Friends

Series 1, Volume 1 (Episodes 1-8)


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Details At A Glance

General
Extras
Category Comedy Music Video-I'll Be There For You-The Rembrandts
Rating
Year Released 1994
Running Time 180:13 minutes
RSDL/Flipper Dual Sided
Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region 2,4 Director James Burrows
Studio
Distributor

Warner Home Video
Starring Jennifer Aniston
Courtney Cox
Lisa Kudrow
Matt Le Blanc
Matthew Perry
David Schwimmer
Case Transparent Amaray
RPI $36.95 Music Michael Skloff

 
Video
Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Full Frame MPEG None
Widescreen Aspect Ratio None Dolby Digital 2.0 
16x9 Enhancement No Soundtrack Languages English (Dolby Digital 2.0, 192Kb/s)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1
Miscellaneous
Macrovision ? Smoking Yes
Subtitles English
French
Finnish
Danish
Swedish
Norwegian
Dutch
Icelandic
English for the Hearing Impaired
Annoying Product Placement Yes, occasionally
Action In or After Credits Yes, every episode has action during the end credits

Plot Synopsis

    Friends is a simple enough concept for a sitcom; six friends not long out of high school face life in New York, offering each other help, support and friendship. Along the way, we get to laugh at their foibles and their misfortunes. Simple enough, yes, but plenty of series have tried similar concepts only to fail miserably. A series like this needs good writing and good acting in order to work, and Friends certainly works, making mega-stars out of its entire cast.

    For those of you who are unfamiliar with the characters, I will introduce them in this review;

    Ross (David Schwimmer) was happily married until his wife left him for another woman.

    Monica (Courtney Cox) is Ross' sister, living independently much to the chagrin of their mother, who is perpetually critical of everything that Monica does.

    Joey (Matt Le Blanc) is an aspiring actor, but is all brawn with little brains.

    Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) is heavily into all things new age, and totally dippy.

    Chandler (Matthew Perry) is just an average bloke trying very hard to meet women, mostly unsuccessfully.

    Rachael (Jennifer Aniston) was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. All she had to do was marry Barry the orthodontist and her life of luxury and leisure was assured. Unfortunately, she didn't love Barry, and left him at the altar, ultimately having to slum it with Monica.

    The episodes on this DVD are the first 8 episodes of Series 1.

    The One Where It All Began (Pilot) (28:56). This slightly longer episode basically introduces us to the characters of Friends, and does so subtly enough that you are not hammered over the head with the fact that this is what the episode is all about. We meet Rachael just as she has left Barry at the altar, Ross soon after his wife has left him for another woman, and the others are all introduced during the course of the episode, along with a little of the group's background history. Just enough information is presented to interest us in the characters and make us want more, which of course is the whole point of a pilot episode.

    The One With The Sonogram At The End (21:59). Ross discovers that his wife (who left him for another woman) is pregnant with his child, leading to a very funny and most awkward three-way visit to the obstetrician for an ultrasound.

    The One With The Thumb. Monica finds a boyfriend that the others all like, much to her surprise. Chandler takes up smoking again, and Phoebe has difficulty with her bank, leading to her finding a severed thumb in a can of soft drink.

    The One With George Stephanopoulos. Ross is morose because it is the anniversary of he and his ex-wife's first consummation of their relationship, a very memorable event indeed for Ross. The girls find out that the gorgeous George Stephanopoulos lives in the building across the street from them, and have a great time spying on him.

    The One With The East German Laundry Detergent. Joey meets Angela, an ex-girlfriend, and wants her back. The trouble is, she is now going out with Bob. Joey's answer to this problem is to set Monica up with Bob, thus splitting up Angela and Bob, figuring that this will get Angela to come back to Joey. Ross realizes he fancies Rachael, and they end up on a "first date" at a laundromat.

    The One With The Butt. The others take issue with Monica's obsessiveness, much to her distress. Chandler meets a gorgeous and seemingly insatiable Italian woman but soon finds out he is not the only one in her life. Joey gets a part as a butt double for Al Pacino.

