It can be challenging to sympathize with rich middle-aged men confronting the typical phases of midlife crises. These stories are shockingly unoriginal, both in the real world and in films and television. However, in Apple TV+’s latest drama, “Your Friends & Neighbors,” creator Jonathan Tropper offers a complex narrative of a man struggling to cope as the fragments of his formally “perfect” life begin slipping through his fingers. Introspective and surprising, with a murder mystery in the middle of the narrative, the series scrutinizes some of society’s most affluent while putting their most broken and deplorable qualities on full display.
“Your Friends & Neighbors” opens in a bloodbath. Andrew “Coop” Cooper (Jon Hamm) returns to consciousness on the floor of a palatial home. As he cranes his neck, he’s horrified to discover that he’s lying next to a dead body, a mass of blood spilling forth between them. Panicked, Coop leaps to his feet and haphazardly tries to clean up any evidence placing him at the scene of the gruesome crime. Though the show begins here, this is not where Coop’s story starts. The series rewinds four months to get to the beginning.
Even before waking up in a murder scene, Coop isn’t exactly living a fairy tale. It’s been two years, but he hasn’t recovered from catching his ex-wife Mel (Amanda Peet) and one of his closest friends, former NBA champion Nick Brandes (Mark Tallman), in bed together. With his teenage children, Tori (Isabel Gravitt) and Hunter (Donovan Colan), living at the massive house he’s still paying for, Coop finds himself alone at a bar when a young woman approaches him, promising a sexy, carefree weekend. But their romp gets Coop ousted from the hedge fund he’s helped build for the past two decades. Having little liquid cash, ever-expanding bills and a shockingly harsh non-solicit, Coop starts analyzing what his life has become. Desperate to cling to what’s left of his identity, he barrels down a path of criminality he is in no way prepared for.
Hamm is fantastic as a man reflecting on his imploded sense of self. Flashbacks with Mel, his kids and his sister, Ali (Lena Hall), reveal a side of the hedge funder that’s more tender and nuanced than expected. Having little to do, Coop begins examining his community, the ridiculously lavish Westmont Village, a fictional suburb of New York, and the lives of those he calls friends and neighbors. These people cling to their pristine images in frequented communal spaces like the country club, parties and the gym. However, as Coop digs through their personal effects (by literally breaking into homes and stealing valuable items), he uncovers the lies, secrets and deep unhappiness they’ve tried to mask with money and influence.
The nine-episode series (critics received seven for review) also succeeds because it branches out into the world around Coop. Mel has seemingly moved on to a happy and healthy relationship, but Nick’s doting doesn’t make her feel seen. Elsewhere in Westmont, Coop’s best friend and business manager, Barney (Hoon Lee), is dealing with his own financial pressures, and Mel’s good friend, Samantha (Olivia Munn), is in the middle of a vicious divorce that seemingly has no end in sight.
“Your Friends & Neighbors” is an intriguing assessment of the fragility of the American dream. Episode 4, “Literal Dragons,” is particularly riveting, offering audiences a more in-depth assessment of the relationship Coop and Mel once shared and the illusion of safety created by keeping up appearances. After all, as Coop learns rather harshly, nothing is really yours if you can’t hold on to it.
The first two episodes of “Your Friends & Neighbors” premiere April 11 on Apple TV+ with new episodes dropping weekly on Fridays.
