The Hamm-aissaince Begins: Jon Hamm is Petty and Rich in Apple TV’s ‘Your Friends and Neighbors’
In Apple TV’s sharp, stylish new dramedy ‘Your Friends and Neighbors,’ Jon Hamm trades Don Draper’s smolder for suburban pettiness and passive-aggressive tennis matches. A biting take on wealth, masculinity, and community, the series signals the start of a full-blown Hamm-aissance—and we’re all here for it.
The series opens with Jon Hamm floating face-down in a pool, his deep voice narrating how he ended up here with the same baritone charm that once sold TV audiences the American Dream in ‘Mad Men.’ But this time, he’s not pitching fantasies to a board of chain-smoking financiers; he’s unraveling those fantasies, laying them bare. As Andy “Coop” Cooper, we see Hamm as a washed-up financial exec turned petty thief, trading in Sheriff Roy Tillman’s imposing presence in season 5 of ‘Fargo’ for middle-aged disillusionment. Draper sold the dream, and Coop bought it– and now he is stuck with the receipt and a bounced check.
The show follows Coop, a once-successful hedge fund manager whose life has quietly imploded. Divorced from his ex-wife, Mel (Amanda Peet), fired from his job because he slept with a younger employee (who, though not his underling, is still technically forbidden under the company’s bylaws) and broke into the upscale suburb he once dominated, Coop starts robbing his wealthy friends’ homes. As a former enjoyer of this affluence, Coop knows that the watches and wine bottles he steals will not be missed, let alone noticed to be missing for weeks. His crimes arise from a mix of desperation to uphold his wealthy image and the disillusionment with his former lifestyle. As he spirals deeper into petty crime and brings on an accomplice, a housekeeper, Elena (Aimee Carrero), his crimes get bigger and methods more elaborate. As his secret life of burglary escalates, so does the show’s darkly comic exploration of masculinity, privilege, and the thin facade of community. Coop not only discovers that everyone in his pristine neighborhood is hiding something, but also that most of them may deserve to get robbed, a cathartic realization in the era of billionaires, inflation, and unaffordability of life. Created by author and TV writer Jonathon Tropper, whose style is similar to that of Aaron Sorkin, Tropper put together a fantastic cast of veteran television actors to poke holes in the wealthy circles observed by Sorkin in his work.
Hamm’s Andy “Cooper” Cooper of ‘Your Friends and Neighbors’ feels like the logical, cynical afterlife of Don Draper. Where Draper curated images of domestic bliss and masculine control, Coop is what happens when one buys into that fantasy, coming to realize the fantasy has nothing behind its glittering sheen. Coop’s ever-present voiceover narration crackles with sarcasm and resignation. Coop charts the familiar rise and fall of an Ivy-league destined, handsome white man on paper: first job, apartment, marriage, kids, bigger house, better car, until eventually, you’re broke again, living in a rental, divorced, wondering what all of the signs of lost wealth– from watches, to tennis practices, to nice cars– were all for.
It is not just the material spiral that is compelling, but the tonal contrast. In ‘Mad Men,’ Hamm played a man keeping secrets; in ‘Your Friends and Neighbors,’ Hamm is playing a man whose secrets are so ridiculous, so cynical, that his crimes grow lazy and his social niceties wear thin. Coop has nothing left to protect, which makes him as dangerous as he is darkly funny, openly mocking the thin columns of white, heteronormative society he and his friend group occupy. When he gets fired for sleeping with a much younger coworker (who is wooed by explaining their doomed hypothetical age-gap relationship), or when he punches his daughter’s boyfriend in the balls, we are watching a man weaponize truth and abandon sociability.
Hamm’s performance is a tour de force of post-prestige TV male crisis. Hamm knows exactly how to play a man who is both aware of his decline and committed to it. He is no longer the slick Don Draper, bearing his struggle with a grunt and a whiskey; he is a man spiraling to hold together his wealth, family, and sanity while slipping into the alluring world of crime.
Rich Folks Behaving Badly
Structurally, ‘Your Friends and Neighbors’ operates like ‘American Beauty’ meets ‘The Big Short’ with a welcomed splash of ‘Big Little Lies.’ It’s a world of country clubs, expensive scotch, rolexes, vacation homes, and sad, sterile sex. As the show unfurls across its tightly written episodes, we watch as Coop’s behavior exposes the moral decay beneath polished exteriors. The show offers a biting critique of white male privilege and the hollow pursuit of affluence, all the while darkly funny and flourishing with filmic style.
The series delves into the performative elements of masculinity, Hamm brilliantly portraying Coop’s unraveling as he confronts the emptiness of his once-envied lifestyle. Whenever Coop finds an item to steal, a ‘Fight Club’-esque voiceover detailing the product’s cost and social clout, an advertisement for the item’s steal-able nature. His descent into crime is not only for financial survival but as a means of maintaining his masculine image and rebelling against suffocating social conventions imposed by the wealthy. This narrative, portrayed by brooding male icon Jon Hamm, reflects a broader cultural reckoning with toxic masculinity and the pressures it imposes.
Supporting characters like Sam Levitt (Olivia Munn), Coop’s mistress and a woman who rose through the wealthy ranks by marrying in, and Mel Cooper, raised on the Ivy-League track to achieve sustainable wealth, further illuminate the show’s indictment of rich male insecurity. Sam, navigating her own divorce, reflects on the sacrifices made by women to keep up appearances and maintain their beauty under wealthy white patriarchy. Mel, character is initially unlikeable due to her marriage-ending affair with Coop’s best friend and her constant asking for money from Coop quickly turns sympathetic, alert portraying the disillusionment that comes from realizing the promised rewards of conformity are often illusory.
The show’s dark humor and satire of the wealthy fall in line with recent media trends that brought about ‘Big Little Lies’ and ‘The White Lotus,’ all offering a scathing critique of the facades maintained by the wealthy elite, while also affording the empathy and intrigue necessary to make television compelling. However, ‘Your Friends and Neighbors’ carves itself a unique niche by focusing on the inferiority of its main character, making it an interesting case study of male identity and self-worth in a materialistic society.
‘Your Friends and Neighbors’ is a timely reflection on the pitfalls of chasing societal ideals without introspection. Through Coop’s journey, the series invites viewers to question the true cost of success and the identities we construct to achieve it.
Jon Hamm, long associated with the suave, tortured Don Draper of ‘Mad Men’, has spent the past decade stretching his range, from comedic turns in ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ and ‘Bridesmaids’ to eccentric roles in indie films like ‘Confess, Fletch’ and prestige TV like ‘Fargo’ or ‘Landman’. ‘Your Friends and Neighbors’ marks a return to form and complexity, tapping into Hamm’s ability to play charm and decay in equal measure. It’s a performance that signals a career renaissance, where the actor is no longer escaping Draper’s shadow but reimagining what a post-Draper antihero can look like.
Jon Hamm will soon appear in a TV adaptation of the podcast ‘American Hostage’ and is already in production on season two of ‘Your Friends and Neighbors.’
By Leeann Remiker
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