The One About Matthew Perry Netflix Documentary Review
The Surface Skim of Matthew Perry
The three-part documentary series The One About Matthew Perry offers a fawning, surface-level biography of the late Friends star, relying heavily on childhood photographs and home footage while avoiding deeper inquiries into his life. Directed by Emmy Award-winner Mary Robertson—whose past projects include Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV and The Fall of Diddy—the streaming project stretches back to the actor’s childhood. It is presented primarily by his half-sister, Mia Perry Bowick, alongside longtime friends David Pressman and Roger Castillo.
Matthew Perry died of a drug overdose in 2023 at the age of 54. The documentary, now streaming on Netflix, pitches itself as a celebration of his life but follows a well-worn biographical path that avoids offending its subjects. For fans who read Perry’s 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, the series offers very few revelations.
The Absence of the Friends Cast
None of Perry’s primary castmates from Friends—Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, or Matt LeBlanc—participate in the docuseries. A former girlfriend appears past the two-hour mark to reveal that Perry had been unfaithful to her for a year, marking one of the few critical disclosures in the production.
The series spends little time on the actual sitcom that made Perry a global icon. It highlights a quote from the actor recalling how he asked God to make him famous above all else, an invocation that materialized with his role as Chandler Bing. Throughout the three hours, other talking heads repeat that Perry was the comedic genius of his generation.
Struggles With Addiction and Therapy
The documentary attributes Perry’s addiction to the opiates prescribed following a jet ski accident, only introducing his lifelong struggle with depression in the final episode as the context for his use of ketamine. The production details his near-fatal colon perforation caused by opiate use, his successful advocacy work for addiction recovery, and his romantic relationships.
While the narrative lacks novel insights, the project includes staggering statistics regarding his decades-long battle with substance dependence. Perry reportedly spent more than $7 million across 15 separate stints in rehab, spent 30 years in therapy, and attended approximately 6,000 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.