9 Matthew Perry performances to watch besides ‘Friends’

Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone still reeling from the death of Matthew Perry.

As senior television writer Yvonne Villarreal reminds us in this week’s Catch up, Perry, who died Saturday at 54, made his mark in more than just “Friends,” and she offers a guide to his best roles and where to find them.

Also in Screen Gab No. 106, Times staffers offer streaming recommendations for your weekend and “Abbott Elementary” star Chris Perfetti drops in to tell us what he’s watching.

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Ben Shenkman, second from left, Paul Giamatti and Allan Havey in the series finale of “Billions.”

(Christopher T. Saunders / Showtime)

‘Billions’ creators discuss how the finale was fueled by backstabbing and Blind Faith’s music: Brian Koppelman and David Levien discuss the end of “Billions,” a drama about a shrewd U.S. attorney and a cocky billionaire, which came to a close after seven seasons and featured the return of Damian Lewis.

Why are so many actors launching their own businesses? Inside the growing movement: Actor-entrepreneurs Eva Longoria, Tia Mowry, Dominique Fishback and Freida Pinto discuss their experiences launching businesses outside Hollywood.

‘Gen V’ creators discuss the funny, scary finale from the little sibling of ‘The Boys’: “Gen V” showrunner Michele Fazekas and executive producer Eric Kripke talk about the Season 1 finale, the show’s deeper meanings and “handing the football” to Season 4 of “The Boys.”

‘Housewives’ made Bethenny Frankel a star. Now she says it’s ‘nothing short of disgusting’: In the lead up to Bravocon, Frankel had choice words about her former network Bravo, “Housewives” impresario Andy Cohen and her leading role in reality TV’s union drive.

Turn on

Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times

Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus, better known as the pop duo Milli Vanilli.

(Ingrid Segeith / Paramount+)

“Milli Vanilli” (Paramount+)

If you turned on VH1 at any point in the late 1990s, chances are you caught the episode of “Behind the Music” about Milli Vanilli, the infamous spandex-clad dance-pop duo who won a Grammy for best new artist in 1990 only to be exposed as lip-synching impostors. Fabrice Morvan and Rob Pilatus, the group’s front men, were treated as shameless scammers by the media and were forced to absorb most of the backlash that ensued. Meanwhile, the industry players who backed them — including producer Frank Farian, the mastermind behind the scheme — largely escaped unscathed. Even Pilatus’ death of an overdose in 1998 did little to bring nuance to public understanding of the group’s story. For the last 30-plus years, the Milli Vanilli scandal has been viewed as a semi-farcical cautionary tale about seeking fame at any price, but a new documentary by filmmaker Luke Korem reframes the ordeal as a tragic story about the exploitation of artists — particularly Black artists — in the music business. “Milli Vanilli,” now streaming on Paramount+, features interviews with Morvan as well as several of the singers who actually did perform on the “Girl You Know It’s True” album. At times funny but also surprisingly moving, the film includes an impressive array of archival footage that makes it impossible to fathom that anyone believed Morvan and Pilates were actually singing on their album, not to mention the vitriolic backlash to their act (including a blackface sketch from Howard Stern). The documentary also goes into detail about Farian’s history of recording studio trickery, dating back to his work with disco group Boney M., whose charismatic lead singer Bobby Farrell was — you guessed it — also lip-synching. With all due respect to “Behind the Music,” “Milli Vanilli” finally gives serious treatment to a story that should have never been treated as a joke. —Meredith Blake

A scene from “Blue Eye Samurai.”

(Netflix)

“Blue Eye Samurai” (Netflix)

I have a general aversion to gruesome, blood-splattering action, but there is something about stylized samurai violence that I can’t resist. It also helps when it’s beautifully animated. Set in Edo-era Japan, “Blue Eye Samurai” follows Mizu, a skilled warrior who easily takes down a thug with a kitchen knife even before the series reveals her name. A biracial woman born in a time when Japan was closed off from the outside world, Mizu’s blue eyes are a marker that she is different. Foreign. Even monstrous. So she is on a mission of vengeance to find and kill the only four white men who were in Japan when she was born. She has also spent almost her entire life passing as a man in order to be free from the scrutiny and limitations placed on women in her time. The set-up flirts with potential broader explorations of gender, identity, colonialism and more, but the series keeps its focus on Mizu’s personal journey, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Plus, the fight scenes are top-notch. —Tracy Brown

Catch up

Everything you need to know about the film or TV series everyone’s talking about

Jon Tenney, left, Matthew Perry and Salma Hayek in a scene from “Fools Rush In” in 1997.

(Frank Masi / Sony Pictures Entertainment)

Matthew Perry, who died Saturday at 54, will forever be known for his indelible portrayal of Chandler Bing in the enduringly popular sitcom “Friends.” His skillful take on the sarcastic but lovable, neurotic but sweet character who couldn’t be any funnier helped make the series a TV juggernaut over its 10-season run. The show’s appeal has continued in the streaming era, with all 236 episodes available to stream on Max — but the actor also left a lasting impression in several other movies and TV shows throughout his career. Here are some of Perry’s standout performances besides “Friends” and how to watch them. —Yvonne Villarreal

• “Fools Rush In” (Amazon Prime Video): This romantic comedy was released in 1997, while “Friends” was still at its peak. In his first big movie role as a lead, Perry plays Alex Whitman, a New York developer and perpetual bachelor who gets caught up in a shotgun wedding with a photographer, Isabel Fuentes (Salma Hayek), after he gets her pregnant during a one-night stand.
  
