The One About Matthew Perry

For millions of people, Matthew Perry will always be Chandler Bing, the friend with the sarcastic one-liners and the awkward charm. Behind that role was a long, very public struggle with addiction, one Perry wrote about openly in his 2022 memoir. He died on October 28, 2023, at 54. Three years later, Netflix has released The One About Matthew Perry, a three-part docuseries that premiered on October 27, 2026, one day before the anniversary of his death.

The title nods to the way every Friends episode was named. The series itself tries to go further than the sitcom, and critics mostly agree it succeeds. Here's what it covers and how it handles such a painful story.

Three hours, three chapters

The series runs three episodes, each about an hour long, and is rated TV-MA. It moves in order through Perry's life.

The first episode follows him from class clown to struggling young actor, up to the moment he's cast in a new sitcom called Friends. The second covers the years when his addiction became public, as he tried to keep working through a cycle of rehab and relapse. The third looks at his final years, including a serious medical scare, his hopes for a new treatment and the events that led to his death.

That last chapter also covers what came after. The series includes the prosecution of the people who illegally supplied the ketamine involved in his death, with former U.S. attorney E. Martin Estrada, who oversaw those cases, among the interviewees.

A sister's view

The heart of the series is Perry's younger half-sister, Mia Perry Bowick, a psychotherapist. Her participation gives the documentary a closeness that earlier tributes didn't have. According to Wikipedia's summary of the announcement, she wanted to show her brother "as a whole person, not just as Chandler, and not just as someone who struggled with addiction."

The series also draws on photos and home videos from the Perry family's own archive. Those personal images, mixed with decades of interviews and red-carpet footage, give viewers a fuller sense of who he was away from the set.

The people who knew him

The list of interviewees is long and personal. Childhood friends Roger Castillo and David Pressman talk about the funny kid they grew up with. Tim Harrington, who met Perry through AA in 2001, speaks about recovery. Former girlfriend René Ashton is also part of the series.

On the career side, former NBC executive Warren Littlefield and Friends writer Jeff Strauss recall the early days of the show. Kevin Pollak appears, along with Jonathan Lynn, who directed Perry in The Whole Nine Yards. Los Angeles Times columnist Mary McNamara adds some outside perspective.

One absence will stand out to fans. None of Perry's Friends co-stars took part, and they appear only in archival footage. Some viewers will miss them. Others may find that the series is stronger for focusing on the people who knew Perry outside the role that made him famous.

Who made it

The series is directed by Mary Robertson, whose previous work includes Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV. It was produced by Maxine Productions, part of Sony Pictures Television, with Robertson, Lisa Kalikow, Eli Holzman and Aaron Saidman as executive producers.

Robertson has experience with difficult stories about fame and harm, and that shows in the careful tone here. The series doesn't shy away from hard facts, but it also avoids sensationalism.

How it handles addiction

Many critics praised the series for treating addiction honestly. Chris Vognar at the Boston Globe wrote that it "works largely as a portrait of the rapacious, ever-vigilant monster that is addiction itself." He also described "the one-step-forward, two-steps-back dance of death that so many addicts enact until it's too late to do anything about it."

Richard Roeper, writing for NBC 5 Chicago, said the series "isn't some lurid, tabloid exploitation of Perry's life and times." Instead, he called it "a solidly constructed effort" that favors interviews with Bowick and his closest friends.

Roger Moore at Movie Nation noted that the series gives attention to Perry's work helping others with addiction, which "points to a path his life might have taken." That's one of the most moving threads in the series. Perry often said he wanted to be remembered for helping people get sober more than for his acting.

What critics liked

Reviews are strong overall. Rotten Tomatoes lists the series at 95% from 22 critic reviews, and Metacritic gives it 71.

Carol Midgley at The Times praised the people on screen: "I suppose what marks this series out is the quality of interviewee, the people who really knew him, long before he was famous." Zaki Hasan at TheWrap wrote that the series "smartly avoids making Chandler the entire story."

Jonathon Wilson at Ready Steady Cut was one of the warmest: "Honest, exhaustive, and genuinely moving, The One About Matthew Perry is a very good tribute to a TV icon whose struggles were relatable to many but more public than most."

Where it falls short

Not everyone was won over. The most common complaint is that much of the story will feel familiar, especially to anyone who read Perry's memoir or followed the news. Benji Wilson at The Telegraph put it this way: "The problem with The One About Matthew Perry is that it is not the only one about Matthew Perry."

Others thought it was too long. Daniel Fienberg at The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "There's so much good stuff in The One About Matthew Perry that it's unfortunate how often it's lost underneath so much less interesting stuff." According to Wikipedia, he felt it would have worked better as a single film of about 100 minutes.

Moore also felt it could have gone deeper: "For all its running time, one could hardly call "The One About Matthew Perry" as thorough as you'd expect."

A note for viewers

This is not an easy watch. The series talks openly about substance use and relapse, and the final episode deals directly with his death. Viewers who are dealing with addiction themselves, or who have lost someone to it, may want to watch with care.

At the same time, many people in recovery have spoken about how much Perry's honesty meant to them. The series keeps that message in view, and it never treats his struggles as entertainment.

Should you watch it?

If you grew up with Friends or have returned to it for comfort over the years, this series will likely mean a lot to you. Sreeparna Sengupta at The Times of India called it a must-watch for those fans, and added a warning: "Be prepared to have your heart broken."

If you've already read his memoir, some of the story will be familiar. The family archive and his sister's voice still add something new.

I think the most valuable thing here is the way it lets the people who loved him speak in their own words. It treats Perry as a whole person rather than a headline.

I would suggest watching it at your own pace, one episode at a time. It gives his life the attention it deserves, and it gives viewers room to remember the man as well as the character.