‘Your Friends & Neighbors’: Jon Hamm Breaks Down the Show’s Examination of Wealth

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Your Friends & Neighbors Season 1, Episodes 1 & 2.]

Jon Hamm is back on TV as Andrew “Coop” Cooper in Apple TV+‘s dramedy Your Friends & Neighbors, which puts him in the shoes of a newly-fired hedge fund worker. But what’s a rich man to do when the money faucet stops running? According to Coop, it’s time to turn to stealing from his — you guessed it — friends and neighbors.

At least, that’s what’s teased in the opening episodes of the new series, which already has a second season on the horizon.

While Coop may be a man attempting to hang onto the wealth he’s built, he’s also divorced and supporting his ex-wife, Mel (Amanda Peet), and their children, Hunter (Donovan Colan) and Tori (Isabel Gravitt). This means that Coop has a motivation for his new pastime. Even still, should we feel sympathy for a man who wants to pawn a stolen watch to maintain his comfortable lifestyle when the worst he’d have to face is social scandal and some downsizing?

Apple TV+

It’s a concept that hasn’t been lost on Hamm. “I think that was a very wise decision on [showrunner] Jonathan [Tropper]’s part to kind of bring that aspect of it into [the show],” Hamm says. “How what seems to be almost passing wealth to one person or passing luxury to one person is a game-changing amount of money to another person.”

As viewers will see later this season, Hamm’s character Coop will be forced to examine his circumstances in accordance with others inhabiting his rich circle. “How did we as a society get to a place where some people accumulate so much ridiculous, superfluous wealth, and other people are living hand to mouth? [I hope] those [are] questions that the show makes people think about,” Hamm adds.

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The topic and questions come at a particularly prudent time, as Hamm points out, “I think we are having a lot of those conversations when we’re looking at these multibillionaires and how they’re making these decisions that really aren’t helping anybody but themselves.”

“It’s a conversation that’s probably a little overdue to have, but it’d be nice to maybe inspire some rich people to give back, hopefully,” he adds.

Stay tuned to see what’s next for Coop as Your Friends & Neighbors unfolds on Apple TV+, and let us know what you think of Coop’s circumstances in the comments section below.

Your Friends & Neighbors, Fridays, Apple TV+