Monica.
The actors of the supporting roles, who were an important part of the series, flashed as reprehensibly miniature. On the contrary, an incomprehensibly larger space was given to a fashion show attended by Justin Bieber like a potato. A large segment was also occupied in the conversation: with six actors sitting on the sofa in front of the fountain, in which they perform in the opening jingle, he was led by the indistinct British comedian James Corden. His presence was a mystery and a bit of a frog at the spring.
In the end, he spoke more emptyly than the actors themselves, and the conversation on the couch sometimes seemed like a tedious duty with some funny moments played by David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc. Otherwise, it looked more like each of the interviewees was watching a mental watch and recalculating in his head the $ 2.5 million he had received for his participation.
And now to the main question: So is there any chance that the Friends will return? And does anyone even want it? If we are to believe Lisa Kudrow’s words, then certainly not. Neither the film nor the series can imagine. The story closed beautifully and there is no need to spoil the nice ends of the characters. At least all the actors answered where they think their characters are now – what lives they live.
On the other hand, we live in an age of remakes, sequels, prequels, extraction of proven brands. Film and television are recycled and returned more than ever. And Friends is a strong brand that would naturally offer a new beginning. The screenwriters wrote the series about a period of life when friends are family. The period ends when they have their own families. Now is exactly the time for the children to go to university and the parents to be able to deal with themselves again.
Officially, the special was to ceremoniously launch the launch of the HBO Max streaming platform, which took over the lucrative Friends from Netflix, and attract the attention of new subscribers (it was delayed by a pandemic). In places, however, it acted more like a test to see if it was still possible to enter the same river twice. After all, Lisa Kudrow passed the ball to the screenwriters and producers, who care much more than the tastes of the actors.
But there is no indication that Marta Kauffman has changed her mind. Eight years ago, she was told in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine that even the film sequel would only tarnish the series’ reputation: “We would only put six actors together, but the heart would be gone. I don’t know how it would benefit us. The show is doing well, people love it. “
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