Friends: The Reunion

Friends: The Reunion completely redefines how we should view sitcom reunions moving forward, and it sets the bar so high that I truly don’t know if any other get together can ever top it.

Was Friends: The Reunion over-sentimental, clichéd and drawn out? Absolutely, but it was also the happiest two hours of television in recent memory.

Despite having a runtime equalling almost five episodes of the actual show, the biggest surprise of the special is just how entertaining and engaging those 104 minutes end up being.

As reunions go, the whole thing is warm, funny, entertaining, and a little too treacly at times — but that’s how Friends was, too, so it feels right.

Throughout the reunion, there are some very genuine-seeming failures by certain performers to remember aspects of the shows that their co-stars recall quite clearly, and the collective, wobbly journey down Mortality Lane comes across as spontaneous and authentic. For all its weepiness, the show is an emotionally satisfying reminiscence.

Friends: The Reunion doesn’t quite justify its existence, but it still goes down easy.

Some of the cast seemed happier than others to be there – LeBlanc was a supremely jolly, relaxed guest – and a suggestion of on-set romance between two of the cast had a whiff of insincerity about it. But when Perry sat back in the recliner in his old apartment and told LeBlanc: “Ah, Matty, good to see you,” he sounded as if he really meant it. And a global audience of Friends fans will share the sentiment.

The special felt effortless and crisp. Editing kept the 105 minute reunion going, although some segments could have been cut to make it snappier. ... Much like the chemistry between the cast helped smooth over bad jokes or the poor later seasons of the show, their chemistry as real-life friends makes the reunion an easy sell.

“Friends: The Reunion” isn’t trying to be revealing, at least not about anything that thorny or unpleasant. It’s here to entertain, and to remind fans why they love the show. Digging in to its shortcomings would have made for a more interesting special, but it also wouldn’t have reflected the show itself.

There are so many happy tears—particularly from Aniston, Cox, and Kudrow—during the reunion that you know the love the cast feels for each other is genuine. ... There is very little new ground covered.

Unscripted and uneven but still satisfying and warmhearted. ... Like all reunions, the best part of “Friends: The Reunion” is simply getting everyone back in the same room for the first time in far too long.

What works about HBO Max's Friends: The Reunion: The real-life pals hanging out, reminiscing about their run as the most famous TV friends on the planet. Unfortunately, the bloated, 104-minute (!) special sandwiches these flashes of reunion magic between a lot of silly, tiresome filler.

No one is going to reflect on the flaws, screw-ups, and offenses. That might have been a more engaging and less predictable special, but it also would have been less true to the shiny, happy spirit of the original series.

Sweet, shaggy special. ... The special is better when it gets out of the cast’s way and shows us what drew us to them, and them to each other.

A relentlessly busy 104 minutes that yield an impressive array of funny and emotional moments likely to generally, if not fully, satisfy many or even most dedicated fans.

It’s an event that’s most interesting when it’s the least forced, when these six actors who really grew up together in the public eye are allowed to wander the rebuilt sets of their apartments, asking each other what they remember from that formative chapter in their lives. Less effective are the superficial questions from host James Corden, or bits in which the cast table read memorable scenes from the history of the series (although, man, Kudrow still gives it her all.)

Perhaps it’s asking too much for Friends: The Reunion to delve deeper into the production, or reveal some lascivious secrets or difficulties, or grapple more with the show’s impact on pop culture. ... In that respect, Friends: The Reunion has plenty of pleasant fluff to entertain.

“Friends: The Reunion” is at its best when the camera captures the cast in more candid moments — seeing the set rebuilt for the first time, playing a trivia game.

The special is most compelling when the cast is allowed to just revel in their surroundings, sitting together on the Central Perk set, or in Monica and Rachel’s still-mind-bogglingly mammoth West Village apartment, and reminisce like old friends. But we also lamentably get a series of inexplicable celebrity appearances.

We can call it The One That Was Just Good Enough. The One That Was a Nostalgia Fest Not Revisionist History. The One That Did What It Needed to Do. The One That Was Fine.

There is something sweet about seeing all six in the same room together for the first time in years, as their affection for each other is obvious. ... The problem is, for such a well-loved (and well-examined) series, there is very little new info here.

Originally intended to help launch HBO Max, "Friends: The Reunion" finally hits the streaming service, in big, slightly bloated, unapologetically nostalgic form. A valentine to fans, the nearly two-hour special is inevitably hard-pressed to justify the hype, working best when it lets the cast casually reminisce, while getting carried away with cameos, some of which, well, couldn't be more random.

What’s clear beneath all the adulation, and the genuine bond shared by six young actors who grew up together on TV, is that “Friends” was very much a creature of its times. ... “Friends: The Reunion” is a fond look back for those who couldn’t get enough the first time.

“Friends: The Reunion” is a special made to be as broad as possible, and it too often ignores or steps on the intimate connections fans already have with their favorite fictional friends.

You have to power through a whole lot of standard reunion rickrack – the present-day table reads of memorable scenes, the clapter-ginning cameos from the likes of Tom Selleck, Thomas Lennon and Cara Delevingne – to get to these interesting flashes, along with a couple of pieces of truly gasp-inducing, previously unrevealed dish.

It was the kind of show when Corden asked safe, dull, teen magazine questions such as: "Were Ross and Rachel on a break?". It was better when the cast were allowed to wander round the set alone but there was never any danger of a major revelation.

Its reunion special spends nearly two hours frantically arguing that the ubiquity is deserved. ... Friends offered a world devoid of the world. The show’s reunion has now continued the tradition. The special is fan service that also attempts to rationalize the fandom itself. It is trying its best to have it both ways—the enforced intimacy of the sitcom and the market imperative of the global franchise. It is a telethon guided by a tautology.

I didn’t learn anything interesting, and I wasn’t left with much to think about. The special is curiously empty, aside from some touching moments of camaraderie and affection between the cast members, and the potential discomfort of realizing we’re all getting older.

The opening act plays out amid such astonishment that this is all even happening, it’s almost as if a stunned Janice is constantly shrieking, “Oh. My. God.” And yet...it’s also a misguided, confusing mess: stale when it’s not overly sentimental and self-congratulatory, relying on distracting stunts in place of authentic fun.