{"id":579380,"date":"2026-04-03T10:22:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T10:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/579380\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T10:22:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T10:22:15","slug":"let-jon-hamm-steal-your-friends-and-neighbors-season-2-for-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/579380\/","title":{"rendered":"Let Jon Hamm Steal ‘Your Friends and Neighbors’ Season 2 For You"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the Season 2 premiere of \u201cYour Friends and Neighbors,\u201d<\/a> Cooper (Jon Hamm<\/a>) is hanging with the boys at the club \u2014\u00a0the country club. Sitting in a sauna, shooting the shit about their social lives, one of the fellas tries to punctuate his point about how unfair life can be by closing with, \u201cThat\u2019s America for ya.\u201d After a brief lull, Cooper quips, \u201cI thought your guy was trying to make it great again?\u201d<\/p>\n

Everyone laughs, even after the de facto group leader reminds them there\u2019s no talking politics at the club, and the episode rolls smoothly forward. But here, amid this inconsequential banter, a locked door swings open: Where the debut season of Jonathan Tropper\u2019s Apple drama<\/a> introduced ideas that could form a damning critique of its wealthy, immoral, and misguided central subjects, Season 2 makes it clear that\u2019s not an argument \u201cYour Friends and Neighbors<\/a>\u201d wants to make.<\/p>\n

\"Meryl<\/a> \"THE<\/a> <\/p>\n

Yes, it\u2019s aware of those criticisms. It recognizes that some viewers may see a half-dozen rich dudes laughing off one of their own\u2019s allegiance to a corrupt, incompetent, racist, reckless, and treasonous administration, and those viewers may never be able to sympathize with their personal struggles, such as they are. But that awareness can also make it easier to get on board. After all, Cooper is our hero, and Cooper is literally robbing these men. Sure, he\u2019s also their friend, but the way he phrases his sauna-room joke illustrates a critical distance between them. <\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t say, \u201cI thought our guy was trying to make [America] great again.\u201d He doesn\u2019t even say, \u201cI thought the president was trying to make America great again.\u201d He says, \u201cyour guy,\u201d meaning, \u201cnot my guy.\u201d And that, for a show like this, is enough. As long as Coop stays on the side of the angels (or at least avoids siding with obvious devils), we can believe he has a moral center hiding somewhere within his money-shaded soul, thus allowing us to invest just enough in his mid-life crisis drama to appreciate its twists, turns, and takeaways \u2014 especially now that they\u2019re fun.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour Friends and Neighbors\u201d Season 2 starts with Cooper winding down a vacation with his kids and ex-wife, Mel (Amanda Peet). Having beaten last season\u2019s murder rap (brought on by his ex-girlfriend, Sam, played by Olivia Munn), Coop has a new lease on life. He\u2019s enjoying being single. He\u2019s enjoying time with his friends. He\u2019s even enjoying time with Mel, despite the occasional argument rooted in their shared obliviousness to her renewed feelings for him. <\/p>\n

That, however, is one of the few areas in which Coop is kept in the dark. Season 2\u2019s increased self-awareness is mirrored in its protagonist\u2019s wake-up call. He\u2019s still robbing his rich friends\u2019 houses, but a) he seems to know it\u2019s a more honest way to make a buck than his former career in high-finance, b) he\u2019s working hand in gloved hand with Elena (Aimee Carrero), a full-time housekeeper who actually needs the money they\u2019re making by selling forgotten trinkets on the black market, and c) he likes what he\u2019s doing, he\u2019s not sure why, and he\u2019s willing to admit to both. <\/p>\n

\"OliviaOlivia Munn, James Marsden, and Jon Hamm<\/a> in \u2018Your Friends and Neighbors\u2019Courtesy of Jon Pack \/ Apple TV<\/p>\n

