Think of Jon Hamm\u2019s character from Your Friends & Neighbors<\/a><\/em> as Cool Hand Coop. He had a chance to quiet down and go legit at the end of season 1<\/a>, returning to his comfortable former job as a millionaire hedge fund manager, but like Paul Newman\u2019s<\/a> nonconformist scofflaw he simply could not bring himself to get back in line. Andrew Cooper discovered that he preferred to make ends meet by stealing from his wealthy suburban social circle. If that\u2019s the way he wants it, well\u2014he gets it. What we have here, as season 2 begins, is a failure to remunerate.<\/p>\n It takes a whole lot of spending money to keep himself, plus his ex-wife Mel (played by Amanda Peet) and their two nearly grown children, in a state of comfort and luxury, which means he has to steal more big-ticket items in his now full-time profession as a cat burglar. That adds up to exponentially more risk when a new player enters the affluent neighborhood of Westmont Village. James Marsden\u2019s Owen Ashe sees Coop for who he really is. And he\u2019d like to capitalize on that risk.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s like Coop getting a best friend and a frenemy and a boyfriend and all of these things at once,\u201d Hamm tells Esquire for this exclusive new look at Your Friends & Neighbors<\/em>\u2019 new season. \u201cIt’s filling several voids in his life, whether he wants them to be filled or not.”<\/p>\n How exactly Ashe uncovers Coop\u2019s secret is something for the show to reveal, but it\u2019s no spoiler to say that Marsden will become the primary adversary of the Apple TV series when it returns April 3. That doesn\u2019t mean he dislikes Coop. He\u2019s actually crazy about him\u2014in pretty much every sense of the word. Coop doesn\u2019t share the same feeling. \u201cHe’s back in the thrall of someone he does not want to be in the thrall of,\u201d Hamm says.<\/p>\n Hamm was delighted to return to the controlled chaos of Your Friends & Neighbors<\/em>. \u201cWe don\u2019t ever lose sight of the humor, whether it\u2019s intended or unintended, that the show brings us,\u201d Hamm says. Your Friends & Neighbors <\/em>creator Jonathan Tropper envisioned the overall show as a satire of a midlife crisis<\/a>, when those who have everything they ever wanted start to panic about whether they actually want something, anything else. Marriages crumble. Careers implode. Most don\u2019t resort to breaking and entering, but that\u2019s part of the debauched thrill of the series. <\/p>\n \u201cSeason 2 is beyond that. It’s a much deeper exploration of mortality,\u201d says Tropper, who explored similar themes of the clock running down in his novel and screenplay for This Is Where I Leave You<\/em> and the recent Prime Video battling-brothers movie The Wrecking Crew<\/a><\/em>. \u201cThere’s a strong correlation between these feelings of impending mortality and the desperation to right your ship because you don’t have all the time in the world anymore. That’s something that was very much on my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n You could see the Coop\/Ashe storyline as a play on the challenges of making new friends as a grown-up. \u201cPart of it is just the playground that the show sets up,\u201d Hamm says. \u201cThis neighborhood is very small and if you are part of the neighborhood, then you are part of the friend group whether you want to be or not. That’s a big part of a lot of the conflict in the show, these relationships that are certainly not by choice, but by necessity or by proximity.\u201d<\/p>\n Overall, Hamm says Coop confronts the same existential questions as most people. He just comes up with unusual (and illegal) answers for them. \u201cWhat the show is trying to say is actually, \u2018Wait, is that all there is?\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cThat might be a through-line to a lot of the work that I’ve done in my career, if you look at Mad Men<\/em> as well. I think that’s why people are responding to the show.\u201d<\/p>\n So how would Don Draper build hype for this new chapter of Your Friends & Neighbors<\/em>? He\u2019d note that people don\u2019t want things: they want the promise of happiness, love, friendship, and reassurance. <\/p>\n Those are all things you can earn, but can\u2019t really steal.<\/p>\n Your Friends and Neighbors <\/em>season 2 introduces James Marsden\u2019s Owen Ashe, a new player who sees Coop for who he really is. