‘Your Friends & Neighbors' series review: Jon Hamm is riveting in this black satire

The Hindu

3 days ago

Your Friends & Neighbors begins in medias res with Coop (Jon Hamm), a hedge fund manager, waking up in a mansion next to a body. We go back four months, when Coop's evil, greedy boss, Jack Bailey (Corbin Bernsen), fires him as a means to acquire his clients.
We see a collage of Coop's life from being young, poor, driven and in love with Mel (Amanda Peet), to the birth of their two children, Tori (Isabel Marie Gravitt) and Hunter (Donovan Colan), and acquiring bigger houses and cars and the all-important corner office. Once you are at the pinnacle, there is only way to go, and that is down.
So Coop walks in on Mel cheating on him with his best friend and former NBA player, Nick (Mark Tallman). He moves out of the family home into a rented house in the same posh Westmont community. He has an on-off sexual relationship with Sam (Olivia Munn), who is also going through a contentious divorce with her diner-running husband, Paul (Jordan Gelber), who has traded Sam in for a younger wife.
After he loses his job, Coop's business manager, Barney (Hoon Lee), tells him he can live off his savings and keep his family in the style they are used to for six months. With no suitable job offers coming, Coop is in a desperate situation when he realises his friends and neighbours have piles of stuff including drawers full of watches, and rolls of cash that they will not miss.
Your Friends & Neighbors (English)
Creator: Jonathan Tropper
Cast: Jon Hamm, Amanda Peet, Olivia Munn, Hoon Lee, Mark Tallman, Lena Hall, Aimee Carrero, Eunice Bae, Isabel Marie Gravitt, Donavan Colan
Episodes: 9
Run-time: 46–56 minutes
Storyline: When a divorced hedge fund manager is fired, he takes somewhat extreme measures to stay afloat
And once he is on that slippery slope, he is propelled down a path he would not have considered a few months ago, which ends with him waking up next to a body with the head blown off. Along the way he meets with the pawnshop owner Lu (Randy Danson), and the housekeeper Elena (Aimee Carrero), who proves to be an invaluable resource, and a scary underground art dealer.
While on the outside everything and everybody looks polished and pretty, there is plenty of rot and worms on the inside. It takes Ali (Lena Hall), Coop's bipolar, musician sister, to call out all the phonies in Westmont.
Barney is under pressure from his rich wife, Grace (Eunice Bae), and her parents for an unending renovation. There are infidelities, children under pressure and $30,000 commodes as well as moments of genuine warmth.
While Your Friends & Neighbors does not achieve Parasite-level black satire, it is bingeable for Hamm's extraordinary turn as Coop. Like Hamm's Don Draper in Mad Men, Coop is neither very likeable nor particularly heroic, which perversely makes him accessible to all of us who just trying to do the best we can for ourselves and those we care about.
Hamm's Coop is self-aware and draws us into his mind with his inner monologue. One cannot help but grin at Coop dismissing one of his neighbours as an 'insecure narcissist whose entire self worth is wrapped up in what he owns,' or dismissing the 'crypto bros' as 'COIN - Collectors Only In Name.'
Coop is discerning enough to realise entire industries are 'built to cash in on quiet desperation' and how rich people collect 'Scotch, cigars, smoked meats, custom golf clubs, and high-end escorts to stave off emptiness.'
Lest you think Your Friends & Neighbors is all about poor little rich people, there is Elena saying, 'In life you don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate,' or her dismissing Coop with 'All you know how to be, is rich.'
Your Friends & Neighbors is filled with colourful characters including Detective Lin (Sandrine Holt) and smart writing from the episode titles such as 'Theoretical Herpes' and 'When did we become these people?' to Elena saving Coop's number on her phone as George Clooney. Stealing the communion wafers from church was definitely a misstep, but otherwise Your Friends & Neighbors, provides enough food for thought and wry amusement through its nine episodes.
Your Friends & Neighbors is currently streaming on Apple TV+