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Cauvery: So three years after the death of Matthew Perry, Netflix has just the day before his third death anniversary dropped a three part series that sort of commemorates the life and times of Matthew Perry, and it's called The One with Matthew Perry. And that's just started streaming on Netflix and we're here to review that. Welcome to the Cold Open Pod. This is Kaberi.
Esha: Hi, Amesha. There's a lot that was left out of that doc, right?
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: because it does seem in a nice way, it does seem like a fan service kind of a documentary.
Cauvery: Yeah. Very much is.
Esha: where you they're not shy of talking about sort of the elephant in the room.
Cauvery: Which was his addiction.
Esha: Mm-hmm.
Cauvery: And pretty much everything serves that narrative, right? The build-up, they get through his childhood and how he became a star and all that pretty quickly. And then they go into his addiction pretty fast. It even starts right from his childhood where he has a drunk drunk driving accident with a girlfriend, with a potential girlfriend. And it sort of launches you into the fact that his battle with addiction started pretty early, from the
Esha: Yeah.
Cauvery: age of like fourteen when he started drinking.
Esha: Yeah.
Cauvery: so yeah, so it's it's it is fan service. It also talks about addiction because that was his life's work towards the end where he was advocating for you know, against addiction. He was supporting the cause. So it made sense in that in that way. But what what are the things you felt like it had left out?
Esha: Matthew Perry famously also didn't want to be remembered as Chandler Bing. But
Cauvery: Yeah, we're trying to fight that.
Esha: he was trying to fight that. He was, you can see that he is a person who is driven by success. And so
Cauvery: Mm.
Esha: seeing that juxtaposition of someone wanting to excel, but also being hampered by something that in a way, even he's tried to say was a soul contract he made with God to become famous, right?
Cauvery: Yeah. Yeah.
Esha: So that was interesting, but there was a lot left out. And I remember one of the last few times Matthew Perry was really in the news,
Cauvery: Mm.
Esha: before his biography was when he was at the Friends Reunion. And that's barely touched upon. Actually it's sort of Yeah, swept under
Cauvery: Yeah. Yeah. Pushed under the carpet as much as possible.
Esha: yeah.
Cauvery: And with right reason because it's a very uncomfortable watch. So in 2021, just towards the fag end of COVID, I would say, they have this big reunion. It's like the biggest televised event of that year. I remember Sony Liv bought the rights to it and I literally downloaded the app just to watch this reunion. And it was so exciting to see all six of them back together again. for Stardust Matthew, when he comes in last, right? And we find out in the doc why he comes in last, because he was really struggling at that point in time. And they wanted to minimize the production crew wanted to minimize his time on stage. So he comes in last. And even after coming in last, it's a difficult watch. his speech is slurred. He's clearly lost, I think, a couple of teeth. I don't know. They don't get into how those teeth are lost because his mouth is fully like sunken in in the sides, like as if all his molars are gone. he is gesticulating very overly animatedly, he's sometimes inappropriate, he's talking off-camera. He's literally behaving like a drunk would, Though we're told that he he was in rehabilitation at this point in time. but later on we find out that he was actually using at this point in time. So it kind of makes sense when you see the dog and you tie those things together, but it was an uncomfortable watch. Did you watch it when it came out?
Esha: I remember I remember watching it and
Cauvery: Y
Esha: I do have to say that big maybe my reading of it more more so was a how all the women from the Friends cast have gone on to have massive careers
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: from the ones from the guys Matthew Perry did actually have fruitful career, like 17 again,
Cauvery: Compared to the other two, yeah.
Esha: yeah, compared to the other two.
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: But even in the midst of it, the me men had really aged.
Cauvery: they be all it's very poorly.
Esha: Yeah. So for the clip, for there is a clip of three of them sitting and Matthew Perry is off camera, telling someone to shut up. Okay. And and then you realize at some point that they can sort of hear overhear some of the interviews that the girls are giving in one corner.
Cauvery: Okay.
Esha: And that's why he's doing that and doesn't remember that he's on a three shot. So
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: in a way and then obviously they make a joke out of it and David Schimmer and Matthew Blanc j cover it up and join in.
Cauvery: Cover it up, yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Esha: And so you don't know what if it was a bumbling thing or he just didn't know he was off cam on camera
Cauvery: that was
Esha: or
Cauvery: he I mean, if you have your wits about you, you'll know, right? Like an the first thing an
Esha: Yeah.
Cauvery: actor knows is whether the camera he's in the frame or not. Like
Esha: Yeah.
