Old Friends

If you are around my age it is very likely you were a Friends viewer at some point during it’s 10 year run from 1994 to 2004.  Hell Cindy and I still watch reruns of it at night in bed sometimes.  I was not a maniacal fan but a fan for sure of the show.  Well the cast got together for a reunion show that started streaming on HBO Max yesterday.  Cindy and I watched it over dinner.

They went through a lot of effort for the production, recreating the original sets and bringing in some of the various other well known guest actors from the show and even Lady Gaga made an appearance.

Since I am a shallow person one of the first things I did was evaluate what 17 years has done to the appearance of the cast, all of them are in their 50s now.  All three woman still are in good shape although Courtney and Jennifer’s affinity for plastic surgery and botox was painfully obvious.  David Shcwimmer has held up pretty well too except for a puffier face. Matt Leblanc looked like he was rocking the biggest dad bod (Matt Perry not far behind), along with head full of gray hair which was a little shocking.  I think Matt Perry was the worst off, his years of drug abuse/addiction has not been kind to him.  He also had a set of veneers in his mouth that really looked odd.  I think Lisa Kudrow actually has held up the best of all.  She doesn’t look tweaked, cut, bloated or injected, just a slightly older version of Phoebe.

But physical appearances aside, the interactions between the cast were as we remembered.  Their genuine friendship and adoration for each other still came clearly through.  Despite nearly two decades of time passing, it still felt like Ross, Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Chandler and Joey were still there, still Friends.  Cindy and I both thought the special was really well done.  It made you wish this cast could still perform together but we will all have to be satisfied with that 10 year time capsule of near perfection.

Tomorrow my 5 day weekend begins.  It is going to be jammed full of things.  As I mentioned before the biggest project I hope to accomplish is the work on my Veteran Sherman.  I have some hesitation tearing into a perfectly functional wheel but I keep telling myself it will be an worthwhile expenditure of time and effort.  DJ’s official birthday party will be Sunday afternoon which will be fun as well I’m sure.  I also would like to get some time to play WoW and hang in VR, both of which have been sidelined for damn close to two weeks, at least.