Even if you did not want to like the Friends reunion on HBO, you might have. At any other time, I probably wouldn’t have watched it, but like the original show itself, the Friends reunion was made for the moment.
Unlike the retrospective podcasts of The Office (An Oral History of the Office and Office Ladies), the Friends reunion didn’t attempt much insight or analysis. But after the loneliest year for almost everyone in the country, the simple act of watching the friends we grew up with reunite just as we’re reuniting with our own is pure pleasure and pathos.
At times, the gimmicks induce more eye-rolls than interest. We didn’t need to hear Lady Gaga, as talented as she may be, hijack Lisa Kudrow performing Phoebe Buffay’s “Smelly Cat,” and celebrity models and hosts, namely Cindy Crawford and James Corden, were duds because their presence missed the point.
Friends ran originally while Generation X slowly realized that the baby boomers wouldn’t relinquish their destructive control over Congress, global finance, or the culture — and it all culminated in 9/11 and the financial crash. But rather than wallow in these as tragedies, Friends put reality into perspective and provided comfort when needed. Sure, Monica’s West Village apartment was laughably gigantic, and true to sitcom form, every issue was mostly wrapped up neatly by each episode’s end. But as the theme song went, so what if “your job’s a joke, you’re broke / your love life’s DOA”? At the end of the day, your friends will be there for you.
The recent pandemic is the only period matching 9/11 in the sense of national devastation, and Friends once again rose to the occasion. Maybe the special wasn’t particularly intelligent or artful, but for most of us, just finally reuniting with our own friends is enough.
