‘YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS’ ON APPLE TV+

Best known for playing Madison Avenue advertising agency shark Don Draper in the “Mad Men” series, Jon Hamm is the perfect fit for the role of hedge fund manager Andrew Cooper in the “Your Friends and Neighbors” series on Apple TV+.
   
Coop, as known by friends and colleagues, finds his life in a downward spiral. It helps little that we first see him on a floor covered in blood next to a dead man presumably killed by gunshot. 
   
There’s a flashback to four months earlier at a bar where alluring Olivia (Kitty Hawthorne), her shirt halfway unbuttoned, approaches Coop after ignoring a pair of obnoxious patrons she refers to as Patrick Bateman fanboys.
   
No longer married after 18 years, Coop claims to be old for someone who turns out to be 28 years old. It should come as no surprise that a consensual relationship would soon to follow.
  
A little introspection dawns when Coop recalls falling madly in love at a young age, moving quickly up the ladder at work and taking on greater financial burdens as he and his wife Mel (Amanda Peet) take on bigger mortgages for larger homes. T
   
Then one day he comes home early from work to find his wife in flagrante delicto with his best friend Nick (Mark Tallman), a former NBA champion who lives in the neighborhood in his own mansion with trophies and artifacts of his career on prominent display.
   
Coop’s circle of friends and colleagues all seem to live in the exclusive fictional New York suburb of Westmont Village, an ultra-wealthy enclave where many residents belong to a country club and dress formally for cocktail parties.
   
Less than 15 minutes into the first episode Coop is sitting casually in the spa of a high-end gym with his slimy boss Jack Bailey (Corbin Bernsen), only to find out he’s being fired for having sex with Olivia, a subordinate at the firm.
   
Protesting that his tryst with Olivia was a weekend fling, Coop claims to not knowing of her position in the company, and then Jack drops the absurd notion that the young woman is on track to be a vice president.
   
Appearing to be vindictive, Jack arranged the visit to the gym so that the computer and proprietary information in Coop’s office could be seized, along with his capital account that is his only source of savings.
   
Sacked from his corporate perch, Coop loses his client list based upon a non-compete clause that is in effect for two years. Making the rounds to other hedge fund firms goes nowhere for the now unemployable former managing director.
   
Living in a rented home and without job prospects, Coop is still paying to support his ex-wife and two children, Ivy League college-bound Tori (Isabel Gravitt), a top-rated tennis player, and high school drummer enthusiast Hunter (Donovan Colan).
   
Meanwhile, Coop has a volatile sexual relationship with Samantha (Olivia Munn), whose husband Paul (Jordan Gelber) has left her for a younger model. It’s Paul who was found dead when Coop woke up in a pool of his blood.
   
There’s now a mystery going on about who killed Paul, or did he commit suicide. The twists and turns on the probe into his death won’t be revealed here for fear of spoiling the eventual denouement.
  
Adding to his distress, Coop finds that his sister Ali (Lena Hall) is struggling with mental illness, and needs to move in with him to avoid an ongoing toxic relationship with their mother.
   
Things get interesting when Coop, knowing a lot about his wealthy neighbors, turns into a cat burglar with his first score of a wad of cash and a priceless watch that leads him to deal with an illicit pawnbroker in the Bronx. 
 
A life of crime ensues because it’s the only way Coop can keep up mortgage payments on the mansion his ex-wife acquired in the divorce, along with buying a drum set for his son and ponying up college tuition money.
   
What does a hedge fund guy know about breaking into homes? He acquires an accomplice in Elena (Aimee Carrero), a housekeeper he encounters during a break-in who then hooks him up with some real criminal talent.
   
“Your Friends and Neighbors,” focused as it is on a bunch of privileged folks often whining about a lifestyle out of reach for most people, allows a voyeuristic audience to indulge either in a resignation to guilty pleasure or revulsion at some unlikable characters.
   
This series satiates a fascination with obnoxious buffoons and distasteful situations, and considering that odious persons populated popular TV shows like the ad men in “Mad Men” and the sleazy lawyers in “Suits” it is no wonder than the talented Jon Hamm is perfectly cast.
   
Controversy over the show has arisen as the result of the advocacy group CatholicVote and other Catholics expressing outrage at the scene where Coop and his ex-wife break into a church and commit gratuitously sacrilegious acts. 

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.