Your Friends and Neighbors is the latest Jon Hamm project on the small screen. The actor is at the center of the story about a wealthy hedge fund manager who loses everything and resorts to petty crime to keep up appearances. The Apple TV+ series premiered in early April and was met with positive reviews.
Along with the series delivering an interesting plot about a midlife crisis taken to the max, it’s also a vehicle for Hamm to show off his tremendous talents. While he has done so in other projects since the role that defined his career, Don Draper in Mad Men, nothing has hit quite like this show. And there are a few reasons why.
Who Is Jon Hamm’s Character in ‘Your Friends And Neighbors’?
Jon Hamm’s character in Your Friends and Neighbors is Andrew “Coop” Cooper, a man who seemingly has it all. He followed the traditional path you’re supposed to follow in life. He got his foot in the door at a great firm and moved up the ranks as he worked hard. He met a wonderful woman, got married, and had kids. They bought a bigger house, a nicer car, and then an even bigger house. Things were going great.
But when it all comes crashing down on Coop, and he loses the wife, the house, and the job, he finds himself forced into a dark midlife crisis. Unable to take on a new gig for a defined period due to contractual strings, Coop has to find a way to make money. His daughter has expensive tennis lessons. His son needs a new drum set. They both go to private schools. He has bills to pay and other obligations. But he also had to keep up appearances with his high-flying friends. Or does he?
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As Coop observes the excessive wealth surrounding his life through his friends and neighbors, he has an epiphany. They have so much material stuff; they likely wouldn’t miss a necklace here or a bottle of wine there. A purse here, a fancy watch there. Even hidden rolls of cash. The best part? He knows where they keep it (or can scope out the house at the next swanky neighborhood gathering) and knows when they’re home and when they aren’t. It’s the perfect job and easy money, or so he thinks.
As Coop presents himself as a golf-playing, suit-wearing member of the one percent during the day, he dons a black hoodie and baseball cap at night to fuel his need to keep up with the Joneses. But it’s his inner voice narrative monologue as he goes through the motions of chatting about country clubs and sipping whiskey that truly gives fans a look into this character’s psyche, his internal struggles, and the realization that everyone is wearing a mask, not just him.
Who Is Don Draper in ‘Mad Men’?
Don Draper in Mad Men, Hamm’s best performance, is a very different character on the surface. He’s a brilliant ad man, a creative mind who conjures up campaigns that can sell just about anything to anyone. Set in the ’50s, the series follows Don’s journey, which is dedicated to his job and ambition and handling his fractured home life.
The big secret is that Don Draper isn’t actually Don Draper. He’s a man named Richard “Dick” Whitman, who stole the identity of a dead officer during the Korean War. After striking a deal with the man’s widow once she found out, Don has assumed this identity ever since. His goal was to somehow run from his awful past, which included being born to a mother who was a prostitute and died during childbirth, then raised by his drunken father and his wife until his father died when he was 10. From there, he was stuck with his stepmother and her new beau, who ran a brothel where he lived. His stepmother constantly reminded him that he was the child of a “whore.”
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On the surface, Don is dapper, intelligent, charming, and can leave an entire room in tears with a pitch about a product like the Kodak Carousel, even a pair of pantyhose. But deep down, he’s profoundly lonely. He has a wife who loves him but who he cheats on constantly. He has two children he barely spends time with. He drinks heavily in his office and makes bad decisions that impact his work and personal life.
Deep down, Don is a good guy with a troubling past who has no sense of self or identity, literally having assumed that of someone else. Yet somehow, he understands how consumers’ minds work and has made a name for himself in his business.
Why Coop Is Hamm’s Best Role Since ‘Mad Men’
Jon Hamm had acted before Mad Men, but it was this role that catapulted him to success. He earned an Emmy and two Golden Globe Awards for the role, which he played from 2007 through 2015 for the entire show’s run. From there, some of Hamm’s most high-profile roles since include Top Gun: Maverick, Black Mirror, The Morning Show, and Fargo. The actor was great in all those roles, each of which was very different from his character in Mad Men. Coop is like a return to this type of character, and it appears that it’s where Hamm truly shines.
Something about Hamm allows him to play the dark, brooding, troubled man so well. In the opening scene of Your Friends and Neighbors, he delivers a scathing monologue to a woman he meets at a bar, explaining why they shouldn’t sleep together because of their marked age difference. It was reminiscent of the lengthy speeches Draper delivered while pitching a campaign to a room full of corporate executives. And it hit just as well. The moments when Coop is alone with himself and his own thoughts, frustrated, angry, lonely, and depressed, are felt through the screen. It’s like Draper being reincarnated into a new decade with a new life, still unable to reconcile with who he truly is.
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This isn’t to say that Hamm is a one-trick pony and can only play one type of character. In fact, he has even admitted that he struggled with serious typecasting after playing Draper. “Every script I got,” he told The Hollywood Reporter for its Roundtable Series, “was a cigarette, and a hat, and a cocktail.” He explained that he purposely took on more comedic roles on shows like 30 Rock and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt to help shed the Draper skin. But it’s one he should wear with pride and one that slinks back on for Coop.
Coop’s insecure swagger, desperation to fit in with people he actually loathes, constant need for approval and attention, and penchant for making bad decisions all fit with the perceived profile fans of Mad Men have devised in their heads of who Hamm should play. It’s largely because that was his best role and the one that really stood out on his resume.
Yes, part of this was the writing and story behind Mad Men, but it’s also Hamm’s portrayal, which he nailed. He does much the same in Your Friends and Neighbors. And while this show likely won’t receive the same fanfare as Mad Men, which remains one of the best shows of the 2000s and 2010s, his portrayal of Coop reminds fans why Hamm became such a big star in the first place. Call Coop Don Draper 2.0 or Don Draper for the 21st Century. Whatever the case, when it comes to typecasting, Hamm should continue to play the troubled, lonely, yet charming characters. It’s when he does his best work. Stream Your Friends and Neighbors on Apple TV+.