Friends is the epitome of nostalgia for me. So when I picked up my second retrospective of the show, I expected to get all the same “I need another rewatch” kind of feelings that I got when I read I’ll Be There For You last year. No such luck.
I don’t know who this book is for. If it’s for the uber fan, you’ll immediately turn them off by a needless in-depth retelling of several episodes that those fans (like me) already know line by line. If it’s for the casual fan, there’s way too much info about the creators or things outside of the show that at times can make you forget you’re reading a book about Friends.
This did have some good details that I hadn’t known before, especially about the early early days of making the pilot, but a lot of the rest was lackluster. This was pretty much just a play-by-play of the making of the show, and less about why it took off like it did and why it still holds the affection of so so many people. I’d recommend the other Friends retrospective, I’ll Be There For You by Kelsey Miller, instead if you’re just looking for a nostalgia fix (with a dose of healthy critique as well)
Generation Friends: An Inside Look at the Show That Defined a Television Era by Saul Austerlitz Read on audio, narrated by Barrett Leddy
