We wanted something more from Apple TV’s Your Friends & Neighbors than we got during its first season. There was a lot that was satisfying about it, namely Jon Hamm’s lead performance. But there was a lot going on in Westmont Village, and sometimes the show got distracted by those other stories. With a big addition to the cast for Season 2, we hope that changes.
YOUR FRIENDS & NEIGHBORS SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: A very blue ocean, and we then see Andrew Cooper (Jon Hamm) coming out of the water.
The Gist: Coop is on a Mexican vacation with his ex-wife Mel (Amanda Peet) but without their teenage kids Tori (Isabel Gravitt) and son Hunter (Donovan Colan). As Coop and Mel sit at the bar, Mel laments that it’s the last day of their trip, but Coop seems to be philosophical about it: “We’re here until we’re not.” It seems that, a year after being arrested then exonerated for murdering the husband of Samantha Levitt (Olivia Munn), Coop is in a good place, with Mel and with life.
This is when we go into another “this is what happens” montage with a voice over from Coop. It turns out that after being exonerated, he was offered his old finance job back, but he turned it down and continued to do what he was doing, which was rob the homes of his neighbors in Westmont Village, now with the help of Elena Benevides (Aimee Carrero). He seems to be doing well, both financially and socially, but Sam has been shunned by pretty much everyone there, and is looking to sell her house.
Sam is now a real estate agent, with her house being one of her listings. One of the people who are coming to see the house is Owen Ashe (James Marsden), a charming and handsome “import-export” magnate, who thinks the house isn’t grand enough. However, he takes a liking to Sam and the fact that she admits to a checkered recent past, so he fires his real estate agent and hires Sam to show him bigger houses.
While robbing a pen worth six figures from a house, Coop’s back gives out, and he tells Elena to call Barney Choi (Hoon Lee) to help get him out. Of course, Charlie is shocked that his friend is doing what he’s doing. But after a dispiriting visit with the father of his wife Grace (Eunice Bae), and then Grace telling him she’s pregnant, he tells Coop he wants in.
This happens at a housewarming party that Owen throws for the neighbors at the sprawling mansion he bought mostly sight-unseen for cash. He is definitely the type who wants to shake things up. He thinks that Nick Brandes (Mark Tallman), for instance, can take his gyms nationwide, and may want to invest, and he certainly takes in interest in Coop, given what happened in the case of Sam’s husband.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? As we said in Season 1, Your Friends & Neighbors, created by Jonathan Trooper, feels like Breaking Bad meets Big Little Lies.
Our Take: The second season of Your Friends & Neighbors has some of the same issues we had with the first season. There’s a storytelling confidence that makes the show very appealing, especially given the performance of Hamm as the forever-lamenting Coop. But the show still tends to bog itself down with too many characters and stories, as well as the gimmickry of Coop’s narration intruding on what’s going on.
For instance, we haven’t even mentioned Coop’s sister Ali (Lena Hall), in a much more stable place in her life, considering a music teaching job at the private school where Mel works, or Tori’s speech to a Princeton alumni during her interview that vilifies the university even though she knows she’s getting in. Those stories will likely get neglected, even though they both have intriguing possibilities.
The addition of Marsden is promising, though. Owen Ashe is definitely different, because he has the potential to make what Coop is doing look like small potatoes, as far as criminal activity is concerned. He’ll definitely connect with Sam at some point, and given what we saw of him at his housewarming party, his presence is going to disrupt the staid lives of pretty much everyone in the neighborhood.
Still, much of the season will likely revolve around Coop trying to keep his criminal enterprise as much under wraps as possible (and likely not succeeding) as well as his continuing midlife crisis affecting him both emotionally and physically. And, given how much we like Hamm as Coop, keeping that at the center of the show will only help.
Performance Worth Watching: Marsden has been on a roll of late, and his brand of handsome charm fits well with Ashe, even if he might ultimately be the biggest “bad guy” he’s ever played.
Sex And Skin: There’s some nudity and simulated sex, but it’s mostly momentary. Surprisingly, there’s a bare butt in the opening credit sequence.
Parting Shot: As Coop dries off and watches Ashe and his guests having fun in his pool, his voice over says, “For the first time in awhile, the future seemed, well, promising. And maybe it was the painkillers mixing with the booze, or maybe it was sheer stupidity, but in that moment, I was just drunk enough to believe it.
Sleeper Star: Olivia Munn has more than proven that she’s a fine comedic and dramatic actor, but we especially like her this seasoned as the chastened but determined Sam.
Most Pilot-y Line: We’re still not fans of Coop’s narration, as we mentioned above. It’s not just because it’s still used far too much to move things along, but it’s also not really representing Coop’s inner thoughts; it sounds more like Coop reading an audiobook of a memoir that he never wrote.
Our Call: STREAM IT. We’re looking forward to how the addition of James Marsden changes the formula that made Your Friends & Neighbors a success in its first season, mainly because we hope his presence focuses the story in a way that we didn’t see previously.
How To Watch Your Friends And Neighbors
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Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