Cauvery: that's just basic one on one of an actor and he's been acting since he was really young. So that's the first thing he should have clocked. So he doesn't have his wits about him and you can tell.
Esha: Yeah, he could have called someone over and passed on the message. There are multiple ways to go about it. I do feel
Cauvery: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Esha: like that is the one clip that I also saw and I was like, there is something deeper going on here. But
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: also this documentary also misses out on all the friends. The five of them
Cauvery: Ya
Esha: didn't come because they said they wanted to grieve their friend. They're still in mourning.
Cauvery: just an excuse.
Esha: It is there's a lot of there are a lot of people from his life missing. So
Cauvery: Yeah. Yeah.
Esha: famous
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friends.
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: friends, the five friends. Hankazaria I meant by famous friends, but even his like girlfriends.
Cauvery: Even in the five yes. Yeah. Almost all the famous ones basically. Yeah. Yeah.
Esha: All of the famous ones are missing. There there are some lovers, ex-lovers who do come. but again, the I think the nice thing was that the lack of famous people
Cauvery: Mm.
Esha: meant that the conversation was a bit more unfiltered because the media training hasn't kicked in, and the
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: friends were a little bit more his actual friends were a little bit more upfront about. The times he has missed weddings, the times that they had to complain to his father, the times that different things the they have been worried. And right before the Friends Union, he goes through a near death experience, which is central. But
Cauvery: Expedience. Yeah. Yeah.
Esha: there is a dark theory that you have about the show, right?
Cauvery: I don't know if lots of people have read this, but it was all over Reddit at one point in time. And there is this dark theory that friends is actually a figment of Phoebe Buffet's imagination. That she is this homeless person living on the on the fringes of society, and she operates. So she's also she was a mugger, right? Like she was a street thief, so to speak. And that that's the street that she operates in in Manhattan, and she looks in through the window and she sees these five friends on the couch and she imagines what life would be if she was a part of this of these five friends. And
Esha: Yeah.
Cauvery: someone has really gone through the details of literally pulling out every episode and showing why it's told through Phoebe's perspective. It's quite a someone's done a real detailed deep dive of it. It's an interesting watch. Go into Reddit and search for it, guys. It's a great read. And because she's such an outlier, right? All of them, the other five are These slightly elitist, at least four of them are from very rich families. Joey's from whatever Queens, a big bumbling Italian family, but they make sense together. She just doesn't make sense in this equation. She thinks so differently from all of them. She doesn't come from the same socioeconomic background. It you don't understand how she's even surviving in Manhattan on this like part-time mess use sort of situation. it doesn't add up.
Esha: Yeah. She has an extraterrestrial quality to her.
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: and you you don't actually know how she's joined the friend group also. Yeah. I
Cauvery: We're not told, no. No.
Esha: mean you know you ha you know about everyone else.
Cauvery: Yeah, yeah.
Esha: There's a sibling, there's a lover, there's a college flatmate, there's a struggling actor, friend.
Cauvery: Thread, yeah. flat. Hmm.
Esha: So everyone knows how the friends have come Phoebe is sort of in the middle. If you actually remember any theories, please write them in the comments so that I can refresh that. But genuinely
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: in a similar vein, when I
Cauvery: Mm.
Esha: was watching the doc and Kavir and I were talking, i it is It does seem like this is Matthew's younger sister Mia Perry's version of looking at Matthew Perry's life.
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: it is very much she's a she's a sibling who has come 14 years after Matthew. she's a sibling from his dad's side, half half sibling.
Cauvery: Yeah. Sub system.
Esha: But his entire mom side is missing. there is nobody nobody else from his family. he has five half siblings from that side as well. They are missing. He was from a privileged background. So his mother
Cauvery: Yeah, very much.
Esha: was working in the Trudeau cabinet. And his stepfather was a news anchor man. his
Cauvery: Mm.
Esha: father himself was a celebrity. I mean he was an actor. And
Cauvery: Okay. Mm.
Esha: and had acted with who ch plays Chandler Bing's mom i in the show. So
Cauvery: Yeah. Yeah.
Esha: He was from the circle, but everything that you kind of learn about it is from Mia Perry's sort of POV of him, which
Cauvery: Yeah, yeah.
Esha: also means that the storyline only begins when he is seventeen, eighteen. also she is a psychotherapist as a direct result of being around Matthew Perry, she claims. So
Cauvery: She decided to, yeah.
