The Friends Reunion special

[Azrael]

Not sure I'll watch this, will just depress fuck out of me. 

[Ketchup]

Well this is perfect timing as me and a friend are launching our Friends podcast next week. You can subscribe to it here https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watching-friends/id1568860982

 

I think our first episode may be on this actually though, even though we’ve been working on the main show since around Feb.

 

The Matthew Perry stuff. Go and watch his Graham Norton interview from 2016, he had the same slur then although I don’t really remember it when watching his play in London of the same year. But yeah the editing of the trailers (ever notice how American tv always subtitles or cuts anyone with even a hint of an accent or slightly different to understand?) makes it look worse than I hope it actually is.

 

The rest of the cast do look old too. I’m guessing partially less makeup compared to their actual filming roles and just many of us having watched a 25 year old show on Netflix yesterday and then seeing this huge time jump.

 

As for the actual show I don’t expect much from it, the celebs, who cares about Justin beiber, like really what does he have to add? Anything else we probably already know. I’d love to have seen a one off special, either a thanks giving get together or going away on holiday to ‘catch up’ even if I think it’d be difficult to pull off and get right. Of course I’ll still be watching but I’m not sure what HBO or anyone else are really expecting it to be beyond getting viewers in to wonder what it’ll be.

[Gabe]

2 minutes ago, Ketchup said:

Well this is perfect timing as me and a friend are launching our Friends podcast next week. You can subscribe to it here https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watching-friends/id1568860982

 

I think our first episode may be on this actually though, even though we’ve been working on the main show since around Feb.

 

The Matthew Perry stuff. Go and watch his Graham Norton interview from 2016, he had the same slur then although I don’t really remember it when watching his play in London of the same year. But yeah the editing of the trailers (ever notice how American tv always subtitles or cuts anyone with even a hint of an accent or slightly different to understand?) makes it look worse than I hope it actually is.

 

The rest of the cast do look old too. I’m guessing partially less makeup compared to their actual filming roles and just many of us having watched a 25 year old show on Netflix yesterday and then seeing this huge time jump.

 

As for the actual show I don’t expect much from it, the celebs, who cares about Justin beiber, like really what does he have to add? Anything else we probably already know. I’d love to have seen a one off special, either a thanks giving get together or going away on holiday to ‘catch up’ even if I think it’d be difficult to pull off and get right. Of course I’ll still be watching but I’m not sure what HBO or anyone else are really expecting it to be beyond getting viewers in to wonder what it’ll be.

 

I think the point about Perry is that his slur, even if he's had it for a number of years, isn't right by definition and is obviously a manifestation of his various troubles over the years - and he just generally doesn't look healthy (even if he wasn't slurring).

 

As for what HBO want, probably to hopefully drive some people to sign up to HBO Max to watch the episodes again, I guess.

[Festoon]

9 hours ago, ryodi said:

 

I agree with all of this. Friends also had the Notting Hill problem of whitewashing the area it was set in, I think Aisha Taylor was the first black character in show when her character appeared in Season 9. But that was a problem with the creators who did the same thing in their next show The Class. 

 

It's sad what has happened to Matthew Perry. I loved both of his short lived shows Studio 60 and Mr Sunshine but both were a very long time ago. 

 

He was good but underused on The West Wing too.

[McFly]

It's a real shame to see Perry, as he his, did he have anorexia or bulimia at one point too? That can cause as much damage longterm as drugs/booze. I

 

Seeing what the women have done to themselves and plastic surgery in general is way sadder to me. Why would anybody let alone somebody whose beautiful, male or female, stick horrible shit In their face? there's plenty evidence it doesn't work, so why?

 

[Festoon]

23 minutes ago, McFly said:

It's a real shame to see Perry, as he his, did he have anorexia or bulimia at one point too? That can cause as much damage longterm as drugs/booze. I

 

Seeing what the women have done to themselves and plastic surgery in general is way sadder to me. Why would anybody let alone somebody whose beautiful, male or female, stick horrible shit In their face? there's plenty evidence it doesn't work, so why?

 

 

Unfortunately, casual botox is all the rage. I know people in their 20s getting it in the belief that they will never develop wrinkles if their skin can't move.

[disperse and recoagulate]

Matthew Perry looks like my alcoholic father-in-law.

