Twisty Apple TV+ thriller branded the ‘new Breaking Bad’ as it tops charts

A gripping new thriller has done the impossible and dethroned Severance in the Apple TV+ charts, days after premiering.

Your Friends and Neighbors launched on the streaming service last week, following Jon Hamm as hedge fund manager Andrew ‘Coop’ Cooper as he resorts to stealing from his wealthy friends in a desperate bid to keep up appearances, after being fired from his job.

In a huge show of confidence, the gripping drama, also starring Amanda Peet and Olivia Munn, was already commissioned for a second season before the first episode even premiered.

And it appears that was the right decision as it has soared to the top of Apple TV+’s TV charts, overtaking Ben Stiller’s dystopian show – which is now in second place beside The Studio, Dope Thief and Ted Lasso.

Although only two episodes have been released so far, with a third airing on Friday, it already commands a whopping audience Rotten Tomatoes score of 93%, compared to a ranking of 85% from impressed critics.

Fans have heaped praise on Jon’s efforts so far, comparing the series to both Breaking Bad and Succession.

Benny C commented: ‘Another must see series from Apple TV. Jon Hamm is amazing in this, the role was written for him.’

‘Well done. I watched the first episode and was hooked before the credits rolled,’ Michael K agreed. ‘A story of a man in a bizarre but not totally unfamiliar situation, Jon Hamm is solid as well as the rest of the cast. I’m eager to see more.’

‘This could be the next Succession or, dare I say it, Breaking Bad,’ James G raved. ‘2 episodes in and I am into this show. I once worked with these finance people and it is good to see them get their comeuppance.

‘The dialog seems a bit canned and cheezy at times, but it is actually spot on. Most of them are on the spectrum and learn scripts to fool people into thinking they have empathy [sic].’

As Jimmy J added: ‘The new “Breaking Bad” Awesome show.’

A decade after Mad Men ended in 2015, Your Friends and Neighbors saw Jon take on another leading role as Coop, who finds himself without a job after a consensual sexual encounter with a colleague, while also struggling to cope after divorcing his wife (Amanda Peet).

He then turns to a life of crime and begins stealing from his affluent neighbors – only to discover that the secrets hiding behind their closed doors ‘might be more dangerous than he ever imagined’.

Jon is no stranger to dark, twisted roles – having won an Emmy for his stint at Don Draper in Mad Men – and shared that those behind the scenes were pivotal in helping him connect with Coop’s struggles.

When asked how he managed to get into the character’s mindset, he told Metro: ‘Part of it is really working with the creator of the show, the writer of the show, and having the discussion of where are we going to go? Especially telling the story the way we tell it.

‘Mostly it’s really establishing the story of the character first, and that’s just having a central line of communication with the writer, creator.

‘I had that with Matt Weiner on Mad Men. Matt knew exactly where Don had come from, and he knew exactly where he was going to go. He just didn’t know how many episodes he was going to have in between.

‘That was the fun journey, as well, on that show.

‘With this one, it was that Jonathan [Tropper, creator] knew that he was going to have the arc of the first season really well planned out.

‘I knew that it was going to get very dark, and that was going to be the central gravity of the show, but I also knew that we were going to have a lot of fun telling that story as well.’

Your Friends and Neighbors is available to stream on Apple TV+ now, with new episodes dropping on Fridays.

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