Jonathan Tropper is a screenwriter, producer, creator, showrunner, director, writer, executive producer and author of six novels among other past credits, and currently as the creative force behind the new Apple TV+ series Your Friends & Neighbors, which airs its Season 1 finale May 30. The series stars Jon Hamm as a successful NYC hedge fund executive who collectively loses his job and his wife, and now turns to breaking into his upper-class neighbors’ homes and stealing from them.
Even before it debuted, Apple had already ordered a second season which began production shortly after the first hit the air. Tropper joins me for today’s episode of my Deadline video series Behind the Lens to not only discuss how this idea came about, but also where it may be headed once viewers see how this nine-episode season ends. We also talk about his own successful career as an author and then screenwriter for movies like Shawn Levy’s This Is Where I Leave You and The Adam Project with Ryan Reynolds, plus a Netflix film called Kodachrome starring Jason Sudeikis and where I became an early Tropper fan. Then there was the unlikely switch in his career as he became a producer and writer for a number of action series including Banshee and the martial arts series Warrior, along with Apple’s See.
Tropper is nothing if not versatile, but the highly entertaining Your Friends & Neighbors is the perfect vehicle for a post-Mad Men return to series TV for Hamm, and its creator tells me just how the it all came about — it’s a literate and entertaining show made for these times where you can have it all, then lose it all. In some ways it is also reminiscent of John Cheever’s The Swimmer, made into a 1968 movie where Burt Lancaster swims across his neighborhood and into his high-end neighbors’ lives. Where it heads from the Episode 9 finale is anyone’s guess, but Tropper thinks there is much more to explore with this concept, and unlike many streaming series (like Severance) we won’t have to wait years for the next chapter.
Watch on Deadline
To watch my conversation and go “behind the lens” with this major force behind the scenes, watch the video above.
Join me every Monday and Friday during Emmy season for another episode of Behind the Lens.