The One About Matthew Perry is a 3-part Netflix docuseries, directed by Mary Robertson, that examines the Friends star’s childhood, his rise to fame as one of the NBC hit’s ensemble of six, his addiction issues, cycling in and out of rehab, and the treatment that ultimately led to his accidental overdose death in 2023 at the age of 54.
Opening Shot: “For me, there’s sort of a bizarre need to lead a creative life,” says the voice of Matthew Perry as we see vintage shots of Los Angeles.
The Gist: Director Mary Robertson tells Perry’s story via some of his closest friends, like buddies David Pressman and Roger Castillo, and relatives like his younger sister, Mia Perry Bowick. The first episode covers Perry’s childhood, where he split time between Canada, where he lived with his mother, Suzanne Marie Langford (who later married NBC’s Keith Morrison) and Los Angeles, where he lived with his father, actor John Bennett Perry. His time as a young actor seeking the fame that came with hitting it big is also examined, where he hung out with Pressman and Castillo at a bar next to Warner Bros. studios, and the early parts he played as a sitcom guest star, in unsuccessful pilots and short-lived series.
Then Chandler Bing came along, a part Perry felt he was perfect for, given that even in the pilot script, he could see that he and Chandler had a lot in common. He was the last person cast, and as we all know, the fame of all six stars exploded after the first season. Perry wanted the fame, but also realized at some point that it couldn’t hide the issues he had with himself pre-Chandler. A jet ski accident on the set of his first film, Fools Rush In, got him hooked on opioids, and his skinny appearance during the film’s premiere indicated that he was not well.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The One About Matthew Perry is a pretty straightforward biographical docuseries, like the recent series Tyson.
Our Take: The One About Matthew Perry is one of those docuseries that promises details about a well-known star that viewers may not have gotten before, but it’s a frustrating viewing experience. For one thing, the people that agreed to speak to Robertson on camera feels incomplete.
For as many people who give interesting and intimate insight into Perry’s inner life, like his younger sister Mia and his buddies David and Roger, there are so many more people we don’t hear from. We would have like to have heard from his parents and stepparents. We hear from one Friends writer and then NBC president Warren Littlefield but not creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane. The only actor we hear from is Kevin Pollak, whose podcast interview with Perry is extensively used by Robertson. But we don’t hear from any of Perry’s Friends co-stars.
It makes us wonder if, aside from the occasional tidbit of information that may be new, if we’re going to hear a different narrative from what has been in the public domain for decades, or even the narrative Perry wrote in the memoir that came out a year before his death.
Parting Shot: As we see a skinny Perry speed away in a Porsche, we hear him say in an interview that shortly before Friends, he said to God that he’d give anything to be famous, and that now God was ready to collect.
Our Call: STREAM IT. As incomplete as The One About Matthew Perry is, anyone who was a fan of Perry’s (and we were definitely one of them) may still want to watch, just to relive his funniest moments and the moments of clarity he had in his life that led to those time periods where he was clean and self-reflective.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
