Plus Icon
Alison Herman
TV Critic
aherman2006 See All Add us as a Google Preferred Source
Add us as a Google Preferred Source 
Courtesy of Netflix There are not a lot of famous people in “The One About Matthew Perry.” None of the late actor’s “Friends” castmates sat for an interview for the three-part Netflix docuseries; neither did Perry’s longtime friend and “Simpsons” star Hank Azaria, who knew Perry as a striving young actor in L.A., or later collaborators like Bradley Whitford and Aaron Sorkin.
One could take this notable absence as an indicator of the access director Mary Robertson (“Quiet on Set”) 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.
Related Stories
