Fuck You Guys I Enjoyed It - My Official Friends Reunion Recap
Honestly bravo! BRAVO!
Friends is a very big part of my life as it's the show I've watched the most in my life, bar none, with nothing else particularly close. The first episode I actually ever watched was the last episode in May of 2004 which led to me instantly being obsessed with it and watching it constantly ever since then. Now have I happened to not watch as much in recent years? Of course, but it's still BY FAR my #1 most watched show and will always have a large place in my heart.
And due to that it was pretty fucking cool to see how much nostalgia and simply good vibes that crossed my mind while watching this for this 1 hour and 44 minutes. So for us Friends stans it was fucking sweet, the fuck you guys in the title was for all you people on the internet that say Friends is an actually bad television show which makes me very fucking angry. Once again...fuck you guys. Now into the recap. *SPOILERS AHEAD*
The reunion began in what almost seemed like the first episode of the Jersey Shore. Schwimmer gets to the set first, followed by Kudrow, and so on and so forth which leads to everyone's reactions to seeing both Monica & Joey's apartment sets for the first time since 'Nam. I would be lying I said I wasn't in my feels when LeBlanc & Perry sat down in the barker loungers alone together. It was beautiful.
And one of the cooler parts of the reunion was how many actually little tidbits they did give out- with the first being LeBlanc mentioning how often Courteney Cox would write her or leave her lines around the fruit bowl in Monica's apartment. Eventually those segments began to get interwoven (is interwoven a word?) with the 'live' show happening in front of the famed fountain hosted by James Corden.
Then in probably what will be everyone's FAVORITE part of the reunion the cast gets together on Monica's couch to play a new version of the famed trivia game from 'The one with the Embryos'. Pretty sure you're an Alien if that's not one of your favorite episodes so this was pretty dope to see especially with the added in guest appearances from Mr. Heckles, the barbershop courtet, Joey's hand twin, and of course the one and only TOM FUCKING SELLECK. I would like to think Richard is 'The one with the Embryos' equivalent to side characters. Long live Richard Burke. Once those guest appearances went off they started throwing in some nice little side interviews with legends and I guess friends fans/guests on the show like Reese Witherspoon, Kit Harington, Mindy Kaling, and David Beckham. I'm still kinda mad about Game of Thrones so that's all I'm gonna say about that.
Now one thing I gotta mention was how I've kept saying if this was solely just the 6 of them having a roundtable discussion I could care less, because I do want to hear from the actual minds of the show per say if I was watching a Seinfeld reunion I'd WAY rather hear LD talk about George Costanza than Jason Alexander talk about George. So they thankfully supplemented that with interviews with David Crane, Marta Kauffman, and Kevin Bright that told us how everyone wound up getting casted which was super interesting.
And one thing you don't realize about Friends is just how global this show was so they did a really cool segment with people from different countries throughout the world talking about just how much Friends has impacted their lives. I particularly felt the way the 2 dudes from France said when they first started college they were scared to talk to girls so they just watched Friends together to grow their confidence…BEEN THERE, DONE THAT BOYS!
Another interesting tidbit was the segment about 'The one where no one's ready' which is a very underrated and probably one of the best in the series- the first in the show that happened in real time while they shot which we learned through Kauffman that that episode was pretty much just used to be a low-budget episode due to the fact that they only had to use one set! We also learned that Matt LeBlanc actually threw his arm out of his socket mid-shoot of that episode which is why they had to write in Joey having an arm sling for the next few episodes…the more you know!
Then probably one of the famous guest stars of the reunion had to be Lady Gaga…No disrespect to Lisa Kudrow but I think Gaga's voice was just SLIGHTLY better.
One of the better segments of the Reunion definitely was when they got into the old table reads with some of the more iconic scenes from the series. The scene when Phoebe sees Monica & Chandler doing it from Ross' new apartment is of course the stuff of legend so it was splendid to see that go down again.
Now if I had to guess the most talked about part of all this will happen to be Aniston & Schwimmer kinda saying they we're into each other during the show. Is this actually true or are they just trying to rev the fans' engine? I have no idea but I sure fuckin' hope so cause if we're being honest it was pretty fucking cute to see. If Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon did it why couldn't Schwimmer & Aniston? But hey like Joey says if people are actually doing it offstage their chemistry may not be as good on stage! So who's to say? Not to mention I think during this segment we finally dispelled any naysayers- Ross and Rachel were DEFINITELY on a break after hearing pretty much the whole cast agree that they were, in fact, on a break.
Obviously you can't do a Friends Reunion with a quick appearance and 'OH MY GOD!' from Maggie Wheeler. If you did that might as well go visit Texas and not get some FANTASTIC barbecue while there. I'm sorry I just like bbq.
And one of the final parts that was actually really enjoyable was the fashion show towards the end. They Cara Delevingne walk out as both Rachel in her pink bo peep bridesmaid dress, Cindy Crawford in Ross' leather pants, Justin friggen' Bieber as Sputnik, and LeBlanc wearing all of Chandler's clothes.
The show really wound down after that as it just ended with a nice little montage mixing old and new footage and just how much the show meant to everyone.
To sum it up, I really fucking enjoyed it! And once again to people with a stick up their ass that hate friends I have one and one thing only to say to you guys…
Fuck you guys, I enjoyed it.