Esha: Yeah, because she saw addiction as a an illness that ha hung over her family. And everything that you hear, that's why I feel like the addiction was so central to this entire role. And
Cauvery: Mm-hmm.
Esha: the way that she talked about him was like someone looking at someone's life from outside a window. Because there is an age gap. And that is
Cauvery: Yeah, yeah.
Esha: why her po it was so poignant when he's going through a near-death experience.
Cauvery: Mm.
Esha: She's fresh off childbirth, postpartum,
Cauvery: Childbirth, yeah.
Esha: breastfeeding her child while
Cauvery: Mm.
Esha: she's also taking care of her brother who has a two percent chance of surviving. So that is my theory.
Cauvery: Yeah. Yeah. No, that's it's a it's a valid theory. I also think some of the the way that some of these deals are cracked with a studio, right? so Netflix is currently on Friends, right? We I mean right now it's on Friends as Friends is currently on Netflix, windowing on Netflix. It keeps windowing on multiple platforms.
Esha: Yeah.
Cauvery: so they must have taken that opportunity to say that, you know, this is a great time to do a talk on him. And I feel like Her family, his family agreed to it if they would highlight the advocacy part of his life. sometimes those are the sort of deals that are struck between the family of because you need to take their permission before you do a doc like this, right? Next of kin is the first person that you need to take permission from when you're doing a doc. And she had power of kin.
Esha: Yeah. She and she had the power of attorney. She ki mentions it.
Cauvery: When you do a doc posthumously, you next of kin, whoever has a power of attorney. So then she
must have chosen to highlight it, which is why you're absolutely right. Everything is pretty much From her perspective. She talks about how at the funeral she had not met the other five friends in twenty years. Since like the I think the last time she saw them was at the farewell episode. And she's not really seen them. And I I don't know if that's telling that they
Esha: Yeah.
Cauvery: were not a part of his life after friends ended. I don't know. It felt like that.
Esha: she she and Matthew Perry also lived in separate areas. So
Cauvery: Yeah, yeah.
Esha: Matthew Perry also had a he had a very strong career during Friends. right, before Friends, you know y they tell you about how he has been struggling to get cast.
Cauvery: More serious.
Esha: yeah, I mean it's something that suits him. Like he's in
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: very offbeat, generic sitcoms but Friends is really the turning point. And once he's in Friends, he uses that
Cauvery: You
Esha: momentum to launch his movie career as well. And you have yeah, interesting movies coming out from him. even
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: after Friends got over, we continue to see him like that. But the thing is, during the ten years of Friends,
Cauvery: Mm.
Esha: you already have so many times that his addiction is brought up. I mean, year
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: two or three is when his addiction is already there. A lot of blind items and that was a thing, that was a way of people consuming rumors, but a lot of blind items of that time.
Cauvery: Mm.
Esha: mention Matthew Perry's drug addiction
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: in them.
Cauvery: Yeah. they were about his drug addiction, they're about his behavior with with women. He mostly dated much younger women later on, of course, in his life. When during Friends, I think he had access to the celebrity actresses, so you would see him dating the Julia Roberts and Gwenneth Paltrose and, Lizzie Kaplan's of the world.
Esha: Yeah.
Cauvery: and then another interesting way to to to know which phase of addiction he was, and he talks about this himself, is whether he was thin or he was fat. Right. So if he was thin, he was using and he was in the throes of an addictive cycle. And if he was overweight or he looked fatter, it meant that he was in rehab. So I found that
Esha: And any friends viewer, nobody needs Friends to be set up for them, but if you if there was a clue, Friends was I think for the longest
Cauvery: Fellow.
Esha: running time sort of like a central piece in everyone's life who was a t television consumer of like TV comedies.
Cauvery: Yeah. Very, very central.
Esha: They were they were ridiculously famous, so famous that they could walk in and say we want a million each an episode. so David Shimmer had unionized them and gotten that done for them. And they had to pay because genuinely it was that friends were them and of all the people, I feel like Chandler and the docu also kind of pushes that. Chandler was closest to Matthew Perry, as Matthew Perry was the closest.
Cauvery: Yeah, in terms of character, right?
Esha: Yeah, everyone else seems to play a role and they were the same person.
Cauvery: Yeah. I do feel like it it was close to him already. And then as he came on the show, he was the last to be cast apparently and was the hardest casting. I can understand why it was the hardest casting. I
Esha: Yeah.
Cauvery: feel like the writers also molded the character, on him as much as possible because
Esha: Yeah.
