It’s hard to believe it’s been 30 years since Friends debuted, especially since the show is still so ubiquitous in pop culture. It’s still among the most popular streaming series, and the show has fans that span from Gen X to Gen Z. To celebrate the 30th anniversary, and to squeeze as much out of the show’s IP as possible, Max has created a four-episode game show to test superfans’ knowledge of the show.
Opening Shot: One of the first scenes of the Friends pilot, where Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston) is introduced to the rest of the group while in her wedding dress.
The Gist: Fast Friends is a four-episode game show, hosted by Whitney Cummings and shot at The Friends Experience in New York. In each of the first three episodes, three teams of two players compete to see which one knows the most about Friends. The winning teams in each of the first three episodes compete in the fourth episode’s finale, with the prize being the Geller Cup (you know, the one Monica (Courteney Cox) and Ross (David Schwimmer) would compete for every year during the family’s Thanksgiving touch football game).
A replica of Central Perk is the home base, and Cummings spends time getting to know the contestants, and why Friends meant so much to them. The three teams first play a buzz-in round; they are shown a classic scene from the show and have to guess the next line after the scene is frozen. The first team where both members answer correctly get a 30-second advantage in the race round, the second team to complete the round get a shorter advantage, and the third gets no advantage.
As we said, the next round is timed; the teams race to replicas of the sets for both Monica and Rachel’s apartment and Joey (Matt LeBlanc) and Chandler’s (Matthew Perry) place. In the first episode, there’s also a replica of the stairway in Ross’ building, on which he bellowed “Pivot!” to Rachel and Chandler while they moved a couch.
During those rounds, they have to complete tasks, like find a key to Monica’s “closet of doom” and find an old answering machine. They also have to answer trivia questions about the show or memorize scenes and answer questions about them. Right answers get the teams more seconds knocked off their race time; time is added on if they get a question wrong.
Back at Central Perk, the teams can earn more time to be knocked off by guessing the names of episodes whose synopses are read by Cummings. The team with the fastest time after adjustments are made go to the finale.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The gameplay of Fast Friends is very similar to Supermarket Sweep, of all things. Of course, lots of Friends clips are played on the show, and guest stars from the series show up, either by voice, or in person.
Our Take: The gameplay on Fast Friends can get a little repetitive, given that the bulk of each episode shows the teams running through the three challenge tasks during the race round. Cummings keeps things moving with her ad-libbed asides and the self-deprecating one-liners that are a signature of her standup act, but with that much repetition, the pacing of the show is almost fully dependent on how interesting the contestants are and how well they play the games.
The first episode was basically question after question, and the guest voices only showed up on the answering machine with pre-recorded questions. On the second episode, though, Maggie Wheeler shows up as Janice and asks questions of the contestants, and the second and third games also vary things up. It also seems that the contestants in episode two are a bit more competent than the ones in episode 1. But that could just be our perception, given how much more varied the games in that episode were compared to the first episode.
There are confessional interviews with the teams that make Fast Friends feel more like a reality competition like Lego Masters than a true game show, and the show is full of Friends music cues and canned studio audience reactions. The latter two items give the show a bit of an uncanny feel, like you’re watching a simulation of Friends episode instead of the real thing. But the clips bring back memories of Friends that you may have forgotten about, and Cummings’ hosting is like comedy mortar in between the gameplay moments.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: The winner of the round is declared, and Cummings gives all the contestants a congratulatory hug. Also, the first episode is dedicated to Perry, who’s already been gone over a year.
Sleeper Star: One of the other things about Cummings as host is that she roots hard for the contestants, giving them high-fives and yelling at them to “go, go!” to help shave seconds off their time. Rooting for the contestants is an underrated skill that a good game show host really needs to have.
Most Pilot-y Line: The music cues get weirdly oppressive after awhile, mainly because of the cognitive dissonance that ensues. “Am I watching Friends? No, I’m watching random people answer questions about Friends. Damn you, music cues!”
Our Call: STREAM IT. While the gameplay on Fast Friends drags a bit a times, Cummings’ enthusiastic hosting (you can tell she’s also a huge Friends fan, as well) and the fun variations in games and guest star surprises make the show a fun trip down memory lane.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.