These choices help to keep Coop relatable as he guzzles $20,000 cocktails, rents an office in midtown Manhattan for fun, and parties on a super-yacht big enough to make Logan Roy blush. His sense of humor is quite a benefit, as well. After an overly mopey Season 1, letting our series lead actually take pleasure in a life that most people can only dream about is a smart shift, but Tropper also gives Coop two distinct, disparate, and clarifying obstacles. <\/p>\n

The first is James Marsden<\/a>. As Owen Ash, a man of mysterious yet immense wealth who moves into Coop\u2019s neighborhood and starts raising hell, the prince of an actor<\/a> quickly makes clear why it\u2019s so satisfying that he\u2019s suddenly<\/a> everywhere<\/a>. Tasked with walking a fine line between intimidating antagonist and friendly foil, Marsden plays Ash like a live-wire that\u2019s always about to blow. Some of his irrepressible energy stems from the steady stream of uppers he\u2019s swigging, snorting, or injecting into his body, but even a rich douchebag\u2019s drug habits have layers here. Ash is a rocket ship that can\u2019t be reined in, and watching the restrained, comparably rational Coop try to lasso him is reliably entertaining. <\/p>\n

He also helps to frame Coop as the good guy, which leads us to the second hurdle: death. No, there\u2019s never a moment in Season 2 where you think the lead of Jon Hamm\u2019s Apple show<\/a> may actually get killed off; \u201cYour Friends and Neighbors\u201d isn\u2019t playing in the Safdie brothers\u2019 sandbox, where Coop would just keep digging himself a deeper and deeper hole until he ends up burying himself. Instead, death is an existential threat, manifested by another relatable trope: Coop\u2019s bad back. <\/p>\n

During the first robbery of the season, a muscle spasm traps our hero on the floor of the house he\u2019s trying to flee. Not only does this force him to ask for help from a friend big enough to carry him to safety (which also means including this very fun friend in all future schemes), but it introduces a recurring reminder: He\u2019s too old for this shit. And no one plays a man fighting against the inevitable passage of time like Jon Hamm. (In another welcome nod to Don Draper<\/a>, \u201cYour Friends and Neighbors\u201d doubles down on Coop\u2019s love of old movies by sending him to the Metrograph whenever he\u2019s trying to kill time in the city.) <\/p>\n

So how long can he keep it up? How long should he keep it up? And will he find his way out of the mess he\u2019s in before it\u2019s too late? These are broad, familiar questions \u2014 on TV<\/a> or off of it \u2014 but that\u2019s OK. At its core, \u201cYour Friends and Neighbors\u201d is a conventional show consisting of conventional pleasures. It\u2019s not pretending to be anything else, be it a sneaky evisceration of America\u2019s aristocrats or a tragic acknowledgment of just how much the rich can get away with in a country run by a felon. Might those shows be stronger, smarter, or more appropriate in the current climate? Sure, but the one we\u2019ve got works on its own merits.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s programming slates is overstuffed<\/a> with wealth<\/a> porn<\/a>, and I say that as someone who enjoys<\/a> plenty<\/a> of those shows. This one, though, is better off for playing it straight. Sometimes it can feel like series about the rich want to have their six-tiered cakes and eat them, too \u2014 asking viewers to gawk at the ornate frosting and then pretending to slap our wrists for wanting a slice. Sometimes, it\u2019s OK to enjoy things that are meant to be enjoyed. That\u2019s what Coop\u2019s doing, that\u2019s what Jon Hamm is doing, and in Season 2, we can join them.<\/p>\n

Grade: B-<\/p>\n

\u201cYour Friends and Neighbors\u201d Season 2 premieres Friday, April 3 on Apple TV<\/a>. New episodes will be released weekly through the finale on June 5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the Season 2 premiere of \u201cYour Friends and Neighbors,\u201d Cooper (Jon Hamm) is hanging with the boys…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[15915,49,48,75,33141,209,348,221912],"class_list":["post-579380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-apple-tv","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-jon-hamm","tag-reviews","tag-tv","tag-your-friends-and-neighbors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}