Do People Actually Like Reunions?
I guess Courteney Cox had a cameo on an upcoming episode of Brett Gelman’s Go On this week and tweeted a photo of herself with her former Friends co-star Matthew Perry. OK! I mean, I bet for the two of them it was actually kind of nice to see each other, although who even knows. Acting is weird, showbusiness is weird, they literally might have hated each other for the entire time they were making Friends and we would never know about it because that does not sell their fake romance. But so let’s pretend that they genuinely enjoy each other’s company (but also refuse to see each other outside of a paying, studio-lit television job) and that it was a treat for them to see each other. Good! It is these tiny moments that add up to make a life, or something. But, do other people like reunions? People who do not know the people who are reuniting? Obviously they must, since it is always quite a to-do when the cast of Freaks and Geeks sits on some bleachers, or when the mother from Malcolm in the Middle buys meth-amphetamine. Seems a little weird to me, though. It’s like if you and Janice from the old Accounts Payable department at that direct marketing firm you worked at just after college finally got a bloomin’ onion together at the Fridays next to exit 63B and you Tweeted a photo of it and everyone was like “OMG, <3 <3 <3!" Nothing against Janice, she was always nice to you and she had better candy in the dish on her desk than Pamela, but who are these strangers? And don't they recognize that any kind of reunion is the half-joyful acknowledgement of the inexorable passage of time as we all march slowly towards our inevitable death? Sure, that's a pretty dark spin to put on a totally harmless Twitter photo of Monica and Chandler in a fake restaurant and everyone's got to dispense their enthusiasm somewhere on something and why not this after all, but mostly this just reminds me that Go On is no Friends, and that half of the cast of Freaks and Geeks is not doing quite as well as the other half and it probably burns them up inside and makes the bleachers extra stiff against their butts. Maybe let the past be the past and look towards the future for whatever mysteries it may hold. But that’s just me, probably. HOW YOU DOIN’?!