Friends: The Reunion review: The one where they got back, and parted again

Firstpost got early access to Friends: The Reunion, that goes live in India on ZEE5 at 12:32 PM on Thursday. And here's what we think!

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It has been 17 years since Rachel got off the plane. Seventeen years since Monica and Chandler wrapped up their apartment and moved to the suburbs with their twins. Or did they?

When the plug was pulled on Friends, I wrote about how it caused the Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) to act as "slow poison" before the term was probably even coined. The last shot of them heading to Central Perk (yes that's where, Chandler!) for a final cup of coffee had us asking for more as we were left behind in the vacated apartment staring into the peephole on the purple door with the golden frame. (To add insult to injury, there wasn’t even a scene after the end credits in The Last One.)

"Since then, we’ve been looking for our long lost F.R.I.E.N.D.S. in binge watching the series over and over again. We’ve also been expecting them in our false hopes to witness a reunion on the small or big screen. The fact remains that they’re still pulling each other’s legs in some alternative universe that we’re barred from."

Well, the Reunion brought some closure. It sat us down on the orange sofa and assured us that we were on a break.

When David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow, Jennifer Aniston, Matt LeBlanc, Courtney Cox, and Matthew Perry reentered Stage 24 of the Warner Bros Ranch in California, it felt like they were catching up after all these years too. There was no missing out since it actually felt like a reunion, and not a party that we have arrived at 17 years late. (Also, Cox aka Monica rearranging the apples on the table of her apartment as soon as she enters really helped.)

The 110-minute runtime of Friends: The Reunion felt like both a regular episode of the sitcom and 10 years of it compressed into one. It took us through every emotion that the show or any of its episodes did — there was camaraderie, interminable joy, and understated sadness. But this time, there was another friend sitting in the corner of the room, just smiling at us. It was nostalgia.

The fact that Friends is still going strong among the top 10 titles on Netflix India every day is proof enough that it has not ceased to be part of our lives. How can a major part and parcel of our everyday life then become an object of nostalgia? That is because you see six friends —  the actors in their personal capacity, not their evergreen characters — look back 27 years on how they made those memories while making those episodes. They have grey hair and wrinkled faces now, but as Anniston points out at the start of the special, "We just slipped into where we last left it."

The fact that we are privy to every memory they discuss on the show is consolation enough that they were not hanging out without us. But what they do share exclusively, as Schwimmer points out, are the feelings they experienced when they were growing along with the show. "You know, our families were very supportive and they were always with us. But only the six of us know exactly what we were going through. There's no one else who can relate to that feeling," Schwimmer says, as the others nod along.

And that is when one realises that the night is really not about us and what we have been missing out, but about this bunch of actors and what they continue to create long after the show has ended.

We go behind-the-scenes and learn how LeBlanc always trips on his mark (quite the opposite of missing it, eh?); how Kudrow's full-bodied laughter rocked the sets (she's still got it); how Perry was perennially nervous that his jokes wouldn't land with the live audience; how on the contrary Cox savoured the feeling of "They laughed at this? Wait till what comes next"; Friends creators Martha Kauffman and David Crane admitting that the house was divided on a Ross-Rachel reunion in the finale but they decided they had to give the audience what they had been waiting for for 10 years.

An equally interesting insight was shared on the relationship of Monica and Chandler. It was initially planned as a fling, but was rewritten after the live audience's long, ecstatic reaction to when the two are first found in bed together. "The way they reacted, it was something else." Given that the oddball creators the two were, with a poor dating record, Monica and Chandler made for a culmination of how every audience member wanted to see their love life roll.

The impact of Friends across communities (including LGBTQ+), countries (Ghana and India included!), and celebrities (from David Beckham to Malala Yousafzai is quite a range) was explored during the special too. But it was designed and edited in such a non-linear way that it never became too didactic, too superficial or too sad. The funniest bits were when the six of them laughed uncontrollably at the bloopers across the 10 seasons. If you ever wondered how they could put up a straight face despite the funniest lines, hilarious co-stars, and a reasonably audible live audience, you would love to see their weak moments  — and how they sneaked in some fun even there.

The long list of celebrity guests advertised for the special may not lead to a starry evening as may be expected, but most of them pop in and out of the frame like guest actors on Friends did. You would also watch the primary cast recall their favourite celebrity guest appearance, from Sean Penn and Julia Roberts to Ben Stiller and Brad Pitt. (Schwimmer: "Then there was your fellow, Brad"; Aniston: "Ya, Pitt was there too.")

The parting question that host James Corden asks them is whether they would reunite as characters again for another season or a movie. They all shake their heads, and Kudrow takes one for the team to explain beautifully, "They've ended Friends where each of them has a happy ending. And I don't want those happy endings to be unravelled."

The happy (?) ending to the special is the same shot as that of the Friends finale — the purple door, the golden frame, and the peephole. But the residual feeling isn't that of FOMO. This time, the instinct is to lend a shoulder and a consolatory hug to each of the six actors. For they've toiled to make lives richer — definitely ours, but also their own.