{"id":658445,"date":"2026-10-27T09:36:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T09:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/658445\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T09:36:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T09:36:12","slug":"the-one-about-matthew-perry-review-netflix-docuseries-is-tragic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/658445\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The One About Matthew Perry’ Review: Netflix Docuseries Is Tragic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThere are not a lot of famous people in \u201cThe One About Matthew Perry<\/a>.\u201d None of the late actor\u2019s \u201cFriends\u201d castmates sat for an interview for the three-part Netflix docuseries; neither did Perry\u2019s longtime friend and \u201cSimpsons\u201d star Hank Azaria, who knew Perry as a striving young actor in L.A., or later collaborators like Bradley Whitford and Aaron Sorkin.<\/p>\n

\n\tOne could take this notable absence as an indicator of the access director Mary Robertson (\u201cQuiet on Set\u201d) and her team were, or were not, able to secure. But whether a matter of intention or circumstance, what emerges in place of star power is a more intimate portrait of Perry and his decadeslong struggle with substance abuse, leading to his death from a ketamine overdose in the fall of 2023. Through friends, family, fellow addicts and former partners, what emerges is a straightforwardly told, crushingly sad story of a man whose talent, humor and success were not enough to overcome a chronic disease.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe unofficial protagonist of \u201cThe One About Matthew Perry<\/a>\u201d is Perry\u2019s younger half-sister Mia Perry Bowick, a therapist who narrates what it\u2019s like to share a loved one with the world at the peak of the monoculture. Bowick is joined by Perry\u2019s close friends Roger Castillo and David Pressman, who recall frequent pre-fame nights with Perry and Azaria at West Hollywood\u2019s Formosa Cafe, as well as multiple ex-girlfriends and even a member of Gen Z who met Perry in one of his many rehab stints. (She says they partly bonded because, not in spite, of their age gap: \u201cI was born in 1997; you\u2019re not that big a deal to me.\u201d) Some of these voices, like \u201cThe Whole Nine Yards\u201d director Jonathan Lynn, can speak to Perry\u2019s artistic ability. Most, however, are there to testify to what the public didn\u2019t see, at least until Perry chose to share his start-and-stop road to recovery in venues like his 2022 memoir<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tBecause of such late-in-life disclosures, which Perry made after embracing his platform\u2019s potential to help others with similar issues, there aren\u2019t any bombshell revelations in \u201cThe One About Matthew Perry,\u201d or even much new information. An introductory title card positions the series as \u201cthe story of Matthew Perry\u2019s life, as told by his family and friends \u2014 and by Matthew himself.\u201d Though recent events<\/a> made me read that last clause and fear AI-assisted necromancy, Robertson\u2019s approach is formally straightforward and free of such ill-advised techniques. Interviews are supplemented with archival clips of Perry\u2019s screen work and interviews, and some of the show\u2019s most searing material is conveyed in the actor\u2019s own (previously recorded and publicized) voice.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cGod, you can do anything you want to me; just please make me famous,\u201d Perry freely admits to praying in his youth. (He got \u201cFriends\u201d shortly afterward, but ruefully notes that \u201cGod didn\u2019t forget\u201d about the first part.) \u201cThe One About Matthew Perry\u201d is more a collation of established facts about Perry\u2019s battles, including a sepsis-induced coma in 2018 resulting from his use of opiates, and an unveiling of new ones. What the project adds are personal testimonies about witnessing said battles up close, plus memorable observations like \u201cintimacy was his greatest fear and his greatest wish.\u201d Though the most memorable lines \u2014 \u201cReality is an acquired taste,\u201d say \u2014 fittingly belong to Perry.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFriends\u201d has a couple of representatives in Robertson\u2019s cast of talking heads, namely writer Jeff Strauss and former NBC Entertainment president Warren Littlefield; it wouldn\u2019t be possible to tell Perry\u2019s story without dwelling on his most famous role. What \u201cThe One About Matthew Perry\u201d does is situate the sitcom\u2019s run, which concludes by the docuseries\u2019 halfway point, within Perry\u2019s broader life: after a childhood feeling adrift between his remarried parents\u2019 respective family units, before attempted follow-ups like \u201cStudio 60 on the Sunset Strip\u201d and addiction interfering with his work. The 2021 \u201cFriends\u201d reunion<\/a> is presented as a source of great anxiety for Perry, who was hurt by online comments picking apart his mannerisms and appearance. Unbeknownst to viewers at the time, he was still recovering from his coma and the attendant complications.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe series\u2019 length allows \u201cThe One About Matthew Perry\u201d to communicate the protracted, start-and-stop nature of Perry\u2019s addiction, from first taking prescribed painkillers after an on-set injury while filming the 1997 film \u201cFools Rush In\u201d to the many cycles of relapse, detox and sobriety. Eventually, the actual circumstances of Perry\u2019s death \u2014 which resulted in multiple criminal convictions for Perry\u2019s dealers and live-in assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, who administered the fatal drug dose \u2014 are quickly addressed in the show\u2019s closing minutes. After so much emotion, the detour into factual legal territory via interviews with a former U.S. Attorney is abrupt, if necessary. Bowick grounds these data points with an impassioned condemnation of Iwamasa\u2019s enabling, arguing that he should\u2019ve tipped off family members to Perry\u2019s ketamine abuse. Such is the function of \u201cThe One About Matthew Perry\u201d: well-known headlines, reframed through the lesser-known perspective of those deeply affected.<\/p>\n

\n\tAll three episodes of \u201cThe One About Matthew Perry\u201d are now streaming on Netflix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are not a lot of famous people in \u201cThe One About Matthew Perry.\u201d None of the late…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[146,85,46,32251,285360,411],"class_list":["post-658445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-matthew-perry","tag-the-one-about-matthew-perry","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}