After 17 years Friends stars Jennifer Aniston, Matthew Perry, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer, Courtney Cox and Lisa Kudrow are back for an emotional reunion, Friends: The Reunion, streaming on HBO Max or Crave in Canada.
The one hour and 45 minute long special is definitely nostalgic and touching, with the cast getting very emotional for much of the reunion. Friends: The Reunion is split up into several different sections, beginning with the six ensemble cast members meeting on the set of the show where they watch bloopers and behind-the-scenes videos, and play a trivia game based on the episode “The One with the Embryos.”
At the core of this reunion special is the fact the Friends is beloved by so many and it is such an important aspect of popular culture. Celebrities including BTS, David Beckham, Kit Harington, Mindy Kaling and Malala Yousafzai appear to share their favourite episodes and explain why they love Friends. Beckham, in particular, revealed that when he watches “The One Where No One’s Ready” when he is away from his family it “makes [him] smile almost to the point of crying.”
Several other Friends fans from around the world are shown in the reunion special, sharing how the show helped them overcome depression, illness, loneliness and other personal struggles. There is certainly a lot of content packed into this reunion and while we’ll leave some specifics for you to discover when you watch it yourself, here a few things that we learn throughout the special.
Corden gets some personal gossip when he asks the cast if any of them hooked up behind the scenes over the course of the show.
Schwimmer reveals that he had a “major crush” on Aniston in the first season, with Aniston confirming the feeling was mutual. But they were were “two ships passing” because one of them was always in a relationship. Schwimmer confirmed they were respectful of each other’s relationships and they “never crossed that boundary.” LeBlanc pipes up and calls “bullshit,” later saying it was a joke, but we’ll let you decide what you think happened.
Aniston goes on to say that she remembers telling Schwimmer that it would be “such a bummer” if the first time they kissed was on the show, but that was in fact the case in the iconic scene at Central Perk, channelling their personal connection into their characters. The rest of the Friends cast confirmed that they were all aware Aniston and Schwimmer were crushing on each other, especially when they would “spoon” on the couch when they were on set.
For anyone still wondering, the entire Friends cast is in agreement that Ross and Rachel were in fact on a break.