Cauvery: he was such a natural comic actor that, it k like they molded the apparently a lot of the lines were ad-lipped by him. he would he would stuff a lot. Yeah.
Esha: Yeah, seems it I the the syllable thing of putting emphasis on different syllables. And it is it is that, right? Like one
Cauvery: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Esha: up after Joey's How You Doin'? And we were on a break, could I be more? Yeah.
Cauvery: Yeah. But I could I pee more Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So it's what I find really remarkable is that through his addiction, and we realize how crazy his addiction was, how intense it was, and how like debilitating it was at certain places, he's managed to hold on to a very successful acting career. Like he's d he did the whole nine yards, he did a lot of like he did seventeen again, he did a lot of like Really good roles. I know Jen and Courtney also had decent film careers, but so did he, like in rival to the other two men to didn't have anything and Phoebe also didn't have much going for her at that time. But that is shocking because it's very hard to get your life together when you're in the throes of that sort of addiction.
Esha: Yeah. In many ways he was able to shake off sort of Chandler's exterior,
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: but still have like s sort of Matthew Perry essence. And so his re roles kind of looked like a cousin version of Chandler Bing, but never
Cauvery: Short.
Esha: he I think he tried hard to make sure that it was Matthew Perry. Like he he seems like someone who is driven by the method of acting as well. Yeah.
Cauvery: Yeah, and ambitious. usually people who are battling addiction, it tends to temper your your your ambition a lot. I've experienced it personally. I had a parent battling with addiction, and what started off as an ambitious person over the course of time, it really like you're you're only looking for your next fix, right? And you're looking for just enough money to get your next fix. It's rarely about building this legacy for yourself. So that itself surprises me that you know he had that focused goal of I will build this legacy for myself. I will not be known only as Chandler Bing. I'll be known as this person who had this amazing repertoire of cinema. So that hats off to him to have attempted to do that. I do want to talk about one thing that I think the doc left out in terms of his addiction, which I think is very pertinent. There is a, of course, all our information comes from Reddit friends, but I'm I'm thinking this is real and this actually happened.
But there is a story on Reddit about how, as a baby, I think he was an infant, under one year old. And he had croup, which is this like wheezing cough or something you get in North America. No, we just have we just have Kasi. There it's called croup,
Esha: Is it this is not something in our part of the world, so or we don't call that that.
Cauvery: okay? So anyway, croup is pretty severe if you if you get it under the age of one. So the protocol at that time to treat croup was they used to give the baby barbiturates. Okay. And it's very effective and it helps. But a lot the there is there are statistics that show that all babies that were given barbiturates as infants. end up having addiction issues when they're older. So that I thought is a really important thing that they didn't talk about. I don't know why they didn't talk about it. and sometimes those things are out of your hands, right?
Esha: Yeah, yeah. addiction is I'm sure addiction is different for different people. So you don't even know you can't bunch it all together, but which you have a v you have a very nuanced take of addiction, right? Because of having
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: seen it in other people and having noticed it elsewhere as well.
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: But but in Matthew Perry's case, it does seem
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: like it is a chronic illness because
Cauvery: Yeah. Yeah.
Esha: of the fact that he had the self-awareness of knowing
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: a how to manage alcohol and pills together,
Cauvery: Mm.
Esha: in a way that it doesn't affect his work. The moment it
Cauvery: Mm.
Esha: started affecting his work, he started trying to pull back. When things would go wrong in his life, he would admit himself into rehab. But there are
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: also I feel like his timeline of being addicted or not is
Cauvery: Mm.
Esha: vaguer in the documentary because there are parts of his life that I feel like even people weren't sure if he was using or not. But which I mean the reunion is one of them.
Cauvery: Yes, yeah. And
Esha: one of his friends just says the lesser I say the better and just leaves it at that.
Cauvery: Mm.
Esha: And the sister says, No, no, he was just very stressed because he had just come out of this surgery. And so you have to read a lot between the lines of the doc. But in
Cauvery: Between the lines. And you heard one story, right? About the the addiction part and whether w whether he fought going to rehab or he fought being caught.
Esha: Yeah, I the the thing is that with all that self awareness that we have, there is a s a year before he was found, a year or two before he was found in like shit, I shouldn't say it like that. Yeah.
Cauvery: Mm.
Esha: So in two thousand twenty-one or twenty
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: early twenty-two, before the book basically was launched,
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: there was sort of rumors
Cauvery: Mm.
Esha: that one of his live-in assistance or living sober buddies actually.