    The One With The Blackout. This is probably the funniest episode on this disc. A blackout has affected most of New York, and Chandler is stuck in an ATM vestibule with a gorgeous model from the Victoria's Secret catalogue. Meanwhile, Ross comes to realize that this is the perfect moment to ask Rachael out on a date, but unexpected obstacles complicate matters.

    The One Where Nana Dies Twice. Ross and Monica's grandmother dies, but Joey is more interested in the football game currently on TV than the funeral. Chandler is concerned because he discovers that many people assume he is gay, and yet no one seems to be able to explain exactly why they think that about him.

Transfer Quality

Video

    This is generally a reasonable transfer of this material, with the various problems all inherent in the source material. According to the end credits of each episode, this show is captured on film rather than on video tape.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. It is not 16x9 enhanced. Four episodes are present on each side of the DVD, which is not clearly labelled in regards to which side is which.

    The transfer is somewhat on the soft side, but with adequate foreground detail present. At times, the foreground is mildly out of focus, making the transfer even softer in these sections. At other times, the foreground appears very harsh, although this does not appear to be through the use of edge enhancement. Background detail is generally reasonable, other than when the camera is in motion, where it becomes quite blurred. Exterior location shots are overexposed and subsequently overbright. Shadow detail is very limited, particularly during Episode 7 (The One With The Blackout), where the majority of the show is shot in low lighting conditions and detail is quite difficult to make out, but no low level noise mars the image at any time.

    The colours were quite highly saturated, with skin tones in particular tending to be on the reddish, oversaturated side. The one exception to this was the exterior location shots which were overexposed as mentioned previously and subsequently undersaturated.

    There were no MPEG artefacts seen. Aliasing was present only when venetian blinds were shown, but it was an odd-looking aliasing artefact, as in addition to the usual vertical shimmer that venetian blinds typically cause, they also exhibited a horizontal shimmer. Film artefacts cropped up occasionally and quite noticeably, as many of them were of the linear scratch variety, stretching across the height of the entire frame.
 

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain
Film-to-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is only a single audio track on this DVD, English Dolby Digital 2.0.

    The dialogue was generally easy enough to understand, although it did tend to distort on dialogue peaks. The same applies to audience laughter. Exterior location shots had muffled and very close-sounding dialogue, but it remained intelligible at all times. Occasionally, hiss intruded into the soundtrack, marring it slightly. A slight buzz marred the bedroom scene in episode 6. Audio sync was satisfactory at all times.

    The score by Michael Skloff was generally restricted to the opening theme of the series, but as the series progressed, so too did the frequency of use of musical cues during the episodes.

    The surround and bass channels were not used by this more-or-less monaural mix. The only stereo components of the mix were the audience laughter and the music.
 

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Distortion/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Menu

Music Video-I'll Be There For You-The Rembrandts

    This is present on both sides of this DVD.

R4 vs R1

    This DVD is not available in Region 1.

Summary

    Friends is a great comedy series, well worth collecting if you are fan of the series. This debut disc in the series is acceptable in quality, hampered only by source material limitations.

    The video is of acceptable and functional quality.

    The audio quality is acceptable given the source material limitations.

    The extras are limited.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Michael Demtschyna (read my bio)
6th September 2000

Review Equipment
DVD Lenoxx 725B, using S-Video output
Display Loewe Art-95 95cm direct view CRT in 4:3 mode, via the S-Video input. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Audio Decoder Denon AVD-2000 Dolby Digital AddOn Decoder, used as a standalone processor. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Amplification 2 x EA Playmaster 100W per channel stereo amplifiers for Left, Right, Left Rear and Right Rear; Philips 360 50W per channel stereo amplifier for Centre and Subwoofer
Speakers Philips S2000 speakers for Left, Right; Polk Audio CS-100 Centre Speaker; Apex AS-123 speakers for Left Rear and Right Rear; Hsu Research TN-1220HO subwoofer