Jon Hamm's New Show "Your Friends and Neighbors" On Apple+ Is Surprisingly Great. And Amanda Peet And Olivia Munn Are Eternal Smokes
I don't know why I'm even surprised anymore by shows like this being as good as they are. Because when they're on Apple+, there's like a 99% chance they're excellent. Apple TV just does not miss.
I have no idea if they just outspend everybody else, or if the people they hired to run their streaming side of the company who call the shots on buying and greenlighting shows are just that much better than all the other streaming platforms and networks, but it's hard to go wrong with something produced by Apple.
When I saw the above trailer for the show, I was way off on what I assumed it to be about.
I figured - a suburban middle aged man loses his job, and has a mid life crisis, and resorts to robbing houses to make ends meet. He discovers how surprisingly good he is at it, and a ton of dramedy ensues. Basically just like that HBO show Hung. (Which was also pretty damn good and never should have been cancelled after only 1 season).
But I ended up once again learning not to judge a book by its cover.
As a guy whose dating life is basically the Cleveland Browns of romance, a tragic comedy of errors, this show hits hard.
If you've been through some shit in your life relationship wise, this show will make you dwell long and hard about it.
The writing is superb. Especially the sequences where Hamm's character, "Coop", is silently talking to himself, or narrating.
------ SMALL SPOILER ALERT --------
Hamm plays the role of Andrew "Coop" Cooper, this rich hedge fund, Wall Street big shot, whose life is predictably falling apart.
The story picks up with “Coop” and Mel (Amanda Peet), divorced and separated, but still living in the same neighborhood, with the same friends, raising their son and daughter, and Mel is banging Coop’s good friend Nick.
He gets fucked over impressively bad at work, by John Locke from Lost. And his life, which was already starting to unravel, goes into full free-fall.
(--- UPDATE ---
Wow, I was way off on this. The guy who plays his partner/boss isn't the same guy who played John Locke in Lost, Tery O'Quinn, it is actually Corbin Bernsen, of Major League fame (as pointed out by several commentors. Roger Dorne looks like shit)
Hamm absolutely crushes this role. If you liked him in Mad Men, and loved him in Bridesmaids, then you’ll find it hard to recognize he’s the same guy playing different role in this one. He gives Coop the natural Hamm kind of charisma mixed with a pathetic vulnerability that makes you actually care about a guy you’d normally want to punch in the face. He's a good guy who has mad some really bad decisions. But he's very hard not to like.
Amanda Peet and Olivia Munn add layers to the story as his ex-wife and secret-lover, respectively, showing relationships about as healthy as texting "u up?" at 3 am.
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Greg Grudt. Shutterstock Images.
Dia Dipasupil. Getty Images.
Dia Dipasupil. Getty Images.They are also still insanely hot. Both of them.
Critics seem pretty high on it too, which normally means it sucks, but for once they're right. Your Friends and Neighbors has a pretty impressive 81% on Rotten Tomatoes.
And unlike Hung, we don't need to worried about becoming invested in a new show only to have it cancelled at the end of its first season. Apple TV+ was already confident enough to green-light a second season.
The first episode of the show will suck you right in. To the point where you watch another episode, and then another, and another, all the while you're waiting, thinking in the back of your head, this shows going to fall right off a cliff. Except it doesn't.
I am like 6 or 7 episodes in now and I can't wait to get caught up and keep watching, not because I love watching the downfall of wealthy narcissists (though that's a plus), but mostly because watching Hamm navigate his trainwreck of a life makes me feel slightly less awful about my own dumpster fire of an existence.
So I strongly encourage everybody to watch this show, if not for the drama and sharp writing, then to feel better about your life choices. Or worse. Either way, it’s good television.
p.s. - I'm pretty sure women would love this show too. But I'm not sure I would roll the dice and watch this together as a couple. Because I can see it leading to some good old fashioned batshit crazy arguments where you're defending yourself and explaining things from your past that may not have even actually occurred. Women from before your current love of your life was ever even in the picture. Needs not being met. All that good stuff. Then again, I know absolutely nothing when it comes to this stuff so don't listen to me.