The One About Matthew Perry ★★
When an “authorised” celebrity docuseries boasts exclusive access to private archives and immediate family, we can be confident it’s going to lean towards hagiography, and this three-part series about Matthew Perry does just that.
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series → boast → that
It’s less a deep dive and more a surface skim that provides little insight into the Friends star, who died of a drug overdose in 2023, aged 54.
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who → ’ → 2023
Directed by filmmaker Emmy Award-winner Mary Robertson (whose most recent series include Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV and The Fall of Diddy), The One About Matthew Perry follows the well-worn path of celebrity documentaries that are afraid to offend.
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that → direct → documentaries
While pitched as a “celebration of Perry’s life”, in reality it’s a fawning, straightforward biography that stretches back to his childhood, mostly told by his half-sister Mia Perry Bowick, and two of his longtime mates, David Pressman and Roger Castillo.
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that → pitch → mates
We get the requisite childhood photos and footage, memories of Pressman, Castillo and others (among them Hank Azaria), but intriguingly, none of his cast mates from Friends – Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc – take part.
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none → get → part
Perry’s sister puts this down to it being still too painful and raw for them to publicly revisit his death, but we’ll obviously never know.
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we → put → death
By the end of the three-episode series though, it’s hard not to wonder if this is because perhaps they didn’t have only glowing things to say about the late actor.
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they → ’ → actor
It’s not until past the two-hour mark that a negative thing is uttered, when a former girlfriend reveals Perry had been cheating on her for a year.
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Perry → ’ → year
For fans of Friends, there is very little of the sitcom that made Perry a star.
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Perry → be → sitcom
There’s a telling quote from Perry early on (and which he wrote about in his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing) in which he declares he asked God to “make me famous.
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me → ’ → God
You can do anything you want to me; just make me famous”.
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me → do → me
This invocation obviously came true with the role of Chandler Bing – and the rest of his life.
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invocation → come → life
We’re told Perry was “complex” and flawed” but given nothing below those surface descriptions.
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Perry → tell → descriptions
Even his addiction, we’re told, is caused by the opiates he was prescribed after a jetski accident; it’s not until the final episode that his struggle with depression is mentioned, his reason for using the Ketamine that would end his life.
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that → tell → life
There is his opiate-induced colon perforation, which almost killed him, his successful addiction advocacy, and a slew of former girlfriends and other talking heads, most of whom tell us that Perry was the comedic genius of his generation.
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Perry → be → generation
But for fans who have read Perry’s memoir – by all accounts a much less unctuous account of his life – there are not many revelations.
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who → read → life
Unless you count the fact that his Friends castmates held hands as they walked to his coffin at his funeral, which sounds straight from the hands of the sitcom’s scriptwriters, frankly.
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which → count → scriptwriters
Perry reportedly spent more than $7 million on 15 stints in rehab throughout the years, 30 years in therapy, and attended some 6000 AA meetings.
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Perry → spend → meetings
This series is one for the hardcore fans, but I venture even they might find the three-hour duration at least an hour too long.
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duration → venture → fans
The One About Matthew Perry is now streaming on Netflix.
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One → stream → Netflix
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Watchlist → get → ?
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man → return → Logie
- A field guide to Nathan Fielder: What to watch while you wait for You Can See Everything, “the movie of the year”.
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You → watch → year
- Watch (below): Deputy TV editor Meg Watson recommends Dustfall, the incredible new ABC drama you should be watching.
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you → watch → Dustfall
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