Commentary: ‘Your Friends And Neighbors’ Is A Vain ‘Breaking Bad’
by Frank Martin
Anti-heroes have become extremely popular ever since Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) forever changed television. Jon Hamm has already popularized an anti-hero with his character Don Draper on Mad Men. Now, he’s doing it again with Your Friends & Neighbors. It’s a show about a seemingly upstanding man who turns to crime for a very specific set of reasons. This generic premise can fit a variety of stories, most notably Breaking Bad, which also featured a very popular anti-hero. However, Hamm’s character begins his criminal career for much more vain reasons than Walter White, the chemist turned drug lord famously portrayed by Bryan Cranston.
The series centers on Andrew Cooper (Hamm), known to his friends as Coop. He lives in a very wealthy suburban neighborhood outside New York City. After losing his high-paying job, Coop struggles to maintain the upscale lifestyle he’s become accustomed to. The strain eventually becomes too much for him, and he resorts to breaking into the homes of his friends and neighbors to steal expensive items they otherwise wouldn’t miss. This sends Coop into a criminal underworld he is unfamiliar with. He ends up getting in over his head at times, even brushing up with the law. Fortunately, his clever resourcefulness allows him to beat a murder charge.
There are many parallels between this and Breaking Bad. Both Coop and Walt resort to a life of crime because of an unexpected development in their lives. Also, as they fall further and further down the criminal rabbit hole, they meet a wide cast of unsavory characters who put their lives in danger. They even both begin to view the world through a different lens once they become accustomed to criminality, but it’s important to remember the root cause behind their dark turn. With Coop, he lost his job and is unable to keep up the appearance of wealth within his social circle. For Walt, he was diagnosed with cancer and struggled to pay his medical bills. That’s an extremely noble reason, unlike Coop, who turned to petty crime for pure vanity reasons. So although there are a lot of similarities between the two characters, it’s interesting to see just how different their motivations are.
Your Friends & Neighbors is now streaming on AppleTV.
