Jon Hamm’s New Crime Drama Isn’t A Mad Men Replacement, But It Reimagines Don Draper In One Big Way
Warning! This article contains spoilers for Your Friends & Neighbors episodes 1 and 2.Mad Men may not have found a worthy replacement, but Jon Hamm’s new show seems to reimagine Don Draper in one significant way. It has been a decade since Mad Men ended its run, but the series continues to cast its shadow of influence on television. In its long seven-season run, the show barely experienced any major dips in quality and still holds an impressive Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score of 94%. Owing to this, it is not surprising that even though Jon Hamm has played many big roles, many associate him with his portrayal of Don Draper in Mad Men.
Given how perfectly Jon Hamm embodied the brilliantly written Mad Men character, there will never be another Don Draper on television. However, in more ways than one, Hamm’s new character in an Apple TV+ series seems similar to Draper. Although the original Apple TV+ show is significantly different from Mad Men, many viewers might notice echoes of Don Draper in the role Jon Hamm plays in the new acclaimed series.
Jon Hamm’s Your Friends & Neighbors’ Role Is Significantly Different From Mad Men’s Don Draper
Andrew Cooper Seems To Have Far Less Control Over His Life Than Don Draper
Jon Hamm’s Don Draper is portrayed as a marketing genius who often relies on charm, manipulation, and emotional intuition to sell everything from products to ideas. However, his family life suffers as he struggles to overcome his complex feelings towards his children and often cheats on his wife. His affairs and morally questionable ways eventually land him in serious trouble, leading to his wife asking for a divorce. Andrew Cooper, Hamm’s character in Your Friends & Neighbors, also does not get to live a peaceful and fulfilling family life.
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Jon Hamm’s Your Friends & Neighbors never fully overcomes feeling like a Breaking Bad clone, but is still charming enough to entertain.
However, his wife’s infidelity is the primary driver behind his divorce in the series. Although Cooper finds a clever solution to his financial problems by stealing from his rich neighbors, he does not seem as quick-witted as Don Draper, given that he does not take long to get himself embroiled with people far more dangerous than he can handle. Unlike Don Draper, Cooper often succumbs to his impulses instead of letting long-term thinking guide his decisions. Despite these differences between Don Draper and Andrew Cooper, it is hard not to notice how they share some intriguing parallels.
Don Draper & Andrew Cooper Exist In Similar Worlds In Different Timelines
Both Characters Are Deeply Flawed & Present A Carefully Curated Image To The World
In a recent interview (via Newsweek), Jon Hamm opened up about Don Draper’s influence on his Your Friends & Neighbors character. He agreed that even though the two characters are different, they are similar in the sense that while “Don Draper was responsible for selling the American dream…Andrew Cooper’s pretty much responsible for buying it.” The comparison makes a lot of sense since Don Draper uses deception and ingenious strategies to sell ideas to the masses in Mad Men. He puts up a facade of control and success throughout the series to mask his fractured sense of self.
Andrew Cooper falls into a similar trap where to achieve the American dream, he struggles to step back from the image he has created for himself. This leads him to steal from his affluent neighbors, which is something Don Draper might also have done if he were in Cooper’s situation. Given how Your Friends & Neighbors has already been renewed for season 2 on Apple TV+, it would be interesting to see how Cooper’s moral decay would parallel Don Draper’s from Mad Men.
