I definitely had not been waiting for this Friends reunion episode (seems kind of unnecessary, 17 years after the series ended) but I knew that I also didn’t want to miss it. Considering how much I am a fan of the show — I’ve watched every episode at least three times, and watched my favourites many more times than that — I thought I would have been more thrilled to see these six actors back together on the old sets and waxing nostalgic about how they were truly friends in real life too! I guess the 50-year-old cynic in me knew that many parts of it would be overproduced and weird but the devoted fan in me is just glad that they re-enacted my favourite episode: the one with quiz game (the episode actually named “The One With The Embryos”). That alone almost made the nearly two-hour running time, not to mention the $15 million [eyes bulge] payout to the six, worthwhile.

What I loved

Undeniably, I loved the warm feels that came from thinking about the series again. I haven’t watched it for a while, and seeing all the clips really reminded me that I love the show. It was cool to watch the cast do table reads of some of the scenes (though it was a bit weird that there were also lines from the originally broadcast scenes intercut with the table-readings). Nevertheless, you could feel that there was something special about the dynamic between these actors all along.

The game show scene was re-enacted with the actors answering questions about show trivia instead of the characters. It was nicely rebuilt artifact of nostalgia that really matched the original quiz from the episode (same categories, same board, same colourful flashcards). Sadly, it was a bit diminished by the actors stumbling over some of the answers. To be fair, they’re actors and not fans, but they didn’t seem to remember the answers as much as they should, and their unscripted repartee was just not as good as the scripted stuff from the show. Reality just does not hold up against fiction.

I loved the interview segments with the original producers of the show. Those were so much more polished and interesting than the cast interviews with James Corden. It felt much more like they were telling us about the show, and they just remembered many of the interesting details and stories a lot more clearly than the cast.

What I didn’t love

Let’s get this one over with quickly and move on: the costume fashion show was a hot mess. At first it was passable to have Cara Delevingne show up dressed in Rachel’s bridesmaid dress from Barry and Mindy’s wedding. (Though it was pretty odd that a successful actress like Delevingne was merely modelling and not actually interacting with others on set — was this because of social distancing? Weird.) Not sure of the point of having Cindy Crawford (who still looks amazing) model Ross’s leather pants. She made them look like stylish fashion, so where was the humour in that? When the rest of the outfits were Halloween costumes like Ross’s Spud-nik potato costume worn by Justin Bieber, the segment just lost all meaning and became an absurd bit of television. It felt more like the producers needed to find a way to incorporate some random celebrity guests in a way that they thought was funny, but ran out of time to come up with good ideas.

I don’t understand why they had to spend the first 10 minutes of the show watching the cast members come one at a time onto the set, then discover each other and give hugs, etc. They could have seriously shortened that. Plus, I think they mistake our love for the show for our loving the actors and their lives. During this segment I was most aware of how it must be nice to be paid millions to just to react normally to seeing each other, and seeing the set again (apparently part of the negotiation for hiring them may have involved asking the cast not to see each other prior to the filming).

The mix of guests has been debated a lot already, in particular the notable absence of Paul Rudd (who played Phoebe’s husband Mike) and Cole Sprouse (who played Ross’s son Ben). Instead, the actors who did show up were a mix of major and minor guests (everyone from Joey’s Las Vegas hand-twin, to the surprisingly still-alive Mr. Heckles, to the Gellar parents, to Monica’s other big love, Richard). There seemed hardly any rhyme or reason who got to be on the show. I can understand if some actors have become too big to make appearances (I’m thinking Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts were probably in that category), but I wondered whether the pandemic safety measures also made arrangements with guests a whole lot more complicated (and the producers probably insisted on having no Zoom calls from the series guests — even though there were a few talking head interviews from fan guests). The other oddness of the way the series guests fit into the reunion episode was that they were treated very much as their characters (Mr. Heckles even dressed the part and tried to stay in character), but the six were acting like themselves, so you had actors interacting with characters (who then also turned back into actors as they each had mini-reunions with the cast or shared some memories). It was a bit surreal and disjointed.

What I had mixed feelings about

I knew that they would have to have some segment about the global impact of the series — and it would be great to hear — but to have all these fans from around the globe talk about how the show changed their lives, saved them from dark times, etc., felt a bit heavy and serious, especially when there was so little discussion with the cast about this impact. I think we as fans love to see what a big community we are part of, and we like to know that there are many others who share our loves in even bigger ways than we do. There was just a disconnection with the rest of the episode. Why didn’t we hear the actors tell us some of their own interactions with fans and some of the amazingly positive things that they’ve heard from fans directly?

James Corden is a pretty lovable host. He always feels relatable and you believe he is a fan just like you are. Unfortunately, his questions were pretty lame and superficial. Even some of the surprise, gossipy revelations that came out of the interview were volunteered by the cast, and did not come from his questions. They didn’t seem to benefit much from his conversational guidance and his slightly bumbling and uncertain execution added to the rough, unpolished feeling that bothered me about this show. This is a mega-series and it’s got the power of a lot of money and planning behind it. It should have been much better.

Finally, seeing the cast again almost two decades later is not bad. However, seeing how much they have aged made me feel my own age even more. Was it worth bursting the bubble of their eternal youth on screen just to see old Aunties Jennifer, Courtney, and Lisa, and old Uncles Matt, Matthew and David? Seeing them all on the set was nostalgic, but it felt a bit like recasting Charlie’s Angels with the cast of Golden Girls (and if you get those references, you’re old enough to understand exactly what I’m saying). Nostalgia is perhaps best left to the imagination and memory, and while the reunion special served its purpose in making me feel like I want to watch Friends episodes all over, sadly I probably won’t look at those episodes the same way ever again.