The state of fictional college friends reuniting for the sake of existential reflection and youthful hijinks
has never been stronger.
Just this summer, we’re getting Rough Night, about a group of white college friends who reunite for a bachelorette party, and Girls Trip, about a group of black college friends who reunite for a festival in New Orleans. Neither look particularly appealing (although, as The Outline illuminated, together they serve as a pretty good indicator of how reductively “white” and “black” movies still are).
Yesterday, however, the trailer dropped for Friends from College, an eight-episode Netflix series about—you guessed it—fortysomething friends from college.
It's available to stream on July 14th, and is helmed by Nicholas Stoller, who’s one of the few directors in Hollywood capable of making comedies that are both genuinely funny and commercially viable. His past films, including Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The Five-Year Engagement and both Neighbors entries, are quality entertainments, and just original enough to be compelling. They're also super rewatchable cable movies.
Based on this first trailer for the show, we’re going to be getting a lot of Cobie Smulders swearing, Nat Faxon sleeping with younger women, Keegan-Michael Key engaging in extra-marital sex and Fred Savage being Fred Savage. All of which I’m down for. (Especially the Cobie Smulders swearing part.)
At best, it’ll breathe some new life into a subgenre—the “Getting the Gang Back Together” subgenre—that’s been growing stale since some money-hungry execs decided we needed three fucking Hangover movies, and some other money-hungry execs discovered an audience for the penultimate Getting the Geriatric Gang Back Together flick, Last Vegas.
At worst, it might fill the Jacuzzi-shaped void left by Bachelor in Paradise this summer. R.I.P, you drunken frickin’ mess.
Just this summer, we’re getting Rough Night, about a group of white college friends who reunite for a bachelorette party, and Girls Trip, about a group of black college friends who reunite for a festival in New Orleans. Neither look particularly appealing (although, as The Outline illuminated, together they serve as a pretty good indicator of how reductively “white” and “black” movies still are).
Yesterday, however, the trailer dropped for Friends from College, an eight-episode Netflix series about—you guessed it—fortysomething friends from college.
It's available to stream on July 14th, and is helmed by Nicholas Stoller, who’s one of the few directors in Hollywood capable of making comedies that are both genuinely funny and commercially viable. His past films, including Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The Five-Year Engagement and both Neighbors entries, are quality entertainments, and just original enough to be compelling. They're also super rewatchable cable movies.
Based on this first trailer for the show, we’re going to be getting a lot of Cobie Smulders swearing, Nat Faxon sleeping with younger women, Keegan-Michael Key engaging in extra-marital sex and Fred Savage being Fred Savage. All of which I’m down for. (Especially the Cobie Smulders swearing part.)
At best, it’ll breathe some new life into a subgenre—the “Getting the Gang Back Together” subgenre—that’s been growing stale since some money-hungry execs decided we needed three fucking Hangover movies, and some other money-hungry execs discovered an audience for the penultimate Getting the Geriatric Gang Back Together flick, Last Vegas.
At worst, it might fill the Jacuzzi-shaped void left by Bachelor in Paradise this summer. R.I.P, you drunken frickin’ mess.