Cauvery: Mm. Mm hmm.
Esha: and he's had many sober
buddies through the years.
Cauvery: Yeah, over the else.
Esha: Had actually started seeing a relapse
Cauvery: Mm.
Esha: and had pointed it out, tried to intervene and
Cauvery: Y
Esha: she was physically abused in the sense that she was thrown yeah, assaulted like thrown
Cauvery: Assaulted. Mm.
Esha: toward the wall, things were thrown at her.
Cauvery: Mm.
Esha: But s soon after, that rumor came and soon after the rumour went back as well.
Cauvery: Mm, mm.
Esha: and that's so we I we don't actually know what how true that was, but it does seem like there is a gripe the sister has and again the sister has power of turning and actually driving the documentary. But the
Cauvery: Mm.
Esha: gripe that she has is with Kenny, who is his longtime live in assistant. 30 years, knows
Cauvery: Mm, yeah.
Esha: the family well, and sh he becomes sort of the other person who's named.
Cauvery: Y
Esha: in the people who were sort of charged after Matthew Berry's de death.
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: there were two doctors who were charged for supplying him ketamine because he was
Cauvery: Y
Esha: found with ketamine
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: in his blood system when he was found in his hot tub. And
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: of course, like one kingpin of ketamine
Cauvery: Indian lady.
Esha: Indian lady. Wow, hashtag pride. and get a mean queen, yeah. And Kenny,
Cauvery: What was it called? Ketamine Queen.
Esha: who was also charged with a few months of prison, which
Cauvery: Yeah. See these things no, and I
Esha: Yeah.
Cauvery: I my assumption is that the sister lives in a different state from him, and she's probably meeting him on the holiday. She's not an active caretaker of someone who's dealing with a chronic addiction, right? And only the person who's seeing that person on a day-to-day basis knows how hard that is. So for me, my my and I've seen this at such close quarters, and it'd be very politically incorrect to say this, but Addiction, especially when it's this strong and if you've if I think the ones who come out of addiction one or two rehabs and become clean for twenty, thirty years, they're safe. But the people who bounce in and out, right, it's a death sentence. It always is a death sentence.
Esha: Yeah. Yeah.
Cauvery: And I feel like someone like Kenny must have known that at very close quarters. So
Esha: Yeah.
Cauvery: we really don't know what transpired. We don't know if like Matthew Perry in a moment of lucidity said, you know, just end this for me. Or if Kenny was like, Bard me job, I've been I'm done. I can't do anything for you.
Esha: Yeah, yeah.
Cauvery: So you know, one of those two things might be true and I don't know if I would blame him for it.
Esha: Yeah, and sometimes it doesn't it's not even as Extreme as dying or not dying. Sometimes it
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: is as simple as this person is using etamine. Should I give them another round and another round? So it's a slippery slope. So one day goes back. So I
Cauvery: Yeah, you don't know, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Esha: mean I lost someone in my life to sort of heroin addiction and
Cauvery: Mm, mm.
Esha: it was that he he was in and out and
Cauvery: Mm
Esha: it wa it took it took one bad party to
Cauvery: Yeah, that's all it does take sometimes, yeah.
Esha: And there was I don't think it was like him wanting to die. And again, I do feel like because it was a famous person who was so central to so many lives and had
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: sort of like had a name for himself there was sort of swifter justice in this case. There's a lot
Cauvery: Yeah. Yeah.
Esha: more people who die of using but and b yeah
Cauvery: Also when it's a loved person, when a when a well loved person, you project your desires onto that person where no, no, he couldn't have done that. he
Esha: Yeah.
Cauvery: someone must have done it to him.
Esha: Which is what I find incredible, right? B that
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: when it is a celebrity and a drug overdose does happen, you
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: of course you you blame them in some way or the other, but you you try to pin blame elsewhere.
Cauvery: Pin blame on other people. Yeah.
Esha: but when I mean at least I've noticed it around and this is not an absolutist statement, but when people do die around you who are not famous people, the
Cauvery: Mm. Mm.
Esha: blame is on them.
Cauvery: Yeah. Yeah, of course, hundred percent. That is how it works. Yeah.
Esha: Yeah. Yeah. But it was an interesting I I feel one thing that we do do need to talk about is that
Cauvery: Mm.
Esha: w when something like this comes out, documentaries, and if you're tracking the kind of conversations that are happening, I'm glad, or at least Matthew Perry would be glad, that a lot
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: of what his fans are talking about online or
Cauvery: Yeah, yeah.