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n You can\u2019t really call Marsden\u2019s character a bad guy. Owen Ashe is more of a rabblerouser, a chaotic variable who has vastly more money than even his wealthiest new neighbors. More charisma, too. <\/p>\n “I don’t see him as a mustache-twirling villain who’s secretly this dark soul who’s trying to just ruin everybody’s life,\u201d Marsden says. The actor has been on a roll lately, playing a deranged version of himself<\/a> on the hidden camera series Jury Duty<\/a><\/em>, starring opposite Vince Vaughn and Vince Vaughn in the upcoming time-travel action comedy Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice<\/em>, reprising his role as Cyclops in Avengers: Doomsday, <\/em>and stealing scenes as the flashback president of the apocalypse in Paradise. <\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Owen Ashe is another strange but vibrant addition to the Marsden character menagerie. \u201cHe’s a little bit of a tornado that comes to town and stirs everything up there in Westmont Village, but he’s very likable that way,\u201d Marsden says.<\/p>\n Likable tornado. Got that? <\/p>\n \u201cWe don’t ever lose sight of the humor, whether it’s intended or unintended, that the show brings us,\u201d Hamm says. \u201cSo it was a tremendous thrill to shoot and super fun.\u201d He and Marsden were both paramours of Tina Fey\u2019s Liz Lemon once upon a time, but they have never been onscreen together before. \u201cJimmy is such a great guy and I\u2018ve wanted to work with him forever,\u201d Hamm says. \u201cWe missed each other on 30 Rock<\/em>, but we’ve definitely made up for it on this.\u201d <\/p>\n There are a lot of rumors about the illicit ways Owen Ashe may have earned the fortune that brings him to the high-end cul-de-sacs of Your Friends & Neighbors<\/em>. He works in shipping, but the goods that he moves from Point A to Point B is unclear. Drugs? Weapons? Something worse? Whatever his backstory, there\u2019s a fearlessness about him.<\/p>\n \u201cI actually don’t see him as a sociopath,\u201d Tropper says. \u201cI just see him as a guy who is a much more exaggerated version of what Cooper is. At what point are you allowed to throw stones, right? Coop is a thief. Ashe is breaking the law on a much larger scale, and he is making a lot more money doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n The writer and producer says the two characters aren\u2019t equivalent, though. \u201cThe difference is we believe in our hearts that Coop is acting out of desperation, but he does have a moral center. He’s just lost track of it,\u201d Tropper says. \u201cWhereas Ashe has long ago discarded his completely.\u201d<\/p>\n Marsden begs to differ. At least from Ashe\u2019s perspective, he and Coop have a lot in common. \u201cThere’s something curious about Coop that Owen is really attracted to,\u201d he says. \u201cOwen does carry around some secrets and maybe he recognizes that in Cooper as well, but Cooper’s also no bullshit. In business and in life, Owen has always been attracted to people where it is very direct, very real, and he can speak to them. Also, these are two single guys. Owen comes in and he really wants to connect with people.\u201d<\/p>\n As Marsden talks about the role, he can\u2019t stop smiling. He has to hold back on some of the more eccentric turns that the character takes, but the actor has no poker face about the ways he makes Hamm\u2019s character twist. \u201c[Coop] is finding himself in this situation where it’s raining and it’s pouring and it’s one thing after another,\u201d Marsden says. \u201cAnd here’s this dipshit guy coming into town pretending like he’s Gatsby and everyone’s so enamored with him. \u2018And he’s got me by the balls.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Your Friends & Neighbors <\/em>sees the return of Amanda Peet\u2019s Mel Cooper, the ex-wife of Coop who sure seems like his current wife a lot of the time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n What\u2019s the opposite of a femme fatale? Not a lethal woman who leads the hero down a dark and destructive path, but one who might save him if only he recognized how much she cares about him. A femme loyale.<\/p>\n That\u2019s one way of thinking about Amanda Peet\u2019s Mel Cooper, the ex-wife of Coop who sure seems like his current wife a lot of the time. When he finds himself in times of trouble, Mother Mel comes to him, speaking words of wisdom more often than not. They also have unrequited sparks as season 2 opens. Viewers might be wondering if they\u2019re already back together\u2014but no. Not yet, anyway.<\/p>\n Credit to Tropper and the Your Friends & Neighbors<\/em> writers for creating passionate will they or won\u2019t they?<\/em> tension between two divorced people. \u201cBefore I signed onto the project, Tropper told me he wanted it to be the emotional through-line of the show, and so that never left my mind,\u201d says Peet. \u201cI’m always sort of looking for ways to convey that and keep that. To make sure that [the relationship] is not dead in the water, and that they’re still crushing on each other.\u201d<\/p>\n This season, Mel finds herself confronting another common change to women at her time of life. Asked about what she personally brought to the character this time around, Peet volunteers: \u201cWe have a little bit of a parallel element to our stories because Mel begins to go through the aches and pains of menopause. Yeah. That’s part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n It may not sound like the sexiest topic, but actually Mel is as hungry as someone in the throes of puberty. \u201cI’ve had more sex scenes on this show than I’ve had in my whole career,\u201d Peet says. \u201cI feel, I don’t know \u2026 I feel honored<\/em>.