Jon Hamm's 'almost' sequel to "Mad Men"

In "Your Friends & Neighbors," Hamm has found a worthy role to follow Don Draper

Finally, Jon Hamm aka Don Draper has come home.

After starring in cute animated films and TV shows and playing some decent characters here and there (“Fargo” and “Landman”), Jon Hamm and his handlers have admitted the obvious—he is and always will be Don Draper, the mystery man of “Mad Men” the iconic series that captivated viewers from 2007 to 2015.

In “Your Friends & Neighbors,” Hamm is playing the role of Andrew Cooper, better known by his nickname Coop. The ‘60s have been left behind and this series takes place in 2025. But it’s every bit as stylish.

Coop is an older version of Draper. He’s still is the coolest guy on his suburban turf (which looks remarkably like the suburbs in “Mad Men”) and he gets all the rich ladies who of course swoon in his presence. (Probably accurate. A lesbian friend said she’d switch teams for Jon Hamm.) But what makes Coop interesting, just as it made Draper interesting, is his dark side. He is not who he appears to be.

I’m reminded of the “Mad Men” episode when the character Harry Crane is asked what he knows about Don Draper and he says: "Draper? Who knows anything about that guy, no one's ever lifted that rock. He could be Batman for all we know."

And here on “Your Friends & Neighbors,” Jon Hamm is again playing a character very much like Bruce Wayne/Batman.

[Note: I don’t consider what follows to be spoilers, as much as a summary of the series storyline but be forewarned. You should definitely watch this show if you’re a fan of Hamm or “Mad Men.”]

Coop is a finance bro who is more or less an older version of the role he played in “Mad Men” and, like that show, “Your Friends & Neighbors” is very well written. From the opening sequence when a divorced Hamm is seduced by a young woman in a bar, you just know this series is going to be good. Nearly every line has bite, an edge that rings true.

Before he’s taken down a few pegs, the Coop character is kind of an arrogant asshole. You know the type—the hedge fund guy who moves money around and makes zillions and thinks that type of meaningless job makes him “a master of the universe.”

But not this time. Coop gets his comeuppance and is reduced from having it all to having almost nothing. His quest is to get it back by any means necessary before his friends and neighbors find out. In the suburban neighborhood where Coop lives, not having money is akin to being a leper.

To their credit, the show’s producers do a terrific job of incorporating diversity into this white suburb so the show is not only about WWG’s—wealthy white guys. Coop’s wife leaves him for a famous black basketball player. His agent and consigliere is Asian and Hamm’s partner is a Latina housekeeper.

Everyone is so rich that the neighborhood feels like Disneyland for the likes of Bill Gates and Elon Musk. The show’s open is brilliant, a CGI masterpiece where all the trappings of wealth—expensive cars and watches, tennis courts and swimming pools—blow apart.

Hamm knows how to play a guy like Coop and he infuses him with a genuine sadness and angst that comes naturally. He may be rich (a dirty word in our current anti-capitalist environment), but I bet viewers will be rooting for poor old Coop.

His ex-wife is played by the ever-charismatic Amanda Peet who improves anything she’s in, and the actors who play Coop’s bratty teenage kids are perfect. His daughter is a gorgeous overachiever trying to make the Princeton freshman tennis team and his son is a moody outsider with an ever-present set of headphones.

As Coop tries to regain his footing, he finds he must interact with those less fortunate—a pawn broker from the Bronx, a beautiful Latina housekeeper who knows she’s going to wind up as a 70-year-old broke housekeeper if something doesn’t change, and a ruthless art dealer with a violent side. It’s all very reminiscent of “Bonfire of the Vanities,” another tale of the rich and famous who stray onto the wrong side of the street.

As of this writing, “Your Friends & Neighbors” is still streaming and new episodes pop up on Apple TV every Friday night.