Esha: reminiscing is him being funny, him being loved, and his earlier things. And For a fan his book as well. I did try to read a version of it. Yeah,
Cauvery: Did it. Yeah.
Esha: i it is it is for a fan. You you have to want to know more about his life to want to read that.
Cauvery: Mm, mm.
Esha: but this doc is very much in that realm. And I think of the three episodes, the third episode the tearjerker. From start to
Cauvery: Hmm. it's quite
Esha: finish.
Cauvery: yeah, yeah, yeah. It was quite gut-wrenching to watch actually. Because you're you're also, like you said, right? I feel like if you had one anyone famous, one of the friends and all, they would have been so media trained, they'd have said, he was lovely and all of that. But these guys are just like bawling,
Esha: Howling.
Cauvery: It was hard not to break
Esha: Yeah.
Cauvery: into tears while watching them because you can see how deeply they felt. And it is a mark
Esha: Yeah.
Cauvery: of a of a I don't know I don't want to say good guy, but if it it is a mark of a real person when you've kept your real as close as he has. Yeah. Yeah.
Esha: real person, I would say. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, no, that that I agree. him being
friends with his sort of like earlier friends
Cauvery: Childhood friends, so to speak,
Esha: and have them constantly around.
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: even make them sort of characters and TV shows that you have power to like cast in. it's it is sweet. It is very nice.
Cauvery: Casting. Yeah.
Esha: and yeah, the s watching I think it was the the entire last episode is just I did not expect myself. Because I I just
Cauvery: You pray no.
Esha: I just thought I would be a little bit more staccato about it. But genuinely I was like, What the why am I crying at this? Yeah, I was very crying. Cry it
Cauvery: Yeah. Well fully crying.
Esha: was also because by then you've invested in all the friends and the and Mia, like and your your I don't know what it is about the last episode.
Cauvery: No, I I think it's also that he is the character that he really stays with you, right? Ross though I could never stand. Matthew's son Let's let's let's
Esha: Yes. Rang the friends. Come on. Cauvery. Rang the friends. Bitch about all the friends. Come on. Give it to me.
Cauvery: bitch about all of them. Okay, so first of all, all of them look terrible at the reunion. David Schwimmer was had so much filler in his cheeks. He looked like his face was going to burst. I actually out of the all of the friends, I only like Jen and Anniston. Actually I like Phoebe Buffet also. She's also been had an eclectic career. She's she's done well for herself. I don't
Esha: Yeah. Yeah.
Cauvery: have too much to say about the women, but the men are aged badly,
Esha: A badly.
Cauvery: but did not have great careers outside of Matthew Perry and his struggle with addiction. But relatively
Esha: They're relatively great. They they're relatively good. I actually went through the rankings of how much money they make, so I will bring that up.
Cauvery: so tell.
Esha: No no no please rank your friends.
Cauvery: rank my friends. Number one will be Matthew Perry. not because of this doc or anything like that. I just think the person who made me laugh the most, he was just incredibly funny. incredibly funny. And I don't think it's because the writers gave him the best lines. I think it was just him. It was just his body humor and stuff like that. I'm very partial to Jennifer Anniston. I don't know why. I I I like everything she's acted in. And like, you know, one of those actresses where you actively watch out for anything they're in and you enjoy watching it. I have actively like watched everything she's in. find Phoebe Buffy actually harder to digest as an actress. I find I don't know why though I I found it hard to watch. I remember watching what was that web show she put out? I've forgotten the name. But that's the only other thing I've watched of hers. LeBlanc did Joey and I remember trying to watch Joey with a lot of excitement and was so bad. It was so bad.
Esha: It was so bad. It was so bad. I don't even know why he did that. Because i i
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: the the you know what made friends was the writing. It was like million
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: jokes. It was also like you have t it is elder millennial core, right? Like it
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: is telling you sort of like things that time, like how t how they b rally about paying the bill fairly across how much money they make, etc. etc. These
Cauvery: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Esha: are like internal thoughts that had been put out.
Cauvery: put out there. So it worked. Matt LeBlanc is a character worked when he had reparty with the other friends. He very rarely had solo pieces because on his own, which is what happened in Joey, he was just didn't hold up. It just didn't hold up. Yes, I watched.
Esha: Yeah. I have to say, there's a show called Episodes that he made. I enjoyed him there, 'cause he just plays a mocky ek version of a celebrity. Yeah. He plays a celebrity,
Cauvery: Mm mm mmm. He's a bit of an asshole in that, right? As a character, yeah.
