Your Friends & Neighbors, Apple TV+ review — Jon Hamm plays a trader-turned-thief in this stale caper

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It’s expensive to be rich. So learns city trader Andrew “Coop” Cooper when he suddenly finds himself out of work and unable to afford his lavish life. Dismissed on dubious grounds, divested of his stocks and slapped with a two-year non-solicit, Coop has less than half a year before the Italian sports car, two mortgages, alimony payments, private school fees and golf course membership drain his account dry. Too proud to admit to his financial troubles, he instead starts stealing from his country club chums; a half-forgotten Patek Philippe here, an unappreciated Roy Lichtenstein there. Victimless crimes carried out by a most improbable culprit.

Your Friends & Neighbors on Apple TV+ is the latest drama to revolve around the woes of the wealthy — which ironically seems to have been the subject of more than one per cent of shows in recent times. Set in an exclusive New York suburb, the nine-part series follows in the well-heeled footsteps of the likes of Big Little Lies by using a thrillery premise to tell a story about the everyday malaise that lurks behind every mansion door.

Serving as our guide to this world of material abundance, emotional voids and secret affairs, is Jon Hamm’s jaded narrator-cum-protagonist, Coop. Having been left by his wife Mel (Amanda Peet) for a close friend and fired from his company over a bogus HR incident, he starts to see the life he worked so hard to attain with fresh eyes, and view its social conventions with newfound contempt. “The quest to stave off the emptiness began,” he notes while observing the male bonding rituals of a guys’ night. “They didn’t deserve all of this,” he tells himself as he rifles through their drawers, searching for valuables.

Coop is of course no working-class hero as he drives his loot to a seedy pawnshop in his $200,000 Maserati. But he’s imbued with enough self-awareness and wry wit by a well-cast Hamm to make him easy enough to root for — even as he moves on from light thievery to ill-advised heists.

Yet despite giving us a glimpse of a sticky (or rather, bloody) situation to come in a flash-forward introduction, the series seems in no hurry to get there. While Coop reflects on the inanity of his circle and surroundings, the show itself gets mired in the personal lives and tribal politics of those around him. For every narrative-enriching subplot — involving the rueful Mel, Coop’s lover Sam (Olivia Munn), or housemaid and partner-in-crime Elena (Aimee Carrero) — there’s an unnecessary digression that kills momentum, turning a promising, caper-ish premise into a nine-hour slog.

The lethargic pacing is at least partially redeemed by an engaging lead performance and nice touches of humour; a scene in which the ex-trader comes unstuck trying to haggle with an unfazed pawnbroker is funny without being overtly played for laughs. But some of the targets of the show’s satire feel a little stale. Send-ups of golf-playing, whisky-drinking city slickers and unhappy, horny housewives may be redolent of John Updike, but don’t feel particularly up to date.

★★★☆☆

Episodes 1-2 streaming on Apple TV+ from April 11. New episodes released weekly