\u201d Then modesty kicks in, and she says: \u201cI don\u2019t know that anyone would want to see that,\u201d before adding with a laugh: \u201cI mean, I know my children won\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn season 1, Mel was really the rock and Coop was in crisis,\u201d teases series creator Jonathan Tropper. \u201cAnd in season 2, we really wanted to pull the rug out from under Mel and put her in crisis too,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n After being the responsible mom for so long (we\u2019re talking about the character again here), Mel\u2019s desires can sometimes manifest in awkward ways, just like they can for someone first experiencing those feelings. But Your Friends & Neighbors<\/em> navigates the comedic parts with affection. Season 2 makes Mel ravishing.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, for a 54-year-old actress, it’s pretty fun that he’s writing her with this complexity and including her sexual needs. I feel like it doesn’t happen that often,\u201d Peet says. \u201cI like the way Tropper handled that because there’s a lot about menopause in the zeitgeist right now, but it was fun to tackle some of this in a comedic way and also have Mel be kind of struggling with dating and sex.\u201d<\/p>\n Tropper says the ex-couple has more in common than they realize. \u201cMel is similar to Coop. We’re dealing with mortality, we’re dealing with aging and the sense that we don’t have forever to get this right anymore,\u201d he says. \u201cWith Coop, it’s his back and it’s his health and it’s certain other things we won’t reveal yet. And with Mel, it’s perimenopause and it’s aging out of certain things and facing that.\u201d<\/p>\n The two really are together, even if they don\u2019t realize it. \u201cCoop and Mel are on parallel journeys,\u201d Tropper says. \u201cThey were supposed to be taking that journey together. It’s very different when you’re taking it alone.\u201d<\/p>\n He saw season 2 as a chance to let Peet run wild. \u201cIn season 1, Mel was really the rock and Coop was in crisis. And in season 2, we really wanted to pull the rug out from under Mel and put her in crisis too,\u201d he says. \u201cMel really starts to spin out. She\u2019s feeling that same thing he’s feeling: I’m running out of time.<\/em> We see Mel following an arc similar to Coop’s in season 1 in that she’s becoming more desperate. And she’s starting to break the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n The only figure in the community sympathetic to Mel (Olivia Munn) is the newcomer, Owen Ashe (Marsden), who is shaking up the town in every way he can.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n Olivia Munn didn\u2019t think she would even be back for season 2. As the first chapter ended, her Sam Levitt was (<\/strong>heads-up, this is a spoiler for season 1) <\/strong>exposed for framing Coop for murder in a ploy to hide her ex-husband\u2019s suicide and collect $20 million in insurance. That\u2019s not exactly a misdemeanor.<\/p>\n \u201cI only signed on for one season,\u201d Munn says. \u201cAnd halfway through, Jonathan Tropper asked me to lunch and he was like, \u2018Will you stay on more?\u2019 I already knew how this first season was going to end, so I was like, \u2018How am I going to stay? Are you changing the ending?\u2019 And he was like, \u2018Really wealthy people have really good lawyers and they get out of a lot of stuff.\u2019 I was like, \u2018That is true.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n And so, Sam evades serious prison time. The court of public opinion in Westmont Village, however, isn\u2019t as merciful. She is still living there, but she is a social exile now. <\/p>\n \u201cWhat I really loved was how it takes a real look at people who have everything that we think makes a happy life and what happens when you lose it all,\u201d Munn says. \u201cWhat are the lengths that you’ll go to maintain that power and wealth?\u201d<\/p>\n Shunned, broke and alone, she must sell her home and scramble to maintain some semblance of her old life. She\u2019s doing it for her children, but also for herself. But expect an awakening in Sam during season 2.<\/p>\n The status she once craved starts to lose its allure. \u201cYou realize that it actually doesn’t make you happy,\u201d the actress says. \u201cBut you don’t realize that until you start to lose some of the pieces. Your marriage falls apart, and you lose your job, and then you kind of realize, Wow, I’ve been living a little bit of a hollow life.<\/em> But it doesn’t really feel hollow until you’re outside and you’re screaming back in\u2014and you can hear that echo.