• “17 Again” (Prime Video): Perry’s last film role is like a reverse version of “Big.” The 2009 family fantasy features Perry as a middle-aged man, Mike O’Donnell, a former high school basketball star who peddles erectile dysfunction pills as an adult and longs to return to his teen glory days. With the help of a magical janitor, Mike finds himself transformed into his teenage self, played by Zac Efron, once again.
  
• “The Odd Couple” (Paramount+): A revival of the classic 1970s sitcom, based on Neil Simon’s play about two divorced men who make unlikely roommates, this CBS sitcom featured Perry as Oscar Madison, the irrepressible slob against Thomas Lennon’s more uptight Felix Unger. Perry also served as an executive producer on the show, which ran for three seasons beginning in 2015.
  
• Perry also had a number of memorable TV guest turns worth revisiting. During Seasons 4 and 5 of “The West Wing” (Max), he played Republican attorney Joe Quincy, earning two Emmy nominations. Perry also had a recurring role on “The Good Wife” and its sister series “The Good Fight” (both on Paramount +) as Mike Kresteva, a shameless politician and lawyer whose easy lies made him a fan favorite to hate watch. And if you really want to dig into the vault, let the time machine take you back to 1991, with Perry’s guest appearance on “Beverly Hills, 90210” (Hulu, Paramount+). In the Season 1 episode “April is the Cruelest Month,” he plays Roger Azarian, West Beverly’s star tennis player who wrote a screenplay about killing his father.
  
• If you’re willing to rent or buy, the Perry performances to prioritize include 2000’s crime comedy “The Whole Nine Yards,” in which he plays a dentist who gets entangled with Bruce Willis’ ex-gangster; his big post-”Friends” return to TV in Aaron Sorkin’s short-lived behind-the-scenes dramedy “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” with Perry as a former writer who takes over production of an “SNL”-type show; and “Go On,” the 2012 NBC sitcom that starred Perry as Ryan King, a snarky sports radio host who is required to attend group therapy sessions to cope with his grief after losing his wife. (It’s a comedy, promise.)
  
• Finally, if you just want to curl up to “Friends” without having to search for your favorite Chandler episodes, Nickelodeon is honoring Matthew Perry with a half-hour special, “Matthew Perry: Thanks for Being a Friend,” that will air on Sunday at 10 p.m. as part of the channel’s Nick at Nite programming block. Nickelodeon says the tribute will be followed by “fan favorite” episodes of “Friends” featuring Perry. TBS has also been airing “Friends” marathons dedicated to his character in the week since Perry’s death. They’ll continue through Sunday. Viewers can watch Nickelodeon’s Perry tribute and the TBS marathons on TV through their local cable provider and can stream online through select streaming services that offer the channels.

Guest spot

A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching

Chris Perfetti plays newspaperman E.K. Hornbeck in Pasadena Playhouse’s “Inherit the Wind.”

(Jeff Lorch)

On ABC’s “Abbott Elementary,” Chris Perfetti plays Jacob, the underfunded public school’s endearingly eager teacher who never passes up an opportunity to rap a history lesson or quote an NPR story. Onstage, he is performing alongside Alfred Molina and John Douglas Thompson in “Inherit the Wind,” opening Sunday at the Pasadena Playhouse and running through Nov. 26. In the education-related courtroom drama, Perfetti plays the influential newspaperman E.K. Hornbeck (famously portrayed by Gene Kelly in the 1960 film). Between rehearsals, Perfetti stopped by Screen Gab to talk about reporters and lawyers onscreen, his favorite Kelly project and what he’s been watching lately. —Ashley Lee

What have you watched recently that you are recommending to everyone you know?

I’m embarrassingly, egregiously late to this game but I’ve been talking about Celine Song’s “Past Lives” [VOD, multiple platforms] quite a bit lately. It’s like a Chekhov play. (And what’s better than that?) Fabulous performances. Loads of silent storytelling. Messy, gorgeous human beings caught in the epic tide pool of life. I loved it. I am missing my city of New York right now, which I suspect heightened its blow. GO SEE IT. See it alone!

What is your go-to “comfort watch,” the movie or TV show you go back to again and again?

The subtle omniscient croonage of David Attenborough simultaneously comforts me and plugs me deep into the ground like nothing else. That man could say just about anything, and I’d believe it! Typically the amount of documentaries I watch outweighs the narrative stuff 4 to 1 and I can’t get enough of Sir Dave. “Planet Earth” [Max, Discovery+], “The Blue Planet” [Discovery+], “Life on Earth” [Fubo] … you name it!

With “Inherit the Wind” largely taking place in the courtroom, what is your favorite courtroom-set movie or TV show?

This is a softball. Lucky for us all that the age-old debate over which courtroom drama transcends the rest was settled in 1992 with the seminal introduction of “My Cousin Vinny” [Paramount+]. Next question.

You play newspaper reporter E.K. Hornbeck in the play. Who is your favorite reporter from a movie or a TV show, and why?

Wow, this turned out to be the toughest question of them all. I’ve swung capriciously from not being able to name a single reporter character in the history of film … to humbly declaring it a three-way tie between Meryl Streep in “Adaptation” [VOD, multiple platforms], Jeff Daniels in “The Newsroom” [Max] and Patrick Fugit in “Almost Famous” [Fubo, Paramount+ with Showtime]. TWIST.

Gene Kelly played your “Inherit the Wind” character in the 1960 movie. If you have one, what’s your favorite movie of his, and why?

Does “Xanadu” [VOD, multiple platforms] count? Can I say “Xanadu?” If I can, I am. GK stans will roll their eyes but, hey, I’m just a guy.