Esha: in the most like asshole celebrity way, but like
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: know it all bumbling both at the same time. It was interesting.
Cauvery: Yeah. Yeah.
Esha: Yeah.
Cauvery: Courtney Cox, I don't have anything to say. the Scream franchise was was whatever. She's not really had a great career outside of Friends to
Esha: Google Down.
Cauvery: ask me. Cougar Town also I didn't enjoy so much.
Esha: Okay.
Cauvery: Yeah. She's always like her I've never been able to divest the stuff she did to her face from her acting. You know what I mean? She just really messed on with her face at one point. Which is what Jen had done
Esha: Yeah. Yeah. I
Cauvery: beautifully. She did not mess with her face.
Esha: I remember when a adults came out,
Cauvery: Mm.
Esha: is when friends came back in our conversations because
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: there is sort of like a generation, sort of you can tell the generation and the humor by
Cauvery: Y
Esha: the the peak sort of like re representative show. And so
Cauvery: Hm.
Esha: for there was like a I would say elder Gen X, like Gen X is would be like a Seinfeld.
Cauvery: Yeah, yeah. Just me, just friends. Yeah. Yeah.
Esha: And then you had the elder millennials had friends, like a big friends. I was four four or five when Friends was started. So I was yeah.
Cauvery: I was in high school, I think, high school or later. Mm. Mm.
Esha: Yeah. I mean, I've seen the last few seasons of Friends properly on television as they were being shown.
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: and I couldn't obviously I had to be an adult to watch it because my father said it's show about sex and all you I know. But then yeah.
Cauvery: Yeah, I remember watching we were in we must have no, I must have been over thirteen when I started watching it. And and we were very we didn't understand anything at that time. So in that time all of it went over my head. But I
Esha: Yeah. Yeah.
Cauvery: thought okay, it'll be safe to watch with my ten year old. And then I had to immediately shut it off because actually they there's a lot of sex talk in it.
Esha:
Yeah.
Cauvery: I didn't know I didn't clock that at all before. It's when I started watching it
Esha: Yeah, because a lot of the jokes are cultural as well, right? it's a New Yorker joke and you don't it doesn't
Cauvery: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Esha: y you have to know the context of the situation. And that we
Cauvery: Yeah, yeah.
Esha: learnt later in life, and that's why watching friends is interesting as a non-US person because
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: as you're growing older and consuming more and more of what's happening, the jokes start making sense. So
Cauvery: Yeah. Yeah.
Esha: every time you learn a newer joke, for obviously after that came New Girl for whatever younger. sort of suburban mill like younger millennials.
Cauvery: Newcomb must have been like your time mostly,
Esha: Yeah, people around me used to watch New Girl. yeah. I used
Cauvery: Yeah, you're
Esha: to watch Doctor House, so that's the Doctor House, that's a separate thing. But adults was then for Gen Gen Z.
Cauvery: What's that?
Esha: and that's when everyone was like, yeah. And you
Cauvery: sí.
Esha: can see that the housing crisis
Cauvery: Y
Esha: through the fact that the Gen Z in this New York version lives
Cauvery: Mm.
Esha: in a parents house and
Cauvery: Mm.
Esha: all f one guy i lives in his parents house and all his friends live there with him
Cauvery: Mm.
Esha: and everyone's like sort of a little off, a little can be a little queer. It's a little like it's it's friendly, identity friendly. And friends
Cauvery: Huh. it's been famously Friends has been famously lambusted for having zero diversity.
Esha: No diversity. no diversity. and also the fact that all of them had like these huge apartments. Yeah. Which
Cauvery: Yeah, yeah. You would itch kids.
Esha: yeah, they give you a backstory for some of them, but not for Phoebe. Because she is a
Cauvery: Not for Phoebe. She is a CIA spy.
Esha: Yes.
Cauvery: That's another theory, by the way, on Reddit that she's a CIA spy. And again, someone has gone through the pains of listing out all the reasons why he thinks she's a CIA spy. And all of it makes sense also. That's the best part.
Esha: So, is there anything else that was missing for you in the doc? Blinds wise, I have to say one thing. I'm so
Cauvery: Mm.
Esha: glad they didn't have Selma Blair on because Selma Blair right now is having sh she would have yeah. She didn't bite the offer.
Cauvery: She'll be able to bitten him. What was with that though? Why is she going around biting people? For a living?
