In Your Friends & Neighbors, Jon Hamm clicks in a comedy that doesn't

But unfortunately, the show is about a lot more than these rip-offs that have breathed new life into this handsome and charming guy who’s been stuck in a midlife malaise. And during some very long stretches between jobs, Your Friends & Neighbors bluntly satirizes this community, with one episode splitting the sexes into guys’ and girls’ nights (the former involves drinking scotch in a ridiculous man cave, the latter a self-defense class with weed brownies). Maybe people in this rarified economic strata actually talk and act as lamely and annoyingly as they do here. But if Your Friends & Neighbors‘ handling of drugs is any indication, there’s a good chance they don’t. (Hunter is goaded into doing mushrooms at a party with some “Come on, it will be cool!” peer pressure, and Somebody Somewhere‘s Ólafur Darri Ólafsson lets out an “It’s so good!” after a little dance and a bump of coke while playing a maniacal art dealer.) 

The show also leans into the sort of heavy-handed comedy that may have read as fun and outlandish on the page—and, especially, in pitch meetings—but often lands with a shrug onscreen, like when Coop’s bestie (played by Hoon Lee) pukes into a ridiculously expensive e-toilet prototype or our novice thief has to listen to a successful lawyer have sex with her daughter’s teen boyfriend before tiptoeing out of there. Plus, the narration  feels, while certainly well written, eventually unnecessary, as this isn’t exactly a subtle show to begin with. After a certain point, audiences don’t need to have the irony swirling around Coop or his inner thoughts spelled out for them. 

But if you strip away the non-stop banter—this becomes tiring, particularly in scenes with Sam (Olivia Munn), a divorcee who’s sleeping with Coop—some of the coming-into-my-own dramatic arcs of side characters, and that aforementioned satirical underscoring, there is a pretty fun dark comedy bubbling under here. The dynamic of Coop’s unlikely crew, which is rounded out by Aimee Carrero’s strapped-for-cash housekeeper and Randy Danson’s no-nonsense Bronx pawnshop owner, certainly has potential. And when the walls finally close in on this smooth, Macallan 25-sipping outlaw, thanks to Sandrine Holt’s detective late in the season’s run (seven of its nine episodes were screened for critics), Neighbors picks up steam and its renewal starts making more sense. Here’s hoping it’s leaner and meaner next time.     

Your Friends & Neighbors premieres April 11 on Apple TV+