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"Friends" actors Perry, LeBlanc, Schwimmer, Cox, Aniston, Kudrow: a liberated retreat
Photo: WarnerMedia Direct
The last episode ran 17 years ago, but "Friends" is still one of the most popular series among streamers today;
allegedly Netflix paid the competition from WarnerMedia times $ 100 million for a one-year license.
Often people have tried to sense the seemingly endless charm of this sitcom about the life of six New York friends in their twenties who hang out and drink coffee together (yes, the arrangement is that simple). My colleague Christian Buß, for example, called the atmosphere at “Friends” a few days ago “casual”. That's true. The series creators Kevin Bright, Marta Kauffman and David Crane succeeded in creating a liberated retreat from 1994. For viewers who still regularly watch “Friends” today, the series works like a comforting snow globe, especially when real life is not much fun.
The same was true for the characters themselves. They may have had job or love problems, but actually always chatted through their apartments, far from real life disasters, concentrating unencumbered on relationships with one another.
Because the characters were drawn so precisely, it was easy for more than ten seasons to watch them balance their differences and similarities over and over again.
Some of the closeness of the figures became plausible (the upright womanizer Joey and the hippie outsider Phoebe!), With some (irony master Chandler and hippie outsider Phoebe?) One wondered whether they would lose sight of each other when someone moved away.
Of course everyone still thinks each other is "great"
This closeness still applies to this day: "Friends" are not only watching David Beckham and Lady Gaga, as one now learns in the new one-time show "Friends: The Reunion", but apparently also the daughter of David Schwimmer, who plays Ross in the series plays. For the reunion, all six main actors - in addition to Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston (Rachel), Courteney Cox (Monica), Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe), Matt LeBlanc (Joey) and Matthew Perry (Chandler) - have come together again for one Sofa and in the old backdrops of the series to talk to each other. As the presenter, "Late Late Show" comedian James Corden puts you in a good mood, and there are more arbitrary but crisp appearances by guest superstars such as BTS, "Game of Thrones" actor Kit Harrington or the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, who mostly briefly announcehow great they think "Friends" are.
Of course, this reunion, which had long been hyped in advance, is a big advertising bluff for an audience of billions. Each of the six main actors is said to have received a fee between 2.5 and three million dollars for the appearance. At the same time, Bright, Kauffman and Crane were smart enough not to get involved in a continuation of the series, but rather to play the magic of "Friends" one last time through gang, through the six actors' mild reflection on the past.
That works fine. Just because it is touching that »Friends« will always stay the same, but the lives of the actors - like their own - naturally continued. There are the extra kilos and the
dad vibe
from LeBlanc, who has no problem with flat jokes, or the preserved, well-kept faces of Cox and Aniston. There are the voices that have gotten older, harder, hoarser
Sure, everyone still thinks each other is "great", the series anyway, little new is told in terms of content. Because "Friends" is now often
criticized
for a lack of diversity and
wokeness
- all the main actors are white, there are also allegations of homophobia - queer witnesses from all over the world were apparently brought in to tell of their love for "Friends". Lady Gaga also thanks Kudrow, whose Phoebe has always been "the one who is different" for her.
That whitewashed the places where "Friends" has aged badly today in a rather outrageous way - but it still makes the fan heart open while watching: How reassuring that swimmers found the consequences with the monkey Marcel as unsuccessful as one self!
That the actor who played the surly-crazy neighbor Mr. Heckles is still alive?
How nice!
There is only one moment in these 100 or so minutes when something more serious briefly shines through.
Matthew Perry, who was obviously most affected by the abysses that are not »Friends« but that life as a star has in store, describes a fear: The series was shot in front of an audience, he says.
Whenever people hadn't laughed at his punch lines, he thought he was going to die.
The sentence hangs after you.
The other side of "Friends", the sudden, overwhelming fame of at least five of the then still very young actors and actresses (Cox was already known before, even if not a superstar) only appears here as a funny anecdote, as does the lifelong reduction a single series role that each of them has to live with.
As a fan you are happy when Schwimmer and Aniston now tell you that they had a crush on each other in the first "Friends" season, the two play the constant on-off couple Ross and Rachel in the series, the focus of the Narration stands.
At the same time, one wonders: Was that really so?
Or are the two of them capitulating to a fictionalized historiography of their own lives?
"Everything came together," says Courteney Cox at one point, everything and everyone was in the right place at the right time.
She means the genesis of »Friends«.
But of course you can also relate that to this reunion.
Moderator Corden asks the actors where their characters are today, the answers: Rachel and Ross have several children, Chandler would still make Monica laugh every day.
Oh, you could basically jump right back in.
Maybe best with the second season.
The monkey is gone by then.
"Friends: The Reunion" is available with German subtitles on Sky Ticket. On Saturday, May 29th, the program will be broadcast on Sky One at 8.15 p.m.