Review: Friends Reunion – Shines and Hypes!

The Friends’ Reunion of our dreams came true. After countless hype, the world’s most-watched sitcom show has dropped on May 27 on HBO Max. All-stars finally together again.
The trailer already revealed that the cast is getting back together in the same Friends studio, challenging them with some trivia questions, revisiting key sets, re-reading their dialogues, and joining James Corden for an interview in front of a live audience.

Friend’s stars are in their 50s now. The Reunion brings back the stars and our memories of them together. Fans feel warm and excited watching them together when they look back at the show that became a pop-culture phenomenon, remained a popular TV show from 1994 to 2004, and still dominates other shows.

The Friends Reunion was recorded in April and is brilliantly packaged and designed to preserve that afterlife. Reportedly, HBO Max paid each cast member $2.5-$3 million to show up for the reunion. Throughout the interview, James Corden questioned the cast outdoors from different angles. He had some feel-good questions up his sleeve; one of them was ‘whether any of them ever hooked up during the series.’

In other scenes, the cast recreated the set and wandered into Monica and Rachel’s apartment with its popular purple wall. They even re-created some of the familiar moments. Phoebe caught Monica and Chandler having sex and she screams, “My eyes!”

There is nothing new introduced in this Reunion, but it captured the spirit of the show, its warmth, and its energy with some comical timing. One of the Friends co-creators, David Crane, stated about the casting, “We didn’t want stars,” but needed a real gathering. They picked actors who are good at their small roles on their past sitcoms. From the 1st season, the show made them famous. Jennifer Aniston is considered the most famous among them.

Corden recalled a producer warning her to sign onto the show by telling “That show is not going to make you a star”.

Lady Gaga enters the Central Park set and duets with Kudrow on Phoebe’s famous song “Smelly Cat.”

Marta Kauffman reveals on the reunion special why new episodes with the new characters would be a terrible idea, “If the show is about that time in your life when your friends are your family, once you have a family of your own it’s no longer that time.”

Ross has terrible relationships but is a brainiac. Monica is a control freak but the most talented chef. Rachel lived on her way, became a better person, and worked hard for a better career. Chandler is a legend of sarcasm and is a bit of a cipher. Friends’ show is still famous and watched by many youngsters which helps explain why the series has world reach, being watched in over 100 countries. The show also helped Korean Pop BTS to learn English. The show also inspired many people from countries to overcome dark times.

Friends remained a timeless show by not trying to be timely. The show ignored Clinton’s Impeachment and the 9/11 attack.