![]() Then again: HBO Max did manage to stage a smart, fun, surprisingly moving in-person reunion last November, which now makes for a fascinating counterpart to the overwhelmingly shiny, happy people of the “Friends” special. And yet HBO Max held out on “Friends,” determined to make it a bonafide in-person event that wouldn’t give producers panic attacks with every Zoom glitch. Instead, the pandemic put the special into infinite limbo - even as dozens of other shows like “Frasier,” “The Nanny” and “Happy Endings” staged virtual reunions for fun, charity, and just the hell of it. More specifically, it was meant to celebrate HBO Max exclusively acquiring the entire series from Netflix, the streaming equivalent of putting its enemy’s head on a spike outside the castle. “Friends: The Reunion” was, of course, originally supposed to supplement the launch of HBO Max as a streaming service. The live-audience component is ostensibly why HBO Max held off on producing the special earlier, and yet throughout the reunion’s impressive run time of over an hour and a half, it also proves to be the least essential. The special, directed by “Late Late Show With James Corden” producer Ben Winston, then boomerangs between these quieter moments of just the core cast, a few cutesy bits featuring guest stars I can’t mention (but you can probably guess), and a splashy live interview moderated by professional fanboy James Corden in front of a masked audience roaring its approval. LeBlanc, who demonstrated a canny self-awareness when playing a hyperbolic version of himself on Showtime’s “Episodes,” brings the most boisterous energy to the table from the moment he walks in to when he gleefully points at the message he left on the set wall after the finale (“I shit here - Matt LeBlanc”). Aniston, Cox and Kudrow still have an easy familiarity with each other that makes it clear that spending the Emmys together at Aniston’s home last year wasn’t completely unusual for them. You can watch Friends episodes on HBO Max in the meantime.įriends is off Netflix, but the series-all 236 episodes of it-has found a new online home at HBO Max.The stakes thus set, the Friends walk onto the show’s meticulously recreated set one by one, starting with a wide-eyed David Schwimmer and ending with a skittish Matthew Perry. Users will need to create a profile at Scener and have an HBO Max subscription to watch. PDT, viewers can watch the Friends reunion with their real-life friends through a virtual watch party on Scener. Fans can participate in watch parties through Scener. That's much more than the $1 million-per-episode rates they had when Friends was still running. Sources told The Hollywood Reporter that the stars negotiated their fees together and will be paid between $2.5 million and $3 million each for the reunion special. ![]() She said, "I think that I remember things, but then I talk to Matt or Jennifer, and they remember everything. Kudrow also said that she loves getting together with her former cast mates as they all have such great memories. ![]() It’s six of us coming together for the first time in I don’t know how long." We will reminisce, talk about what was going on behind the scenes. She revealed, "No audience has seen us together since the show was over. Lisa Kudrow has been ready for the reunion.ĭuring a May 2020 interview with The Sunday Times, Lisa Kudrow expressed her excitement about getting the gang back together again. Though it wasn't the full-fledged reunion fans have been waiting for, it was a joyous surprise-and the least we deserve in 2020, TBQH. "We've been living together since 1994," Aniston quipped. While Aniston was speaking to host Jimmy Kimmel, her "roommates" Cox and Kudrow joined her. It's just really a question of when will be the safest time to do it."Ī mini reunion went down at the 2020 Emmys.Īlthough none of the male cast members made appearances, the ladies of Friends, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, and Lisa Kudrow, all appeared together on-screen during last night's Emmys. It’s not a safe time to do it."ĭavid Schwimmer had previously expressed his hope that the reunion would take place in 2020, as he told Entertainment Weekly, "We're hoping it will be able to convene and shoot it in August, but the truth is, we'll do it when we all determine it's safe to do so." He continued, "There's no question we want to do it and it's going to happen. "It was, ‘How do we do this with live audiences?’ This is not a safe time. "Unfortunately it’s very sad that we had to move it again," Aniston continued. You’re never going to get rid of Friends, sorry. So I choose to see it as the glass is half-full that it got postponed. You know what? This has also given us more time to make it even more exciting and more fun than it would have been. During a phone interview with Deadline, Jennifer Aniston reacted to the postponement and said, "It’s going to be super.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |