The One About Matthew Perry review: Friends fans were bummed when they learnt that none of Matthew Perry’s co-stars from the seminal sitcom agreed to be a part of Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Mary Robertson’s three-part docuseries on the late actor. Ever since Perry, who played the sarcastic connoisseur Chandler Bing on the show, died on this day three years ago, all his five F.R.I.E.N.D.S. have largely kept a long yet dignified silence on the tragedy. By giving the docuseries a pass, they actually end up doing it a favour, since it gets more room and spotlight for Perry’s friends, sans any caps lock or periods in between.Matthew Perry’s life through his friendsThere’s an overarching narration by Perry’s own voice — through his tell-all interviews over the years — that serves as the spine of the docuseries. But peppered all over it are accounts of two of his closest, longtime friends — Roger Castillo and David Pressman. They lend not only a beating heart to the proceedings, but also pockets of gallows humour that serve as the irrefutable litmus test of their friendship with Perry, more than anything else. After all, he’s the man who famously wrote in his 2022 memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, “It is very odd to live in a world where if you died, it would shock people but surprise no one.”His prophecy rang true because all his friends — including half-sister Mia Perry Bowick — validate his prophecy that they saw his death coming. The only shocking aspect was the circumstance under which it happened. In fact, all of them admitted that, with his appearance on Friends: The Reunion in 2021, he “behaviourally” foretold his death. His exhaustion after filming the special was proof enough that he knew, in the deepest recesses of his heart, that he couldn’t go on for too long. His spokesperson may have dismissed the online chatter about the strain in his speech as a “dental issue” at the time, but Perry’s close ones pin it as the time when the actor had decided to hang up his boots.But Matthew Perry did strike back a year later, when he wrote his bestselling memoir, detailing his decades-long battle with drug abuse, alcoholism, and depression. Some of his friends and family speculate he’d never gone down the rabbit hole had he not met with an on-set skiing accident, that exposed him to prescriptive painkillers. The others observe that the highs and lows of an actor’s life — particularly while encountering the lull that followed the conclusion of Friends in 2004 — also served as a major catalyst. But Perry introduces drug addiction in his memoir — and in turn, in the docuseries narrated from the grave — as just a friend, who after giving him the initial bouts of happiness, just turned on him one day.Friends over F.R.I.E.N.D.S.And that’s exactly how the “the Big Terrible Thing” has been treated as The One With Mathew Perry. It’s probably like the former girlfriend, who’d get bowled over by Perry’s affable personality and self-deprecating humour. Even though she looks back at him fondly now, she can’t help but confess that he’d become too much to take on beyond a point. There’s be other exes who’d flag Perry just snapping out of relationships right when they’d start going somewhere. The docuseries briefly broaches his short-lived, fairly public romance with Julia Roberts after her cameo on Friends. Given she was at the peak of her Hollywood career, it’s quite a page out of the Notting Hill book.Because like Hugh Grant’s library store owner William Thacker in Roger Michell’s 1999 seminal romantic comedy, Perry also remained more or less of a commoner, at least when compared to his fellow Friends stars. He made several attempts at changing his perception and launching his career as a serious actor or a movie star, but his appeal would circle back to him at his funniest — as Chandler Bing — or at his darkest — him writing and fronting The End of Longing, a play on alcohol addiction. Like his Friends character, Perry’s primary identity became his dark comedy and witty barbs. Like his best friends on the show, no one knew what he was actually upto in life outside of that sense of humour.Which is probably why Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, and Matt LeBlanc did this docuseries a favour by giving it a miss. Their active participation could’ve taken the spotlight away from Perry, his life and struggles. Also, given his battle with drug addiction caused considerable scheduling delays in Friends, their accounts would be candid, yet one-note and measured. Aniston broke down even at the thought of re-watching Friends “after Matthew” on Variety’s Actor on Actor in June 2024. On the other hand, Kudrow admitted she’d never watched Friends until after the passing of Perry since that’s her way of remembering him.Story continues below this adAlso Read — Elnaaz Norouzi says she’s Iranian, will never truly belong to India: ‘I’ve to constantly prove myself’Clearly, all of them are still grieving in one form or the other for Perry, with whom they shared screen space across a decade. One of the most beautiful anecdotes about the shooting of the show comes from Matthew’s sister, who recalled how he shot the memorable scene of his wedding with Monica (Courteney) while still in rehab. She revealed that the whole family was present then because they just took it to be Perry’s actual wedding, given the looming uncertainty about his recovery. “There was so much love between Matthew and Courteney — platonic love, but so much love,” she said. Maybe in Chandler — and that romantic track of misfits with Monica — Perry found his unfinished story. Chandler was his alter ego, had he not gone down the dark path he did. It’s then ironic that his co-stars from that show gave Perry his due by keeping a distance from his docuseries. More than two decades after the show ended, finally came The One About (just) Matthew Perry.