The 'Friends' Reunion That Lost Its Nerve

(This piece about the Friends reunion gives away things that happen on the Friends reunion. Be warned!)

Well, there it is. The One With The Nostalgia — sort of.

Originally, nostalgia was understood to be a weighted and sad feeling — a disorder, even, a disruptive and painful longing for home. It came from the same root as pain-related words like fibromyalgia and analgesic. It wasn't quite the same thing as reminiscing with your college friends or telling funny stories about your kids when they were growing up. And it definitely wasn't the same thing as a clip show.

What's funny about the delayed reunion special, which is now available on HBO MAX after a year of COVID delays, is that it flirts with the emotionally satisfying definition of nostalgia. Six actors — you probably know the ones if you're reading this far: Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer — return to talk about the show that made them all enormous stars, at least for the span of time between the fall of 1994 and the spring of 2004. Their fates since then