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite his nightly heists, Hamm says Coop confronts the same existential questions as most people. \u201cWhat the show is trying to say is actually, \u2018Wait, is that all there is?\u2019\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n Coop is content to see the ex-lover who tried to set him up for murder get what\u2019s coming to her. And Mel still resents her for sleeping with her husband and breaking up the marriage (although clearly they had other problems beyond her.) The only figure in the community sympathetic to Mel is the newcomer, who is shaking up the town in every way he can.<\/p>\n \u201cI’m not sure he’s calculating with her,\u201d Marsden says. \u201cI think he’s fascinated that she has a criminal record. To anybody else, they would just be like: stay away.<\/em> And he’s kind of like, \u2018That makes you interesting. What is it about you? Tell me this story.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Mel is happy to count this outlandish outsider as an ally. \u201cIf I was to ever do what my character did and nobody wanted me around, and nobody liked me, and it was all of my fault, there would be no way <\/em>I would be so insistent on getting back in,\u201d Munn says. \u201cI’d be like, \u2018There are so many neighborhoods in this world and more people to be friends with\u2014people who don’t<\/em> know that I set someone up for murder.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n But Munn is not wired like her character. \u201cMy character, and a lot of the people in the show, find their self-worth and their identity by being accepted into that world and by having that money,\u201d she says. \u201cSo for Sam, she’s like, \u2018I’m going to figure out a way in.\u2019 There’s so much energy behind that. And that energy could be much more useful in other places, but for her, it’s tunnel vision.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s the cathartic theme of Your Friends & Neighbor<\/em>s, one that connects the first season with the second, and will likely continue on into the future. It\u2019s a cautionary tale, but one with a dark sense of humor. \u201cThe overriding tone of the show is escapist, playing with this idea of this overprivileged, incredibly rich people behaving badly,\u201d Hamm says, \u201cwhich we seem to be stuck with in the 21st century America of now.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.esquire.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Think of Jon Hamm\u2019s character from Your Friends & Neighbors as Cool Hand Coop. He had a chance to quiet down and go legit at the end of season 1, returning to his comfortable former job as a millionaire hedge fund manager, but like Paul Newman\u2019s nonconformist scofflaw he simply could not bring himself to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2312113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[440682,274717,448001,310911,285684,448000,440065],"class_list":["post-2312112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-collection-anthony-breznican-exclusives","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-2e4af273-339a-4496-bd73-8df815cdacb4","tag-displaytype-long-form-article","tag-locale-us","tag-shorttitle-jon-hamm-talks-your-friends-neighbors-season-2","tag-subsection-tv"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Jon-Hamm-Teases-Your-Friends-Neighbors-Season-2.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2312112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2312112"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2312112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2312114,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2312112\/revisions\/2312114"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2312113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2312112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2312112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2312112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"two](\"https:\/\/hips.hearstapps.com\/hmg-prod\/images\/screenshot-2026-03-03-at-12-37-55-pm-69a71c7a1f2f4.png?resize=2048:*\" "\\"two")
<\/p>\n
\nThe Disruptor<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"two](\"https:\/\/hips.hearstapps.com\/hmg-prod\/images\/screenshot-2026-03-03-at-12-40-56-pm-69a71d58edb8b.png?resize=2048:*\" "\\"two")
<\/p>\n
\nThe Seductress<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"celebratory](\"https:\/\/hips.hearstapps.com\/hmg-prod\/images\/screenshot-2026-03-03-at-12-50-21-pm-69a71f771f128.png?resize=2048:*\" "\\"celebratory")
<\/p>\n![\"an](\"https:\/\/hips.hearstapps.com\/hmg-prod\/images\/screenshot-2026-03-03-at-12-48-09-pm-69a71eeb35687.png?resize=2048:*\" "\\"an")
<\/p>\n
\nThe Outcast<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"a](\"https:\/\/hips.hearstapps.com\/hmg-prod\/images\/screenshot-2026-03-03-at-12-52-03-pm-69a71fea4cbf7.png?resize=2048:*\" "\\"a")
<\/p>\n