Reel Review: Your Friends and Neighbors is a Fresh Concept But Lacks Proper Tension

When I first heard about this TV show from Apple TV, I knew I’d enjoy it. The show’s most impactful aspect for me was longing for rich friends. Amidst rising costs, this show provides a distraction from daily struggles, yet simultaneously highlights the comfort of being able to afford things to the wealthy. 

In the show, Jon Hamm is living his best life with a wife and two kids, until he comes home and sees his wife sleeping with his best friend. Suddenly, he loses everything. He’s living in a rental home and heading to the only thing he has left - his job. Until he gets fired from that too.

This show took a life that a lot of people dream of having and shows you that it can all be taken away at the snap of a finger. The concept of this show was very original, but I found myself at times needing to step away and feel the frustration that comes from watching people live so comfortably. Even when he loses everything and he starts stealing, it feels like there will be no real consequence for a wealthy white man who is stealing things that these ultra wealthy people won’t miss.

I will say, Jon Hamm was fantastic in this show. I do think he makes you have empathy for Andrew Cooper, when he doesn’t deserve it at all. I found myself siding with him and rooting for him when he was stealing from other people. I don’t know if that was the intention of the show or what Jon Hamm was going for with his performance, but I think it was executed well. I wasn’t expecting to root for Coop throughout the show, but Hamm’s acting made it incredibly hard not to.

When I was starting to watch the show it was making me angry with the way these people lived and how comfortable they all seemed. Even when Coop loses his job, which I did feel bad for him in that aspect, since he was on the blacklist from most other places in the city, I think it made me angry how he still could drive a nice car, live in a nice house in a good part of town and still have his friend Barney helping him out with getting another job. Some people in the U.S. don’t have the luxury of most of this stuff so when the secrets start unraveling and you begin to see how unhappy these people are, it offers a little bit of a feel good feeling that they don’t have everything when it seems like they do. 

Initially, Coop’s thievery is the focus, but the series gradually reveals deeper secrets and rising tensions among the affluent residents of the neighborhood. Watching them make mistakes and feel the weight of their actions is interesting in and of itself, but it allows you to understand that even the wealthiest people in the world can be some of the most unhappy. Reiterating the phrase: Money doesn’t buy happiness.

For the other actors in the show, Olivia Munn was incredible. I haven’t really watched much of anything that she is in, but she was great in this show and really stood out amongst the rest of the cast. Hoon Lee was another standout for me, he also seems to be rising in the acting world and I think he was great in this show.

Mark Tallman was another person who did a great job, because I hated him throughout the show. He slept with Coop’s wife and essentially was the reason that he moved out and doesn’t see his children, but then he wants to continue their friendship and act as if it didn’t really ever happen. I think that while that all sounds awful and was awful to watch; he did a great job portraying this character and gets even better as the show goes on.

I loved the high quality production of the show and thoroughly enjoyed watching, but I think there could have been a bit more tension and stakes, on occasion there is tension with people coming home or locks that have to be unlocked but I just wish there were more. It did add to the fact that it seemed like he had nothing to lose though which could be why it didn’t come across as very intense, which is also okay but I wish there were higher stakes or consequences.

I did also like the voiceovers from Jon Hamm, it showcased his loneliness and his inner monologue. It guided the series and allowed us to be where Andrew Cooper was throughout the series. I do wish the voice overs were more tense though sometimes because it didn’t really feel like he was all that scared throughout the show.

Overall, the show is different from a lot of other things I’ve seen and opened my mind to different ways of thinking throughout. 

Your Friends & Neighbors premieres its first two episodes on Apple TV+ April 11, with subsequent episodes airing Fridays.