
Jon Hamm has sticky fingers in ‘Your Friends & Neighbors’
After two 2024 Emmy-nominated performances in “Fargo” and “The Morning Show,” Jon Hamm looks to now score a triple run with his new, decidedly adult Apple TV+ series, “Your Friends & Neighbors.”
A smart, incisive study of the many dark sides among upper-class Connecticut achievers, this “Friends” begins (just like “The White Lotus”) with a murder and then immediately flashes back to fill us in on Hamm’s Andrew “Coop” Cooper.
Life is not going especially well for Coop — as evidenced by that bloody corpse. He matter-of-factly explains he’s been dumped and divorced — his wife left him for a pro basketball superstar — and forced into a smaller house while his three kids remain in their home with mom and, now, stepdad.
Should we mention Coop’s lost his highly lucrative job? Still, he drives a $200,000 sports car and only his accountant knows he’s going broke.
Which is why he burgles his friends’ houses, hoping they won’t miss a $250,000 watch or ludicrously overpriced Birkin bag.
A portrait of those with great plenty, what, Hamm, 54, was asked, does this say about the world we’re looking at and the world we’re living in?
“That it resonates for a lot of people right now. To be on the outside looking in of that, and seeing people that are maybe putting the emphasis on the wrong things in life? That more is not always better?
“Realizing that life is more than just the accumulation of larger and larger piles of stuff. And that truly, when we look at it, especially when we look back, that maybe the important things in life are the emotional connections. The relationships that we build and we tend to, over the course of our lives.
“I think Coop has lost touch with some of those relationships. Not just with his wife and kids, but maybe with his sister” — she’s temporarily moved in with him — “and his family as well.
“He is coming to that realization and learning that maybe he’s been putting the wrong emphases in his personal life.
“As for a midlife crisis, I don’t know if you’d call it that. But it certainly is a crisis! He is finding himself in a position that he quickly realizes is not sustainable. So he has to figure that out — and does it in a unorthodox fashion, for sure.”
Does Hamm ever worry once he’s made a choice?
“I don’t really agonize over much or spend a lot of time living in the rearview mirror. I stand by my decisions. And my track record is pretty good. As we’re about to debut Season 1 we’re picked up for a second season.”
“Your Friends & Neighbors” streams 2 episodes on Apple TV+ Friday