YOUR FRIENDS & NEIGHBORS S2 Review: Lifestyles of the Rich and Criminal

What is the cost of living in your neighborhood?

Your Friends & Neighbors S2
All nine episodes of Season 1 are now streaming on Apple TV. The first of 10 episodes of Season 2 premieres globally Friday, April 3. Subsequent episodes will debut every Friday. I've seen all 19 episodes.

Awashed in gloom and sadness, Season 1 initially did not look very promising, though it grew in strength over the course of its first seven episodes, as I noted in my review last year.

Recently, I started rewatching Jon Hamm's breakout role in Mad Men, in which he stars as the young, dynamic, complicated Don Draper in the 1960s. I then incurred whiplash by catching up with the two concluding episodes of Your Friends and Neighbors Season 1, in which Hamm inhabits, in effect, a middle-aged version of Don Draper, a wealthy hedge fund manager who goes to seed when he loses his high-paying Wall Street job, after he's already lost his wife to a younger man, eventually becoming a thief of his friends and neighbors.

Those final two episodes continued the upward trend, as protagonist Andrew 'Coop' Cooper (Jon Hamm) was cleared of a murder charge, and got back to a civil understanding with his ex-wife Mel (Amanda Peet), allowing them to better co-parent their teenage children Tori (Isabel Gravitt) and Hunter (Donovan Colan). On the business side of things, Coop decided not to accept an offer to return to the company that had fired him, instead deciding to return to his freelance gig as a cat burglar, stealing high-cost baubles from his wealthy friends and neighbors.

Season 2 begins with a recap of Season 1's highlights woven throughout the first episode, written by series creator Jonathan Tropper, establishing the status of Coop and his family, as well as his neighbors, most notably Samantha Levitt (Olivia Munn), who framed Coop for murdering her husband. Samantha's status has downshifted as she is sentenced to community service.

James Marsden, having recently served his sentence as President of the United States in Hulu's Paradise -- and also co-starring in the service's Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice -- comes aboard Season 2 as a mysterious new neighbor. Of course he's extremely wealthy! Yet he's suspiciously vague about his business dealings, though anyone who claims to be in the "export/import" business is immediately tagged by any thinking adult viewer as someone who is involved in illicit activity, especially if they throw around as much money as Marsden's character does.

That single wild card is enough to toss into a brew that is, admittedly, a bit overstuffed. The first season already introduced several characters involved in criminal activity in one way or another, and it becomes quite challenging to track what each character is doing, legally or illegally, over the course of the season. As a result, the pace often flags, as various melodramatic developments overtake the numerous supporting characters.

That being said, the supporting performances keep the show lively and watchable, bringing nuance and texture as their characters turn angrier and more resentful, occasionally hopping into bed together to relieve stress. Or something undefined.

With more of his character developed, Jon Hamm (mostly) rises above his previous sad-sack state of affairs, turning on his charms toward wealthy men and wealthy women. Amanda Peet has a more difficult role to play, as she embodies the bodily changes of a middle-aged woman who is also dealing with major relationship issues and the evolving role of a parent whose children are preparing to leave home.

As a key character whose status is not properly valued in the wealthy hamlet where most of the action unfolds, Olivia Munn rises to the occasion by giving voice to the desperate and oppressed; she makes it easy to empathize with her, despite her past actions. And James Marsden is always a joy to watch, this time as super-charming billionaire who is not to be trusted.

With Season 3 already ordered, it's now easier to sit back and enjoy Season 2 as it continues to experience growing pains. Sure, it's overstuffed with characters and incidents, but the meat is very choice indeed.

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