by Jeff Alan, Contributing Writer
Imagine losing everything, and out of pure desperation you must resort to something you never thought you were capable of doing just to support your family. That is the moral quandary Your Friends & Neighbors.
Andrew Cooper, affectionately known as “Coop” (Jon Hamm), is a wealthy hedge fund manager who is abruptly fired because of a complaint of sexual harassment over a consensual sexual encounter he had with a junior employee months before. He is immediately let go without having claim to any of the private money in his personal portfolio. Left out in the cold with nothing isn’t even the only issue he has going on in his life, however, because only about a year earlier, Coop’s wife Mel (Amanda Peet) was caught cheating with his friend Nick (Mark Tallman). Mel has since kept ownership of their large home, of which Nick is now a frequent overnight guest. Coop’s children Tori and Hunter (Isabel Gravitt and Donovan Colan) have a strained relationship with both parents after the divorce.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Coop is also tasked with looking after his younger sister Ali (Lena Hall), who suffers from mental illness from her own divorce years prior. They both now live in Coop’s rental house, navigating life in this new place. Running out of options, and seeing the amount of money he is going to need to shell out for his children and ex-wife (as well as himself), Coop decides to do the only thing he can think of to get by: robbing his fellow wealthy neighbors of the high ticket possessions he is sure will go without notice, so that he can make ends meet.
This show was a big surprise for me. Not so much in the sense that I thought it would be bad and turned out to be good — I knew it was going to be good, but I wasn’t prepared for how much it would suck me in. Maybe it’s hitting me in a personal spot because I fully understand the struggle of trying to make ends meet (which I’m sure most of us can relate to), but there’s so much about this story that I just love seeing unfold. I love Coop’s narration about the class he is a part of, and his viewpoint on his classy, rich neighbors. I also appreciate him describing why he chooses to steal which pieces.
Speaking of Coop, I believe this is the best I’ve seen Hamm since Mad Men. He’s always been likable as a leading man, even when he’s doing morally questionable things, and his performance her is top notch — you almost believe every word he is saying, even when you know he’s downright lying to the other person’s face.
As far as performances are concerned, there really isn’t a role played out of tune here. Some surprises — for lack of a better word — I saw were from Peet, Colan, and Olivia Munn. As I didn’t really know much of her previous work before this, Peet surprised me, because she brings more layers to her character than just Coop’s ex-wife, making her scenes quite watchable. Out of Coop’s children, Colan is given the most substantial storyline, and while the season doesn’t spend a large chunk of time on his story, it’s still fun to watch. And with Munn coming off of the news of her breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, I believe she gives one of the best performances of the show. Not since The Newsroom have I seen her in such a prominent role. She has moments of fun and moments of real emotion, and I wonder if she used emotions from her personal life to channel into certain moments of the season.
Every time I want to cancel my Apple TV+ subscription, they give me another reason to keep it, and Your Friends & Neighbors has been that reason in recent months. There are no bad performances, the cat-and-mouse game Coop plays throughout the season is intense and keeps me hanging on, and it keeps me fully invested in what is going to happen next. And with the news of a second season and veteran actor James Marsden attached to star, I will most definitely be paying attention to the future of this series.
Rating: Loved It
Your Friends & Neighbors is currently streaming on Apple TV+
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