There’s a fascination many Americans have with their college years, but it’s doubtful even that sentimentality and reminiscence will find much to latch onto in the annoying and disappointing Friends From College, which launches July 14 on Netflix.
Led by the usually always on-point Keegan-Michael Key as an adulterous and critically acclaimed novelist looking to cash in, this New York City regathering of self-centered and unappealing Harvard alums two decades on from their graduation glory days is simply lame at best, as I say in my video review above.
To put it another way: take every recycled or well-worn Ivy League college reunion, cliché and despicable adult trope, drain whatever Big Chill charm it has and dump in talent like Key, How I Met Your Mother’s Cobie Smulders, Fred Savage, Annie Parisse, Nat Faxon and Jae Suh Park plus a totally miscast Billy Eichner and SNL’s Kate McKinnon into a narrative food processor. Flick the script switch so they, empathy, humor, and overall interest are pulped and liquefied versions of themselves and you have this eight-episode comedy series created by Nick Stoller and Francesca Delbanco.
As HBO’s Veep, Hulu’s Eichner co-starring Difficult People and to some degree Transparent have shown sharp season after season, unlikable people can make for very good TV. The distinctly un-binge-worthy Friends From College is not an example of that.
Click on my review above for more on what I think about Friends From College, and why this summer filler from the streaming service doesn’t work. Tell us what you think too — will you be attending Friends From College this weekend?