Esha: She apparently bites people. Okay, I have to say that Matthew Perry has obviously dated a lot of like celebrity people. He has a very questionable taste in women. Okay. Senoblair included, and his friends included.
Cauvery: Mm. Mm. Mm. Selma at some point.
Esha: Yeah. She apparently b bites people and she bit Kate Moss once and then
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: Kate Moss bit her back. and then
Cauvery: As one must.
Esha: she said that was a revelation because that's
when I realized how much I was hurting people and I like, wow. Crazy.
Cauvery: Selma Black, Gwennit Paltr, all of them have like dated all the big Hollywood guys.
Esha: Yeah.
Cauvery: Yeah. And then in his later years, what is again questionable is that he's dated like women literally half after his age.
Esha: Yeah. I there is no long term s barring maybe a Lizzie Kaplan, there is no long term relationship
Cauvery: There's no long term relationship with anyone.
Esha: and Lizzie Kaplan doesn't talk about him, apparently.
Cauvery: Yeah. And most of the women he dated later on in life were the women he met at AA. Most of them. All kids basically. I don't know.
Esha: Yeah. And they're all kids. What is he talking to them about? Which is what h I mean, I guess. Which is some yeah, there is if you look you there's a lot to read between the lines of the doc. And that's why
Cauvery: Yeah. Yeah.
Esha: I would say it's it kept my interest even because even when the first two episodes were slightly boring,
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: I could I I was interested because I was trying to figure out what they're leaving out.
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: And then the third one just was a heartbreaking mess. So a very
Cauvery: Yeah. Yeah.
Esha: fulfilling watch.
Cauvery: Very fulfilling watch. Do you think that Netflix should have gone the HBO and dropped it one every week?
Esha: my god, no. No. you tell
Cauvery: No no. This was for me.
Esha: me about one A, obviously this is a programming win for them, right? Like three years, they're like on his anniversary.
Cauvery: short. One yeah, yeah. On his anniversary and all. Yeah.
Esha: Genuinely I wouldn't have thought about his anniversary if the dog hadn't dropped. But
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: I'm assuming friend like a fan would have. which also
Cauvery: Yeah. Yep.
Esha: makes me wonder how fast executives work in
Cauvery: if you need to work fast, then you work fast, which is why I think, they would have quickly gone to whoever has a power of attorney, which is his sister, and she would have said, Okay, but I want it want the doctor to look this way and I want to talk about his advocacy. I
Esha: Yeah.
Cauvery: don't want to do I don't want to dwell on these other celebrity aspects of his life. I want to focus on his addiction and help other people and that must have been basically
Esha: Yeah.
Cauvery: the way it must have got commissioned. And pretty fast. Yeah.
Esha: I wouldn't have reached if it was a weekly drop, I wouldn't have reached episode three.
Cauvery: Mm-hmm. yeah.
Esha: I would have abandoned it midway.
Cauvery: Because episode one and two are very boring.
Esha: One and two are o yeah, it's nice and okay,
Cauvery: They're just recaps.
Esha: but the catharsis and it it is i this is a catharsis doc.
Cauvery: It it felt like it the f first two episodes are just stuff that we watch on YouTube Reels is basically it feels like all of that is compiled together in first two episodes. Exactly. It literally felt like when YouTube
Esha: Genuinely. Yeah. someone's YouTube essay about Matthew Perry's life. Yeah, the quality was very that.
Cauvery: No, so a hundred percent it should have just been a like an one hour doc. It should have been it should have ended it. Yeah.
Esha: Yeah. In his memoir, okay,
Cauvery: Yeah.
Esha: he wrote that if he died, it would shock people but not surprise them.
Cauvery: Mm.
Esha: Fair assessment on his part.
Cauvery: A hundred percent. Fair assessment from someone who is an addict and very much would echo with someone who's dealt or lived closely with people who are addicts. Because when it comes to addiction, especially when addiction is like this, where it's literally chronic, right? It's not a question of of if, it's a question of when. So yeah. I have nothing else to say.
Esha: that's a review of the one about Matthew Perry. thank you. And you can tell us in the comments if you want us to review a certain doc. because you wanna bring some goalies back.
Cauvery: olden Goldies. So yeah, if you want some like really famous old dogs back or you want us to do I mean there is a commenter who's asked us to do Indian dogs. So that's in review. We're trying to figure out which one to to get into and maybe we can even get directors to come and chat with us over here. That'll be fun.
Esha: And if it hasn't been your day, your week, your month, or even your year?
Cauvery: Okay, bye guys.
Esha: I think