I found it strangely fascinating watching the Friend’s Reunion and have been thinking about the process of “growing old gracefully” ever since. Of course they still all look great, they were all beautiful people in the first place, but it got me wondering about how hard it is to still look good in your 50’s and at what cost? Not only literally – for the endless fillers, botox, facelifts and hair dye, but for your mental health too? It would be exhausting to have to keep trying to be thin, young, beautiful, rather than just go with the (downward) flow and let it all hang out. When I get together with old friends now, it’s noticeable how much we’ve (mostly) all changed.
Mainly it was interesting to me that they are all ageing differently. The boys have done well to all keep their hair. Ross still has LOADS. They’re all about the same age as me, so I know how harsh the body can become with regard to droopy or puffy skin and hair that refuses to stay dark brown. Perhaps that’s why I was drawn to Matt LeBlanc, who seemed to be the only one who looked truly comfortable in his own skin, in an age appropriate sort of way. I get that they would all be under pressure to look as good as possible, but you want your face to still be able to move and you don’t want your skin to look slightly too small for you.
Sorry, terrible photo, but you’ve all seen them anyway.
I didn’t really need to see them all together again, I loved them back in the day and wanted to be Rachel and have her hair like every other woman I knew at the time. It was always going to be a bit like staring at animals in the zoo with fascination, but my daughter was watching it, so I joined her. “Friends” has been the go-to programme of choice for two of my kids since they were very young. Especially these days, when they’re having a “hangover day” on the sofa. So for as long as I can remember, the episodes have been on endlessly in my house at the weekends and I suspect that my kids will have seriously added to the “over 100 billion times” watched figure.
I enjoyed listening to David Crane and Marta Kauffman talk about how the programme came together. Strange to think we know so little about the two of them compared to the cast, given their global phenomenon status. James Cordon was not required I didn’t think, nor was the fashion show or the celebrities commenting on their favourite characters. The reading the scripts worked well, you could see their professionalism and I loved the bloopers and watching them go backstage again. I have also noted that Jennifer wore a polo neck with no sleeves, which might indeed be the way forward for someone my age with a wrinkly neck. Going to give it a go. But what about if you have wrinkly arms too??
It must have been tough in many ways to be back in the public eye and under such scrutiny. Poor old Matthew – I didn’t think he was slurring, but even after all this time, it must be difficult to take the criticism, even if they did get $2 million each for that appearance.
So thank you Friends for keeping my children entertained and for being the gift that just keeps on giving!
And of course we all hope that Jennifer and Ross finally get it together IRL!
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