I love Friends when I was younger and was rooting for a reunion episode. Well, they finally did it but instead of a time skip episode, we instead got a reunion of the actors reminiscing about their time on Friends. I was very disappointed by that as I really wanted to see where the characters I loved were up to. Nonetheless, I was still interested to watch it just because we haven't seen the actors together in a long time as well. So was it a happy reunion or unneeded?

Firstly, I enjoyed watching the actors returning to the set and meeting each other again. Seeing them interact again, you could still see that they all still retain the chemistry between each other. It was interesting and fun to watch them just talk about their time on Friends such as their first meeting, their favourite moments and things that happened due to their fame. They also do some re-enactments of some great moments from the show and this was nice to watch as we see them easily bring these characters back to life again.

I also really loved seeing them react to some clips from Friends as it was intriguing to know what they thought of it. It was also quite a blast to see them react to the bloopers as well, although I wish they included some more bloopers as well. They also reacted to that time Matt LeBlanc broke his shoulder on one episode which was just such a great moment. They also do a quiz show with the cast to see their knowledge on Friends which was hilarious. There are also some very interesting interviews from the creators of Friends about how the show came into being and why these actors were casted.

However, my biggest issue with this special has got to be the atrocious editing. It constantly switches from actors reminiscing to talk show to documentary to quiz repeatedly. It's clunky and very messy. It's very jarring and annoying as it never seems to stay focus on one thing for long enough. It baffles me why it had to be a 100-minute special when they could've done episodes that focus on different things. They could have one episode of Friends cast reminiscing, one episode about how Friends was made and another episode being a quiz with the cast etc. The choice of having it all crammed together is a terrible choice and it doesn't work.

There is a talk show segment with James Corden and I hated it. James Corden feels too hyperactive and obnoxious with his talk show segment taking too long or just being too awkward for my liking. I actually wouldn't have minded if they got rid of his segment entirely. There are some moments where it shows how Friends impacted non-celebrity people which was just too cringy and distracting. Some celebrities come in as well such as David Beckham and Kit Harrington where they talk about their favourite episode. However, I could give no care whatsoever to it and wanted them to go back to the Friends themselves. There is also a very weird segment that appears randomly with Lisa Kudrow singing "Smelly Cat" again which was great but then gets ruined by Lady Gaga and a random choir which was pointless additions. Lisa says it herself "I think the song was better when I sang it alone".

Overall, when they let the Friends cast do their thing and the focus is just on them, it's great. When it keeps derailing to something else, it's bad. If you're a huge Friends fan then you definitely need to watch this. However, if you're just someone who knows about Friends and might like documentaries or something, then I can guarantee that there is not much worth watching this as you won't gain much. It might not be the reunion I wanted but there was some enjoyment to be had for sure.

It is a reunion special where the main cast reminisce about the past, we are shown some fans pov and how the show influenced their lives, some behind the scenes that maybe most people didn't know, it is a nice treat for a reunion, but I also understand those disappointed that were expecting for a follow-up episode after all these years.

BTW I found it super weird the lack of references to either Ben or Emma.

I wasn't a big fan of FRIENDS, yet I still found it a good reunion, but I just can't stand James Corden.

I wasn't a regular viewer of "Friends" during it's ten year run, but I caught my share of shows and thought it was genuinely funny. For a few years in the early Nineties it overlapped "Seinfeld" which I liked more, with characters I could better relate to. I didn't expect the format that was used for this reunion show, I thought it would present more in the way of clips from the series with the principals commenting on them. There was some of that, but I hardly saw the necessity of the present day Friends reading from the script of shows that aired a couple decades ago while interspersed with the actual footage. For me, that was like filler material for time that could have been better utilized on other things. And while diversity is a word we hear all too often these days, the reactions of viewers from remote corners of the world hardly seemed fitting, even if, as one of them was heard to comment, "Friends brought friends together". Even the guest celebrities who were brought back for the reunion seemed out of place in this format, with Lady Gaga's rendition of 'Smelly Cat' being a prime example. As historic as this reunion might have been for the principals and fans of the show, I just thought it could have been done better, and I might say, without James Corden as the host interviewer. I saw no connection or chemistry there at all.