The One About Matthew Perry Review: ★★★★★ (5/5)
The One About Matthew Perry is a painful but powerful look at the Friends star’s life. It is honest about his struggles, and his sister’s open, caring words make it one of the most moving celebrity documentaries in a long time.
Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5)
Platform: Netflix
Genre: Documentary Series
Director: Mary Robertson
Featuring: Mia Perry Bowick
The Friends theme song promises that someone will always be there for you. In real life, Matthew Perry had family and friends looking out for him for most of his 54 years. Best known as Chandler Bing, he was often the funniest person in the sitcom, whether through physical gags or perfect timing on a single line.
But away from the cameras and the fame, there was a lot of pain, and Netflix’s new series, The One About Matthew Perry, shows plenty of it.
One critic admitted he did not expect to react so strongly. The reason is Perry’s sister, Mia Perry Bowick, who is a captivating and unflinching voice throughout. Before watching, the reviewer wondered why she agreed to take part and what good could come from it.
By the end, the answer was clear. She balances her words so well that she pays tribute to a brother she loved deeply while also explaining how hard and painful it was to watch him fight addiction. After watching, the reviewer felt he understood addiction, and Perry, much better, and felt huge sympathy for both of them.
What comes through is the picture of a very smart, talented man trying to run the career of an A-list star while fighting not to drink or turn to drugs whenever he felt low. People who worked with him praise his comic timing and his willingness to tweak scripts and tiny scenes to make a project better.
Yet for all his success, he never seemed fully happy. He had plenty of friends and no shortage of admirers, but he still felt alone at times, perhaps going back to his childhood, when he flew by himself between his mother in Canada and his father in Los Angeles after they separated.
In one old interview, he explains what he believed about himself. He thought he was too needy, that he was not enough, and that he did not matter, and his whole life was about trying to make those three things untrue. Mia adds that he spoke of an emptiness, a loneliness he could never quite fill.
His closest friends and girlfriends describe a pattern of relapses, where he lost the fight again and again. At one point, Mia says in tears that a lot of parts of him did not think a sober life was possible. Still, the series also remembers the good times.
Mia recalls when he first landed the Friends job, and being cuddled on set as a young girl by castmates like Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox. Perry could be wildly generous too. He bought her a Corvette when she was 15 and regularly treated friends and partners to costly gifts. He also spent about seven million dollars on rehab in his effort to get clean and stay sober.
One moment stays in the mind long after it ends. Mia describes visiting him in rehab in 2001 and being so overwhelmed that she ran and hid in a cupboard, crying, until her brother came to find her. She says he was her idolized big brother, the most special person on the planet, and seeing him suffer scared her.
As she grew up, she had to help him even more. In 2018, she rushed to the hospital to be with him just six weeks after giving birth. He came out of a coma and left the hospital after three months, against the odds, but the hope that it was his lowest point lasted only a few years.
This is a tough watch because it does not soften the story or the issues around addiction. That choice deserves praise. It is a world away from the many glossy celebrity documentaries that skip hard moments and keep things too simple.
Mia says she took part because Matthew shaped who she is today. She hopes the series gives everyone who loved him, up close or from afar, a deeper sense of who he really was. With director Mary Robertson, she has done him proud.
If you want something very different afterward, our review of Minimum Wage covers Netflix’s messy pizza shop comedy.
The One About Matthew Perry is now streaming on Netflix.