Your Friends & Neighbors: Do we Need Another TV Series About the Rich?

Or more to the point, do we need another one about rich, white people? 

No.

No matter how many shows we see portraying behind the scenes of their lives, I just don't think the everyday Joe or Josephine will ever feel sincerely sorry for them, and that's okay. In the words of Don Draper from Mad Men, that's what the money's for. He was talking about getting paid for doing your job, but you get the point. The rich don't need our pity.

Sure, Succession is up there with my all-time favourite shows. The endless power plays and daddy issues were fun to watch while deliberating whether the private jets, yachts, fancy apartments and a limitless expense account would be worth the trade-off of a life bereft of meaningful connection. 

Loved The White Lotus. Then there's Billions, Rivals, The Perfect Couple, basically anything with Nicole Kidman. And the movies about the well-heeled: the Knives Out films, Saltburn, Triangle of Sadness, The Menu. All enjoyable enough, but how much more is there to say about how it's a good thing really, that we're not all rich, because look how miserable we'd be?

Then along comes Jon Hamm & says hold my beer.

Another TV Series about the Rich

Jon Hamm's in Apple's newish show, Your Friends & Neighbors. He's lost his money & is driving around in a humble Honda (like me!) by episode two. Spoiler: the Honda is temporary. Nevertheless, this clinches my emotional investment. I'm in. What also adds to the appeal of the show, at least at first, is the thrill of seeing Hamm play a nice guy. Yes, he's rich AND nice AND easy on the eyes. It's kind of like watching a gorilla sing Puccini: very unexpected.

So, although we've probably reached peak capacity with films and TV series about the rich, I think we can make room for one more. That's as long as the script is solid, the characters are interesting and Jon Hamm walks me through what it takes to live in the affluent yet subdued Westchester County–upon which the setting of the show is supposedly based.

In a new twist on the Walter White story arc, the show follows Jon Hamm's character, Coop, as he loses his lucrative job working in hedge funds. Practically speaking he’s unemployable for the short-term due to a non-compete clause in his contract. But with a high-end lifestyle (and expensive divorce) to finance, Coop realizes his only way out of this situation is to start stealing stuff.

Thing is, Coop quite likes rifling through the drawers of his rich mates. It's a vibe that obviously offers some nice high stakes action for each episode. And in an homage to Breaking Bad, there's additional overarching tension provided in a flash-forward scene at the very start of the series when Coop finds himself next to a dead body. It's a very White Lotus moment, but it works.. 

One of the highlights of the show is Hamm's dry narration, offering insight into the eye-watering sums the rich are willing to fork out to prove their status as the overlords of our society (I was wrong, this does actually make me feel sorry for them). And there is the thread of a theme here questioning the necessity of all this supposedly exclusive stuff. The argument against mindless consumerism is one we could all take more to heart, not just the rich. Temu shoppers, I'm looking at you.

Overall, the show provides a smug peek into a world that most of us will never inhabit; one that is imploding by virtue of the characters’ seemingly emotionally vacuous existence. As perhaps the only route to social justice these days, let's take this morsel of compensation and be grateful! But serisously, the lesson to take away here is this: lose your ridiculously high-paying job, realize how pointless your consumerist, status-driven life-style is and save your marriage–even if you're already divorced because your spouse cheated on you.

In other words, the series is worth a watch. Although it does lose its footing somewhat towards the end, the character's are meaty enough to become invested in and the story itself has some unique twists I didn't see coming. It's solid, light entertainment similar in tone to No Good Deed and Dead to Me.

Check out our other blog post about film satires featuring the rich.

Story Inkubator was founded by writer, scriptwriter and teacher, Kristina Jilly, an Australian living in Central Europe who's written for HBO Europe and RTL Television. A teacher at the University of Applied Sciences in Upper Austria, Kristina also writes online content about the art of storytelling and topics that inspire creativity. 

Subscribe to Story Inkubator or check out our range of courses on storytelling and English language learning.