Season 2 review of ‘Your Friends & Neighbours’: drama sensations from Apple TV
The lifestyles of the rich and famous are discussed and depicted so often that it feels tasteless. These stories become boring tapestries of self-centered people doing self-obsessed things. However, in his Apple TV drama ‘Your Friends & Neighbors’, Jon Hamm succeeds in painting an intriguing picture of the ultra-rich. The show is a deep, bizarre and witty portrayal of some of the world’s most deplorable people – and the other people who happen to get sucked into their manic orbits. Season 1, created by Jonathan Tropper, was a fascinating assessment of the fragility of the American dream. In Season 2, “Your Friends & Neighbors” becomes more structured, with a different level of prosperity, the cost of lies and why wealthy white men in particular continually fail.
In the final episodes of Season 1 of “Your Friends & Neighbors,” Andrew “Coop” Cooper (Jon Hamm) is acquitted after he is accused of murdering a neighbor. He also gets the opportunity to return to his former employer, the prestigious hedge fund Bailey Russell. By being acquitted of a heinous crime, he has increased his social cachet in his affluent neighborhood of Westmont Village, a fictional New York suburb. But by turning down his old job as a fuck-you to his former boss, Jack Bailey (Corbin Bernsen), who so viciously ousted him in the first place, he’s left Coop right where viewers met him a year ago, financially strapped and playing pretend.
Coop seems content to continue with his new income stream, teaming up with Westmont housekeeper Elaina (Aimee Carrero) to rob his friends and neighbors of their most valuable possessions and then pawn them off on the black market. However, the arrival of a new billionaire neighbor, Owen Ashe (a perfectly cast James Marsden), soon proves to Coop that being suspected of murder is hardly on the list of terrible things that could happen to him, especially when he’s too busy providing a life he’s not sure he wants anymore.
At first glance, Ashe seems like a charming man-boy who throws his money around like tic tacs and makes money. friends such as collectibles. Yet there is something lurking beneath the surface that is so devilishly disturbing and sinister that it unnerves even Coop. There is a sinister quality to the widowed father’s appeal that lingers throughout the season. An absolutely sensational performance from Marsden proves that no matter how much people think they know about the filthy rich, they actually don’t understand anything. Ashe easily draws in the citizens of Westmont and clings to them, preventing them from getting away before his true nature emerges.
Yet this ten-episode second season isn’t just Coop and Ashe’s show. In the midst of an unexpected life change, Barney (Hoon Lee), Coop’s best friend and business manager, finds himself crossing the moral line as his wife Grace (Eunice Bae) grows increasingly suspicious. Former NBA champion Nick Brandes (Mark Tallman) is moving on after a bad breakup with Mel (Amanda Peet), Coop’s ex-wife. Mel is adrift after being fired from her job as a therapist and isolated from her friend group due to Coop and Sam’s (Olivia Munn) affair. She is also becoming increasingly angry, especially as perimenopause begins to wreak havoc on her body. Although Sam is a social leper at Westmont, Ashe’s interest in her could be the currency she needs to return to the in-crowd. This season also focuses on Coop and Mel’s teenage children, Tori (Isabel Gravitt) and Hunter (Donovan Colan), as well as Ali (Lena Hall), Coop’s sister, as she tries to find her footing without Coop looming over her.
Season 2 leans completely towards the bizarre. It has yachts, nice cars, businesses and piles of dog poop. Yet it is also surprisingly tender and reflective. Episode 6, “For Everything Else, There Was Bowling,” acts as an interlude in the season, reminding the audience that despite all the privilege and chaos swirling around Coop, he is only human and that life, especially the most devastating parts of it, affects everyone, no matter where they are on the socio-economic scale.
In its second season, ‘Your Friends & Neighbors’ ups the ante and reveals a world Coop and his Westmont comrades had never before encountered. While this season has some crazy moments, especially from Mel’s perspective, the series has never been more fun or shocking. It proves once again that with enough money and access there are no rules, and the sky really is the limit.
“Season 2 of Your Friends & Neighbors premieres April 3 on Apple TV, with new episodes released weekly on Fridays.
