New ‘Friends’ for Netflix
NEW YORK Six friends from college find themselves reunited, picking up shared lives 20 years after graduation day. But along with the familiar camaraderie, they encounter new complications and conflicts.
Have the times passed them by? That’s the question asked and answered with amusement by “Friends From College,” a new eight-part comedy to be released Friday by Netflix.
The viewer-friendly cast includes Fred Savage, Nat Faxon, Annie Parisse and Jae Suh Park, plus Cobie Smulders (“How I Met Your Mother”) and Keegan-Michael Key (“Key & Peele”) as now-wed friends from college Lisa and Ethan Turner.
“Yes, it’s a comedy, but it’s a DARK comedy,” says Smulders over a light-hearted lunch alongside Key. “These friends have a tight relationship, but there’s an ever-changing scenario they have to deal with on the fly.”
“The darkness keeps it honest,” Key adds after warding off Smulders’ razzing for the excess pepper he has showered on his clam chowder.
At the heart of the story: Key, as a once-promising novelist, has been enjoying a friends-with-benefits connection since college with Parisse’s character, Samantha, who by now is likewise married as well as a mother. For years Ethan and Sam lived hundreds of miles apart, allowing only the rare hookup. Now, how will they handle life in the same city in the same tight social circle?
“I remember being on set and thinking, ‘Should this be FUNNY?’” says Smulders. “I’ve been with my husband for 12 years and if infidelity came into my life it would be heartbreaking and tragic.”
Fortunately, “Friends From College” eases this threat, and the rest of the action, with a shrewd mix of smarts and loopiness. (Just TRY being mad at Ethan for cheating on his wife, however lovely and devoted she may be, when it’s Keegan-Michael Key playing him!)
“There isn’t a lot of judging in how it’s written or how the parts are played,” says Smulders. “It’s up to the audience to make their assumptions and judgments.”
“Another of the show’s themes,” Key says, “is how foggy the lens of nostalgia can be. All the characters are thinking, ‘Being back together SHOULD be the way it was.’ But it CAN’T be that way anymore.”
In any case, the present is a cool place for Key. After five seasons creating dozens of characters on “Key & Peele,” along with writing and producing that brilliant Comedy Central series with his co-star Jordan Peele, Key says he’s grateful for the change that “Friends From College” represents: “Not having to be in charge: I can’t tell you how much I relish being an interpretive artist, and not being asked to be a wholly generative artist!”
Smulders calls “How I Met Your Mother” (her hit CBS sitcom that ended a nine-season run in 2014) “such a beautiful thing it’s hard to compare it to anything else. But, truly, ‘Friends from College’ has been a version of that. I love working in an ensemble and playing in group scenes.”