Your Friends and Neighbors Review: Perplexingly Mid!

Your Friends and Neighbors Review | Leisurebyte

Director: Craig Gillespie, Greg Yaitanes, Stephanie Laing, Jonathan Tropper

Date Created: 2025-04-11 12:30

Editor's Rating:
3

Your Friends and Neighbors Review: New York hedge fund manager Coop finds himself without a job rather unceremoniously after going through a tough divorce. Heartbroken and without many options, he starts to get into the homes of his rich neighbours, only to discover much more than just riches lying around everywhere.

The series has 8 episodes, each with a runtime of around 50 minutes.

Your Friends and Neighbors Review

In Jon Hamm’s Apple TV+ series, one cannot help but wonder about the ramifications of being thrown out of the company in the most insulting way and then turning into a thief to get by. One might think that it’s impossible, but that’s what this drama series is about — it’s a little unbelievable and a lot of insanity, but it’s a whole host of entertainment through and through.

It’s impressive how hard the series goes with its story, doubling down on the thieving part with all it’s got. It’s thoroughly unbelievable, honestly, and quite silly, but you fall for Hamm’s charms and the family drama that unfolds. Coop is in a terrible predicament, but makes things so much worse for himself as the episodes go on. You root for him, but can’t help but stare in disbelief as he tries to keep up appearances and makes everything infinitely worse.

Coop’s family drama is the biggest part of this series, as are the socio-economic conditions of the neighbours. After stealing a ton of stuff from different homes, it becomes clear that these people are just so rich that they don’t really care about anything. It’s interesting watching Coop realise what his past life was and come to terms with who he was as a person as well. The series leaves you laughing but also thinking, in a way, because these social issues are quite relevant in today’s age.

I think one thing about this dramedy is that it’s a bit too safe. It never goes overboard with anything, but maybe going overboard with the silliness might have been what set this series apart. Your Friends and Neighbors is something of everything, but not entirely something impactful. It’s not really memorable, which is surprising because with the cast and quirky story, you’d expect something more. The series pivots from being a dramedy to a murder mystery somewhere in the middle, but that oddly seems out of place.

The problem, that I came to understand by the end, is that it’s entirely unnecessary. Why Coop loses his job, why he refuses to accept help and instead thinks that stealing is the better alternative, is in perpetual confusion about his relationship status — these are questions I couldn’t really find a good answer to. It relies on us believing that these are things that are just happening because it can. He can just steal stuff, and his friends are too rich and stupid to notice. Plot armour, if you will.

Final Thoughts

Your Friends and Neighbors is fine, that’s about it. It’s neither good nor bad, which puts it in a rather odd position. I guess it’s funny in a way and has some interesting situations and issues, but it doesn’t commit to anything. That’s quite a shame.

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