[IcEBuRN]

On 20/05/2021 at 15:06, Isaac said:

Matthew Perry does not look like he is in a place where he should be being put on TV, sadly:

 

 

Wow. Perry looks like he's a geriatric! Was he smashing the drugs hard? 

 

Courtney Cox doesn't look like the same person. At. All. The other 4 have held up well. 

[Timmo]

10 minutes ago, IcEBuRN said:

Wow. Perry looks like he's a geriatric! Was he smashing the drugs hard? 

 

Courtney Cox doesn't look like the same person. At. All. The other 4 have held up well. 

Jennifer Aniston looks the worst of the girls, proper uncanny valley vibes from her.

 

Joey has aged the best, you can tell he's comfortable in his own skin and isn't trying to look 28.

[McFly]

1 hour ago, Festoon said:

 

Unfortunately, casual botox is all the rage. I know people in their 20s getting it in the belief that they will never develop wrinkles if their skin can't move.

Man that's sad.

 

Seeing what the girls on Geordie shore, especially Charlotte and Chloe, did to themselves is so depressing.

 

As for Perry, he had an eating disorder aswell didn't he? Which is just as bad and longterm drug abuse for your health.

 

Women actors seem so susceptible to the age = career death trajectory, that it leads to all sorts of surgery madness. Better to look old than a freak.

[IcEBuRN]

I've often assumed it's a slippery slope. A little nip here, a tuck there. Then you lose objectivity and the surgeries pile up and you end up looking like a freak.

[SeanR]

I saw this the other day

 

 

[Festoon]

2 hours ago, McFly said:

Man that's sad.

 

Seeing what the girls on Geordie shore, especially Charlotte and Chloe, did to themselves is so depressing.

 

As for Perry, he had an eating disorder aswell didn't he? Which is just as bad and longterm drug abuse for your health.

 

Women actors seem so susceptible to the age = career death trajectory, that it leads to all sorts of surgery madness. Better to look old than a freak.

 

Yeah, look at this for creepiness. https://www.sisuclinic.com/

 

All designed with a lovely medical feel, so you can feel reassured as you brutalise your face.

 

Edit: Jesus the girl on the right. Can't be more then 24, right? 

 

[SeanR]

47 minutes ago, IcEBuRN said:

I've often assumed it's a slippery slope. A little nip here, a tuck there. Then you lose objectivity and the surgeries pile up and you end up looking like a freak.

Spoiler

 

"this isn't even my final form..."

[Festoon]

7 minutes ago, SeanR said:

I saw this the other day

 

 

 

So, her son, right? It's a weirdly written headline.

[Majora]

Joey and Phoebe look the best, probably because they look most natural. Not sure what's happened to Ross, I was watching The People Vs OJ Simpson recently and he looked totally fine in that but looks quite odd here. That show was only filmed a few years ago but he looks significantly older now. Most of Jennifer Anniston's face looks frozen in place now.

[Jammy]

Courtney Cox has walked back some of her fillers/botox and looks better now than she did a few years ago.

[schmojo]

This thread feels like a particularly mean-spirited issue of Grazia.

[hmm]

Someone mentioned Matthew Perry's appearance on Graham Norton in 2016 and that he was already in a state back then but I watched a clip of it on YouTube earlier and he was perfectly lucid and seemed healthy enough. He also told one story from back when he 'used to drink', suggesting he'd been attempting to clean up at that point. Real shame if the five years since have indeed seen him go backwards.

[GwiDan]

Matthew Perry was seriously unwell in hospital for months quite recently. I believe he had abdominal surgery. 

[Ste_S]

12 hours ago, Timmo said:

Jennifer Aniston looks the worst of the girls, proper uncanny valley vibes from her.

 

Joey has aged the best, you can tell he's comfortable in his own skin and isn't trying to look 28.

 

That's kinda an issue with the entertainment industry more than anything else. Women have their last fuckable day, and their careers essentially end until they can start picking up jobs playing someone's mom. The culture promotes getting 'work' done as an acceptable method to extend their career's, it's almost a form of abuse.

 

For the most part, men don't get that and can still get jobs leading films in their 40s and 50s.

