Friends Reunion

Okay, I admit I sometimes/often turn on "Friends" in the bedroom when I'm trying to fall asleep. I've probably seen the first half of most episodes.

I was never a huge fan during its run, but then I was raising a family and had a lot less spare time.

So the Friends Reunion, posted last night on HBO Max (streaming), was of some interest to me. My ex-co-worker, with whom I have lunch on Fridays, gets HBO so I watched it during lunch. All the original cast members, and they looked remarkably good after 17 years. The writers and directors. Some guest stars who had recurring roles. The original sets (which probably had to be re-created?)

The special was a combination of favorite moments from the original show, some bloopers, some discussions with the cast about the show, a couple contemporary read-throughs of iconic scenes. The actors seemed to slide into their old characters with ease.

In all, it seemed like everyone had a good time and really enjoyed getting together.

Of course, we remember the huge blow-ups, back in the day, over some cast members getting paid more than others. I think at one point, the whole cast threatened to quit? None of that bad blood aired here.

Now, we're all "Friends" again.

I have to confess, my wife and I agreed that this was one show we didn't need to ever see. We were fed up with too many shows about twenty-somethings making us feel old. And so we didn't watch it. I have never seen even so much as five minutes of a single episode.

Not that we were terribly picky. We basically stopped watching sitcoms altogether, a long time ago. We watched a few episodes of Seinfeld once it reached syndication, but never saw any episodes while it was running on prime time. Thinking back, trying to remember a series we might have watched, I'm thinking way back, like Roseanne when it first started, or something.