I have not been waiting for a Friends reunion
I am a big Friends fan. I was a saddened fan when Friends was removed from Netflix. Friends was our to go to series when we wanted something short, easy and fun at the end of the day. As Malcolm Gladwell captured in his recent book Talking to Strangers, Friends was satisfying because everybody was “matched”: their emotions, their thinking and their facial expressions matched.
I still use Friends’ analogies in my day to day. When I need to tell a story at work about an imaginary employee, I use Phoebe, or Ross, or Gunther, or another cast member’s name, not currently at our company. I sometimes name my team meetings cheekily with “the one about …”. For example, “The One about our development process”. We play Friends trivia on Christmas eve.
As you can tell, Friends left a lasting impression on me.
However I have never been a big fan of a Friends reboot or reunion. The magic happened in the late 90s. Actors move on: Rachel is no longer the klutz in Apple TV’s Morning Show. Actors get botox and plastic surgery. Hello Monica. And the most interesting anecdotes are well known among aficionados and owners of the special Friends trivia set. I do not believe anyone has been holding out on a bombshell revelation for a future potential reunion show.
But that was never the goal of HBO. The Friends reunion was HBO’s Hamilton. We signed up for Disney+ to watch Hamilton and are still a subscriber, a year later.
Since I have been very curious about The Mare of Easttown show, and still need to start Game of Thrones (yes, kill me now), I may take the bait and sign up.
The only problem is I don’t know which other streaming service to drop. Netflix is a staple. Apple TV+ came with our new iPhone. Amazon Prime is the kitchen sink plan. Disney+ has some great shows, including for the kids. At least I can avoid Hulu and Peacock for now.