We know them. We love them. We can all agree that Ross is a little creepy.
It’s Friends everybody!
It’s been a little over 15 years from when the season finale first aired on T.V., and the show’s reminiscent quality of a simpler (less technology filled) time has only increased its popularity. A whole new generation has found a connection to that apartment through the joys of binge watching on Netflix. However, a few months ago, Netflix was outbid by WarnerMedia for the rights to friends. WarnerMedia now owns the rights to friends for $85 million a year. After 2020, WarnerMedia will have rights to the next five years of Friends on it’s new streaming service HBO Max. 
But this is old news. The fun stuff started with the opening photo to Jennifer Aniston’s Instagram.
With that photo, Aniston broke the Guiness World Record for the account to reach 1 million followers the fastest. The selfie of all the main cast members had people excited but suspicious. Despite her claims that it was simply a cast hangout on Ellen, Ellen and many of the rest of us were not convinced. On October 27, Aniston struggled to tell Ellen the last time that the cast had just hung out because they missed each other. Then, Aniston shot down the idea of a reboot and Ellen pushed for some sort of a description, a movie, anything, but Aniston didn’t budge. Aniston did admit, ““We would love for there to be something, but we don’t know what that something is. So we’re just trying. We’re working on something.”
This seemed like it could be “something,” but as fans, we’ve been hurt before. What if this is just another celebrity hope crafted to sound like a promise? But then, on November 12, lightning struck.
In an exclusive article, The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that there was indeed a Friends reunion special getting talked about at HBO Max. According to the article, all of the cast’s main players have signed on and the project is in the talking stage. The WarnerMedia Entertainment and direct-to-consumer chairman Bob Greenblatt seems to be the force that is really pushing for the project. The reunion special would be a fantastic grand opening of the new streaming service, and a long fulfilled wish to fans.
There is not a date set for the beginning of the platform and, of course, the article does acknowledge that since this is still in the early stages, there is a chance that scheduling or some other factor will fall through and the reunion may still remain a dream. However I choose to remain hopeful and find some way to watch the episode as, if I’m being completely honest, I don’t think it’s going to be worth it to pay $15 a month for yet another streaming service.
Free trial anyone?
If you would like to read another article about this exciting possibility, here’s one that Buzzfeed wrote (it doesn’t work on chromebooks though): https://www.buzzfeed.com/marissamuller/friends-reunion-special-details
Your post, despite being well-intentioned, just reminded me that this year has pretty much been the harbinger of death for the Golden Era of Streaming, when we had everything we wanted to watch at our fingertips with Netflix (and maybe just a little Hulu on the side). Nowadays, everybody and their mother is coming out with new services, from Disney Plus and HBO Max to NBC’s Peacock.
Essentially, I’m afraid that what we’ll get is just cable 2.0: we’ll still have to pay for everything, but we’ll have the luxury of watching it on-demand. Why can’t TV just be like music, where Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, and (dare I say it?) even Tidal have similar-if-not-identical offerings?
In the future, we might not be able to talk to our friends about The Office or Parks and Recreation, because we won’t have the same streaming services! It’s a bit ironic that, just as Friends is getting a reunion special, the platforms on which it streams are only getting further and further apart.
I definitely agree. I’m going to miss not worrying about what shows were on what streaming service. Part of the reason Netflix did so well is that it had so so many shows and movies in one place. Now with the rising prices and the departing shows, people have to be much more strategic about what they subscribe to. Thank you for your comment!
This makes me so sad! My sister and I used to watch Friends together all the time at night and I feel like everything is changing now. I don’t like how everything is split up between different streaming services so that if you want to watch several different shows, you will probably have to subscribe to several different streaming services. Netflix used to have everything and now I feel like each year they lose more and more content. Now the prices for subscriptions to these streaming services are increasing and the shows just keep decreasing, and I just keep wondering if it’s worth it. Anyway, I love Friends and I hope they have some kind of a reunion or something like that. It’s so fun to see the old cast get together and have fun! I think that a lot of the fans really miss that show, and it has really become a timeless classic!