Everyone needs good Neighbors. And a thieving Jon Hamm.

You know that feeling of delight that you get when you’re, say, about ten minutes into a TV show or a movie and it feels like it was made just for you? That’s how I felt watching Your Friends and Neighbors on Apple TV+.

And sorry… there’s no connection between this show and the 1998 Neil LaBute ensemble film with Ben Stiller and Amy Brenneman…

The show has Jon Hamm as an ex-hedge fund manager (not by choice) who is disillusioned with the life of wealth and privilege he once shared with the titular friends and neighbors in his life. So now he breaks into their homes and takes their eye-wateringly expensive watches, jewellery, and the rolls of money that they all seem to have just sitting around.

For me, I found the show to be like a warm bath in that it offers so much of what I want from a show. The show does coast on its vibe a little too much and would probably have benefitted from a restrictive six or seven episode season-run leaving everyone wanting more. Because so much of it feels like a movie idea adapted into series form, by the time you hit episode five it feels like the show should be setting up a final act. Instead, you know you’re only halfway through and that feels like a drag when it shouldn’t.

That said, the show is still one of my favourite shows so far this year. A year where we are been blessed with three really great new ongoing shows in a matter of months - The Pitt, Your Friends and Neighbors, and the upcoming Étoile (which I will be raving about properly in a few weeks once the embargo breaks...). I think I’m falling back in love with television…

Speaking of The Pitt, the season finale of that show drops today. I really admire how the season finale (episode 15) stays true to the conceit of the show, which is that it is a full 15 hour shift (filmed in a quasi real-time style) for the doctors and nurses in the show. It means that even when the show springs the Pittfest shooting on us in hour 12, we’re really only dealing directly with the pressure of that for about an hour and a half. By the time we’ve hit episode 14, the hospital staff are mostly just mopping up the situation they were just dealing with while re-opening the emergency room for new patients.

Now, in episode 15, it’s the staff essentially all clocking off, being thanked for their work in the ER that day, and then heading off to the park for a cheeky beer or more with some colleagues to unwind. A very chill way to end the season that feels like a reward for spending the past 15 hours together. It’s nice and emotionally fulfilling.

If you find yourself scratching around for a different hospital drama in the next week or so to replace The Pitt, don’t bother with Netflix’s Pulse (which is a weak tea Greys Anatomy), instead, I have a great under the radar recommendation for you…