His ‘Friends & Neighbors’ are Bad, But This Show is Good

If you’re jonesing for more Wealthy White People Suck TV since The White Lotus wrapped, Apple TV+’s Your Friends & Neighbors, a darkish, slick comedy, more than fills the void. 

Here’s the hook: Hedge-funder Andrew Cooper, better known as Coop (Jon Hamm), has had his world completely scrambled. First, his wife (Amanda Peet) divorced him for his pal (Mark Tallman), a former NBA basketball player. Then, he got screwed out of his high-paying finance job and blackballed from the industry. 

Living essentially in exile with his dysfunctional but musically talented sister, Ali (Lena Hall) – think Tony Soprano and sister Janice on the lam – Coop is forced to take stock. What’s the point? Why do I need all this crap – the expensive sports car, the mansion? (Well, he used to have a mansion.) Why on earth does someone need a watch worth a quarter of a million dollars? That designer handbag could’ve fed an extended family for a few years. Ultimately, the question is how much is enough?

And as far as those friends and neighbors, who needs ‘em? They’re assholes. In his new reality, Coop discovers that he was one of them. Unlike Jerry Maguire, another white man in crisis, Coop doesn’t write a manifesto. Instead, he starts ripping off his (mostly) white neighbors. They have so much bling that they won’t miss anything, and insurance will cover it anyway. How long can Coop keep up this criminal activity?

Your Friends & Neighbors is heavier on character than plot, which I find refreshing. However, there’s also just enough snappy dialogue and plot twists and turns to keep viewers hooked. In the opening sequence, Coop wakes up in a pool of blood next to a dead body, so we know bad is coming, eventually.

Without question, this show belongs to Jon Hamm. We’ve never seen him like this. Well into middle age, he’s heavier and can’t stop urinating, at least in the pilot. In the ill-fitting baseball cap he dons as a criminal disguise, he looks like a doofus. The trunk of his fancy sports car keeps opening inadvertently. Yes, Your Friends & Neighbors loves metaphors. His former estate is infested with insects.

Meanwhile, Coop gets out his aggression by bashing tennis balls at his ridiculous country club. At one point, Coop’s daughter (Ali Gravitt), hoping to attend her parents’ alma mater Princeton, hits him in the groin when he rushes the net. Yes, it’s yet another indignity for Coop, although like his alter ego, Hamm is actually a good tennis player. Your Friends and Neighbors does for Princeton what The White Lotus did for Duke, sort of. 

When I think of Princeton, I can’t help but think of Joel “Looks like the University of Illinois!” Goodsen, Risky Business’s teenage entrepreneurial protagonist. In some ways, Your Friends and Neighbors could be a sequel to the popular 1983 film. Both are critiques of capitalism as well as consumerism. Instead of dancing in his underwear like Tom Cruise’s Goodsen, Coop lets off steam with a drum solo. Your Friends & Neighbors could use a Guido The Killer Pimp. (Then again, who couldn’t?)

After four episodes, I’m curious if Your Friends & Neighbors can sustain its momentum. After all, how many neighbors can you steal from? Then again, there’s the dead body, so we’ll see where that goes. Regardless, it’s fun watching Hamm chew on Coop, and Peet makes a cheating spouse somewhat sympathetic. Finally, Lena Hall, Coop’s sis, does a terrific acoustic version of the Thompson Twins’ Hold Me Now. It’s not quite Bob Seger’s Old Time Rock & Roll, but it rocks.