‘The One About Matthew Perry’ Review: Netflix Docuseries Is Tragic

There are not a lot of famous people in “The One About Matthew Perry.” None of the late actor’s “Friends” castmates sat for an interview for the three-part Netflix docuseries; neither did Perry’s longtime friend and “Simpsons” star Hank Azaria, who knew Perry as a striving young actor in L.A., or later collaborators like Bradley Whitford and Aaron Sorkin.

One could take this notable absence as an indicator of the access director Mary Robertson (“Quiet on Set”) and her team were, or were not, able to secure. But whether a matter of intention or circumstance, what emerges in place of star power is a more intimate portrait of Perry and his decadeslong struggle with substance abuse, leading to his death from a ketamine overdose in the fall of 2023. Through friends, family, fellow addicts and former partners, what emerges is a straightforwardly told, crushingly sad story of a man whose talent, humor and success were not enough to overcome a chronic disease.

The unofficial protagonist of “The One About Matthew Perry” is Perry’s younger half-sister Mia Perry Bowick, a therapist who narrates what it’s like to share a loved one with the world at the peak of the monoculture. Bowick is joined by Perry’s close friends Roger Castillo and David Pressman, who recall frequent pre-fame nights with Perry and Azaria at West Hollywood’s Formosa Cafe, as well as multiple ex-girlfriends and even a member of Gen Z who met Perry in one of his many rehab stints. (She says they partly bonded because, not in spite, of their age gap: “I was born in 1997; you’re not that big a deal to me.”) Some of these voices, like “The Whole Nine Yards” director Jonathan Lynn, can speak to Perry’s artistic ability. Most, however, are there to testify to what the public didn’t see, at least until Perry chose to share his start-and-stop road to recovery in venues like his 2022 memoir.

Because of such late-in-life disclosures, which Perry made after embracing his platform’s potential to help others with similar issues, there aren’t any bombshell revelations in “The One About Matthew Perry,” or even much new information. An introductory title card positions the series as “the story of Matthew Perry’s life, as told by his family and friends — and by Matthew himself.” Though recent events made me read that last clause and fear AI-assisted necromancy, Robertson’s approach is formally straightforward and free of such ill-advised techniques. Interviews are supplemented with archival clips of Perry’s screen work and interviews, and some of the show’s most searing material is conveyed in the actor’s own (previously recorded and publicized) voice.

“God, you can do anything you want to me; just please make me famous,” Perry freely admits to praying in his youth. (He got “Friends” shortly afterward, but ruefully notes that “God didn’t forget” about the first part.) “The One About Matthew Perry” is more a collation of established facts about Perry’s battles, including a sepsis-induced coma in 2018 resulting from his use of opiates, and an unveiling of new ones. What the project adds are personal testimonies about witnessing said battles up close, plus memorable observations like “intimacy was his greatest fear and his greatest wish.” Though the most memorable lines — “Reality is an acquired taste,” say — fittingly belong to Perry.

“Friends” has a couple of representatives in Robertson’s cast of talking heads, namely writer Jeff Strauss and former NBC Entertainment president Warren Littlefield; it wouldn’t be possible to tell Perry’s story without dwelling on his most famous role. What “The One About Matthew Perry” does is situate the sitcom’s run, which concludes by the docuseries’ halfway point, within Perry’s broader life: after a childhood feeling adrift between his remarried parents’ respective family units, before attempted follow-ups like “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” and addiction interfering with his work. The 2021 “Friends” reunion is presented as a source of great anxiety for Perry, who was hurt by online comments picking apart his mannerisms and appearance. Unbeknownst to viewers at the time, he was still recovering from his coma and the attendant complications.

The series’ length allows “The One About Matthew Perry” to communicate the protracted, start-and-stop nature of Perry’s addiction, from first taking prescribed painkillers after an on-set injury while filming the 1997 film “Fools Rush In” to the many cycles of relapse, detox and sobriety. Eventually, the actual circumstances of Perry’s death — which resulted in multiple criminal convictions for Perry’s dealers and live-in assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, who administered the fatal drug dose — are quickly addressed in the show’s closing minutes. After so much emotion, the detour into factual legal territory via interviews with a former U.S. Attorney is abrupt, if necessary. Bowick grounds these data points with an impassioned condemnation of Iwamasa’s enabling, arguing that he should’ve tipped off family members to Perry’s ketamine abuse. Such is the function of “The One About Matthew Perry”: well-known headlines, reframed through the lesser-known perspective of those deeply affected.

All three episodes of “The One About Matthew Perry” are now streaming on Netflix.