Apple TV: “Your Friends and Neighbors” starring Jon Hamm
“The rich are different from you and me,” wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1926. What would he say 100 years later about the residents of Westmont (rumored to be Rye) in wealthy Westchester County, New York. These are people for whom $15 million homes are normal and who own watches starting at $100,000.
This tony crowd, featured in “Your Friends and Neighbors, S2” (Apple TV) includes Andy “Coop” Cooper (Jon Hamm), a beleaguered former investment banker turned divorced-dad burglar. Having beat a murder rap last season, Coop is still keeping up with the joneses by robbing them of their most valuable possessions, then pawning them for big money.
Season 2 folds another villain into the mix: Owen Ashe (James Marston), a glad-handing gazillionaire who buys an enormous house in town, drives a flashy sport car and hosts see-and-be-seen parties. A widower (whose wife died under
“mysterious” circumstances), he hits on neurotic realtor Samantha (Olivia Munn) who’s been ghosted by the locals for incriminating Coop in last season’s murder rap.
One night Ashe’s indoor security cameras catch Coop breaking into the new guy’s home. Rather than press charges, Ashe used this as an opportunity to force Coop into laundering Ashe’s ill-gotten gains through the hedge fund run by Coop’s former boss (Corbin Bernsen).
As appalling as these characters are— “we live in a terrible town where terrible people do terrible things to each other,” says Samantha—the scenarios are extremely creative. One episode takes place at an over-the-top Passover seder, another at a funeral repast which reveals rich people mourn as badly as the rest of us. And kudos to the directors and writers for the last two episodes of S2 in particular, which involve a deadly fire and a scene filmed under water.
You sense these Gen X-ers are uneasy about their conspicuous consumption and miserable in their personal lives. Coop’s back is starting to hurt; his unemployed ex-wife (Amanda Peet) is sleeping with Miguel (Matias de la Flor), the next-door neighbor’s sexy contractor; and their entitled college-bound daughter Tori (Isabel Gravitt) has turned down her slam-dunk admission to Princeton. Yes suburbia, but suburbia at its ickiest.
Season 2 is officially a wrap but apparently a few loose ends need to be tied up. Which is why these lovably unlovable friends and neighbors are due back for Season 3. Shameful to admit, I can’t wait.
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I just finished season 1 and am looking forward to season 2. Thanks for writing a good review without spoilers.
And don't forget what Hemingway said back to Fitzgerald: "Yes, they have more money."