Warning: Potential spoilers ahead
Your Friends & Neighbors opens with Jon Hamm’s unemployed hedge fund manager, Andrew “Coop” Cooper, waking in fright next to a very bloody and very dead body. How exactly he got to this point remains a mystery through the first two episodes, but plenty of breadcrumbs follow.
The show cuts quickly to a “meet-cute” at a bar four months earlier with a lower-level manager, twenty years his junior, at his firm, Liv Cross (a not nearly what she seems Kitty Hawthorne). What follows is a rat-a-tat-a-tat conversation between the two about May/December romances that, minus just a bit of explicitness, wouldn’t be out of place in a sharply written ‘40s film noir.
The episode then expertly cuts to a voice-over montage that covers Coop’s first job out of college, his marriage, the birthing of two kids, four houses, infidelity, and a divorce, all in about a minute’s worth of screen time. The fourth house is a rental, and that indiscretion with Liv comes back to haunt due to the firm’s “strict” non-fraternization policy—although the corporate decision (delivered by his boss, a long way from LA Law Corbin Bernsen) leads to, shall we say, an unfortunate employment outcome for Coop. To make matters worse, Coop’s contract includes a two-year “non-solicitation” clause, which profoundly weakens his value to new firms.
To put it mildly, Coop, who is saddled with debt, alimony, and child support, has about 6-7 months of solvency as his financial advisor (a terrific Hoon Lee) explains, is going to have to find a way to keep himself afloat. Desperate times lead to desperate choices, but being familiar with an exclusive neighborhood where you know the lay of the land, the practices of the community security team, and the weak points of your neighbors’ home security leads Coop to hatch a far less-than-perfect scheme: Rob from those he knows.
There’s a sly theme here about a far less than perfect guy falling from grace and noticing that his community is full of people with too many wildly expensive watches, among other assets. If Coop breaks in and takes an item or two, will these overloaded Rich folk even notice a missing watch when they have three to five of them? Hamm, who has always been an excellent actor working in a wide range of moral flexibility, is superb here. There may be an urge to compare Coop to Hamm’s Don Draper from Mad Men, but that’s far too lazy considering he’s now playing a man from the modern era, and ethically challenged as he may be, about the only thing he and Draper have in common are the well-pressed white button-down shirts that both characters wear to work.
Draper was far more introspective and haunted. Coop’s life has wonky recently gone to shit, and he’s driven by income needs, far more than status.
Created by Jonathan Tropper, who was behind the best Tarantino series that wasn’t a Tarantino series in recent years, Banshee looks to be attempting to create a new genre here: white-collar noir. That’s not to say some version of this concept hasn’t existed before (see The Big Short), but mixed among the show’s often laugh-out-loud comedic lines, is the origin of an amateur burglar, who watches old movies at night, and needs to find a “fence” for his ill-gotten booty.
Locating someone to buy that first stolen watch is just about the point at which Coop starts to realize he might be in over his head. He is referred to a no-nonsense pawnshop owner named Lu, who makes it clear he should find something else to do, even as she buys that first stolen watch.
Early reviews of Your Friends & Neighbors have been decidedly mixed, and I can see why. While the comedic and dramatic tones match my taste, others may disagree. There are times when the writing (especially the dialogue) threatens to be smug and a little too clever by half. It’s also possible that as the season progresses, the ensemble may be too large to supply all the characters of significance enough graceful notes for each character to remain compelling.
But two episodes in, it’s important to note that compensations abound. While we are shown that Coop’s therapist ex-wife Mel is the one that strayed from their marriage, it’s not yet clear what led up to her choice. Then, in episode two, Mel commits an act of such casual vandalism that it’s genuinely shocking and implies that deeper issues are afoot. Mel is played by Amanda Peet, who hasn’t had a role this good in ages.
The same could be said for Olivia Munn, Coop’s not-so-stable “friend with benefits,” Sam. Munn hasn’t had a single scene as good as her brief roles in Magic Mike and The Newsroom as she does here. In her own, more financially stable way, Sam is just as desperate as Coop, only her need is to connect, and Coop (especially considering his dilemma) is not a man to be seeking more than reliably hot sex from.
Coop’s family issues extend beyond his tenuously cordial relationship with his ex-wife. His younger child is the checked-out type who goes to get ice cream with his dad and leaves his headphones on. His daughter is staring down her desire to get into Princeton and make the tennis team. When Dad suddenly starts missing sizable chunks of her significant matches, disappointment abounds, but suspicion will likely follow.
On top of those concerns, Coop can no longer afford to pay for his troubled sister’s apartment and informs her that she (Lena Hall) will have to move back in with her parents and hopefully stay on her meds.
When Coop gets what appears to be a promising interview with an over-stressed firm, the chat quickly goes south when the CEO lets Coop know that he will be reporting to an entitled trader named Max, who is in his twenties and clearly not ready for prime time. Smelling a rat, Coop points to Max and asks the CEO, “Who’s his father? He’s been in here less than five minutes, and I already know he’s somebody’s son.” Hamm delivers the line with that marvelously cutting disregard he could practically trademark now. From there, saying the interview doesn’t go well would be an understatement, leading Coop to believe he will have to commit more break-ins. And while he knows he’s out of his league, Coop finds he’s driven by something more than desperation: he likes it.
And that is where the fun feels like it’s about to begin. Two episodes in isn’t enough time to recommend any show in full, but if you enjoy seeing Jon Hamm at his sharply, witty best, you’ll find him here. Stacking Coop on top of his extraordinary recent work as a wicked sheriff in Fargo’s season five, I think it’s fair to say I’d follow Jon Hamm just about anywhere.
As Coop says at one point, “I feel like somebody scrambled the universe, and I lost in the shuffle.” So, the industrious former hedge fund shark decides to create a new universe: one where he takes a bite out of those he used to share cocktails with. It’s a more than intriguing premise and well worth seeing through.
Episode three drops on Friday the 18th on Apple TV. You’ll know where to find me.