 

 

[The Bag]

This was the only Friends reunion needed

 

 

[Stoppy2000]

On 20/05/2021 at 16:43, ZOK said:

Did I tell you guys we went to Friends Fest in 2019? It’s probably the shittest thing ever, essentially recreations of all the sets so you can take photos in, and that’s basically it. It’s terrible.

 

Although I did see the videocassette of Bouffay the Vampire Layer in a display case, that was pretty exciting.

I see they are advertising this again for this year. I can only imagine it being a terrible experience full of lots of queuing and really expensive merch. Glad to hear it's shit though as I have been tempted...

[Festoon]

What monkeys paw did Friends fans wish on to get their long awaited reunion ruined by fat tongue Corden?

 

Independent Review:

"Corden, who interviews the cast from the famous fountain they danced in for the show’s opening credits, is its Janice figure: an ear-splitting source of cringe everyone seems to be enduring rather than enjoying."

 

Story of his life.

[Vulgar Monkey]

Not just corden, it looks like they have loads of people lined up for cameos. I have to wonder how the fuck they could manage it without ruining the pacing or just being continually jarring.

[Festoon]

5 minutes ago, Vulgar Monkey said:

Not just corden, it looks like they have loads of people lined up for cameos. I have to wonder how the fuck they could manage it without ruining the pacing or just being continually jarring.

 

It's essentially a Corden talk show special - he's fake laughing and shouting all over it.

[Vulgar Monkey]

[christaylor]

I'm surprised by how interested I am in this, I'm anticipating a huge nostalgia overload when I watch it.

 

Never really considered myself much of a Friends fan, but it was there and around in the background of the majority of my formative years, there are so many touchpoints to it, and I probably am more aware than I'd like to admit of the majority of major plot points and big events.

 

I've also just remembered that we even covered the theme song with the band I was in at the time. Maaan.

 

I had a couple of friends that were a couple of years older than me, starting jobs and moving out of home, who absolutely lived Friends, getting themselves into flatshares and living their own Friends dreams in shabby apartments in the North West.

 

Being part of an ensemble cast in something like this that captured, created and rode the zeitgeist for so long is likely to have been the best period in each of their lives, so it must feel very melancholic for them all looking back at it, after very mixed fortunes and personal issues over the last 20 years.

[DarhkFox]

I'm looking forward for sure. Love Friends, one of my favorite shows that i can just watch and still enjoy it. 

 

I think it was more down to the fact the entire cast had great chemistry and there wasn't a "lead" even though originally i think Rachel/Ross were being set up that way.

 

However, i watched the SMTV live reunion earlier this year and got really sad how they had all aged.. i have a feeling i will feel the same way about this too.

[Gabe]

1 hour ago, christaylor said:

Being part of an ensemble cast in something like this that captured, created and rode the zeitgeist for so long is likely to have been the best period in each of their lives, so it must feel very melancholic for them all looking back at it, after very mixed fortunes and personal issues over the last 20 years.

I always wonder how that must be to deal with in general, where an actor is so associated with a particular role that is the pinnacle of their career early on that nothing else ever compares. I think that's true of all of this cast except Aniston, who at least broke into films, but whilst the others have had 'stuff', none of it has been anywhere near the same level of success (and arguably even Aniston is barely remembered for many of her film roles, I can't think of any where she's been the real big draw). And then you have people like Gunther who has done practically nothing else and probably lives and dies anything Friends-related.

 

There's a bit in the People interview (linked earlier in the thread) with the boys talking about staying in touch - they say the girls see each other quite often in person but that the reunion is only the second time they'd all been together since the show wrapped; I don't know why, but I found that kind of sad (I mean they were essentially just work colleagues, there's no reason they would all become best buds). LeBlanc does try to make it sound okay, by saying when they are together it feels natural, but yeah, hearing the real-world stuff was a bit melancholic (and they all look a bit sad too).

 

1 hour ago, Darhkwing said:

I think it was more down to the fact the entire cast had great chemistry and there wasn't a "lead" even though originally i think Rachel/Ross were being set up that way.

If I recall, the writers have spoken before that the Ross/Rachel relationship was always the central one of the show, hence why they kept finding ways to keep them apart/get them together (spoilers! ). Indeed, the part of Ross was written specifically for Schwimmer, so he was always going to be quite key I guess.