Jon Hamm’s Andrew “Coop” Cooper doesn’t fall from grace a lot as he’s pushed.
Fired underneath false pretenses, changed emotionally by an NBA all-star, and quietly erased from the one world he ever knew — Coop doesn’t struggle again. Not at first. He simply… absorbs it.
The heartbreak, the humiliation, the monetary gut-punch. He’s not offended — he’s shocked. That’s what makes him harmful.
On the premiere of Apple TV+‘s Your Buddies & Neighbors, Coop’s undoing doesn’t really feel like karma. It seems like a rigged system lastly cashing in on its favored sons, and Coop realizing too late that he was by no means one in all them.
Sure, he slept with a youthful worker. One time. Months in the past. And sure, she was clearly into him.
But it surely’s not her criticism that will get him fired — it’s his boss, Jack Bailey, who needs Coop’s purchasers and sees the proper alternative to take them.
When Coop confronts the girl, Liv, she’s blindsided. She didn’t file something. Jack used her, too. And I’d wager she’s not accomplished with this story. Perhaps she’ll even assist blow all of it open.
So when Coop finally ends up stealing a wad of money from Peter Miller’s bed room throughout a pool occasion, it’s not petty revenge. It’s an emotional breaking level.
Image it: he’s simply been blindsided by a profession gut-punch, he’s watching his ex-wife chortle along with her new man within the driveway, and he’s hiding in a nook with a drink, making an attempt to vanish into the shrubbery when Peter strolls up and asks him for 2 $30,000 tables for an upcoming charity occasion.
A reflexive flex from a person who’s by no means as soon as needed to marvel if his associates can truly afford what they’re smiling by.
Coop tries to say no. He nearly will get the phrases out. However one thing in him nonetheless needs to be included. Nonetheless needs to be somebody. So he doesn’t say no. He doesn’t say something. And that silence prices him his final shred of dignity.
He doesn’t rob Peter as a result of he’s a legal. He does it as a result of he gave every part — to his job, his marriage, his youngsters — and that is the thanks he will get.
What If the American Dream Simply… Lied to You?
Throughout each episodes, Coop displays on the dream that received him right here — Westmont Village, the home upgrades, the escalating way of life.
He thought it was all main someplace. That with every new mortgage, every new child, every new white-trimmed entrance porch, he was getting nearer to happiness. As a substitute, he was simply drifting.
He even says as a lot. That he thought he had achieved every part. That the life he wished was proper there, and he nonetheless missed it. That perhaps he by no means even knew what the dream was. Perhaps he confused standing with substance. Perhaps all of them did.
So when he begins lifting watches from the drawers of people that nonetheless dwell that dream, it’s not in regards to the resale worth. It’s about management. It’s about feeling one thing. And it’s about now not ready for somebody to inform him he’s allowed to take up house.
His dealings with Lou — the sharp, unflappable pawn store vendor — are each hilarious and sobering. She sees proper by him.
“This isn’t your world,” she says flatly. And he or she’s proper. Coop isn’t a hustler. He’s a soft-handed man who’s used to being handed issues. Lou treats him like a child taking part in gangster.
However that’s the purpose — Coop’s so out of his ingredient, and so determined to fake he’s not, that he finally ends up studying among the hardest truths about class and notion whereas negotiating over a $225k timepiece.
She doesn’t take pity on him. She provides him simply sufficient rope. And when he comes again for extra, she doesn’t hesitate to place a literal gun on the desk. The message is obvious: this world has guidelines too — and also you don’t get to skip the road simply since you used to belong to a different one.
Coop and Mel: The Factor That Nearly Was
Probably the most quietly devastating dynamic is between Coop and Mel. Their marriage is over, technically, however emotionally? There’s nonetheless one thing there.
Mel isn’t making an attempt to rekindle something — she’s making an attempt to be pleased. However the way in which she seems to be at Coop, the way in which she talks to him… it’s not chilly. It’s not closed off.
And certain, she’s received Nick now, who appears wonderful. Nice, even. Tall, reliable, in all probability makes use of protein powder. However Coop is the one she nonetheless checks on.
He’s the one she exhibits up for with a beer and a query like, “Are you okay?” in a tone that suggests she is aware of the reply and desires it weren’t so unhappy.
And perhaps that’s what haunts Coop essentially the most. That she did love him. That they did have one thing. And he didn’t lose her due to some large betrayal. He misplaced her as a result of he by no means grabbed the wheel. As a result of he let the dream drive for them — and it drove them off a cliff.
Then once more, is Mel actually higher off now? She’s smiling by the pool, however she’s additionally keying vehicles within the car parking zone. She’s constructing a wellness profession and likewise day-drinking whereas confessing her unhappiness to a youthful bartender.
Perhaps neither of them actually moved on. Perhaps they only discovered to compartmentalize higher.
The Children Are Not Alright, Both
Their youngsters — Hunter and Tori — are watching all of this, even when nobody thinks they’re. Hunter barely speaks, misplaced in his headphones, however he has one of the vital telling strains thus far: that issues don’t really feel all that completely different now that Coop is gone.
That’s not indifference, that’s resignation. That’s a child who’s used to absence, used to disconnected grown-ups transferring round him with out ever letting him in.
Tori’s making an attempt to be good — a top-tier tennis participant, Princeton-bound, perpetually managing her picture. However she’s additionally relationship a 20-year-old with a scrawny mustache, and Coop’s outrage is without doubt one of the few occasions we see him totally drop the detachment and react like a dad.
It’s messy and sophisticated and precisely how this household appears to function — by no means outright poisonous, however so removed from trustworthy that it nearly circles again to unhappy.
Desperation Wears a Rolex
What’s placing is that none of those persons are broke. Coop has six or seven months of cash left, a $200k automotive, a closet stuffed with luxurious leftovers, and associates who nonetheless take his calls — generally. However that’s not the purpose. These characters aren’t afraid of poverty. They’re afraid of irrelevance.
That’s why Coop retains stealing. Not simply watches and money, however time. He breaks into the lives of individuals nonetheless taking part in the sport and snatches again no matter scraps he can carry. A little bit validation right here. A little bit management there.
And I’ve to marvel — how lengthy earlier than somebody notices? Not simply the stolen items, however the truth that Coop is slipping additional away from the person he thought he was. Or perhaps that man by no means actually existed within the first place.
After which there’s Ali, Coop’s sister, who’s simply had a breakdown and is quietly being deserted by the remainder of the household. He exhibits up when nobody else will. He finds her taking part in Radiohead on her guitar in her ex-fiancé’s yard, packs her up, and affords her a spot to land.
He’s responsible as hell that the mess he product of his life is impacting hers, and may’t stand that it means transferring her out of the residence he pays for.
However when he brings her to their mother and father’ home, Coop climbs the steps to search out the “spare room” stuffed with previous junk, not even a made mattress, and the disgrace on his face says every part.
These usually are not individuals who know easy methods to present up. However Coop tries. He doesn’t at all times succeed, however he tries. And perhaps that’s what separates him from the world he’s making an attempt to flee: he nonetheless provides a rattling, even when nobody else bothers to.
So yeah, Your Buddies & Neighbors is perhaps about wealthy individuals’s issues, nevertheless it additionally faucets into one thing common: that sick, sinking feeling that you just labored your complete life for one thing that turned out to be hole. And now you’ve received to maintain dwelling in it — or rob it blind.
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