Created by Jonathan Tropper – Starring Jon Hamm, Amanda Peet, Olivia Munn, Hoon Lee, James Marsden

Season two picks up right where things left off, with Andrew “Coop” Cooper (Jon Hamm) still navigating a life that looks successful on the surface but feels increasingly unstable underneath.

What stood out to me right away in the season two premiere is how the show continues to frame wealth.

It doesn’t really feel like something these characters enjoy. It feels more like something they have to maintain.

There are moments where Coop moves through these homes of the super rich and finds drawers full of expensive items people don’t even seem to know they own. It gives everything this hollow, almost empty feeling — like it’s all meant to be seen once, admired, and then forgotten, rather than actually lived with. The power isn’t in having these things, it’s in the ability to buy them.

The episode makes a few references to The Great Gatsby, and that connection makes sense. There’s a corrupted version of the American dream here, where wealth is less about comfort and more about performance — about how things look from the outside versus what’s actually there.

You can see that idea play out in the different types of people the show puts on screen.

Nick Brandes (Mark Tallman) feels like the clearest example of that “clumsy hustle.” He’s chasing the lifestyle, trying to keep up with it, and it comes across as a little desperate — like he’s always just a step behind where he thinks he should be. Trying to cash in whatever access he has to move from outsider to insider.

Barney Choi (Hoon Lee) is in a constant battle to prove his worth to his ultra-wealthy in-laws, whose disdain for him — and how he earns his money — comes through in almost every interaction.

Mel Cooper (Amanda Peet) taps into a different angle — the pressure of aging and maintaining a certain version of yourself. It’s another way the show explores how much of this world is about keeping up appearances.

Then there’s Owen Ashe (James Marsden), who enters as something else entirely. He seems wealthier than everyone else — loose, carefree, unpredictable — and immediately pulls attention. There’s a kind of ease to him, whether it’s his presence, his confidence, or just the fact that he can drop $20 million in cash on a house.

At the same time, there’s a question of what he actually represents. He almost feels like an easy target for the people around him to latch onto, but there’s also something about him that suggests he might not be as simple as he appears. Less an open wallet, more a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

There’s also more emphasis on legacy — who earned their place, who inherited it, and who’s just trying to hold onto it. That tension shows up in the relationships, where success feels less like something to enjoy and more like something to justify. And it never quite feels like enough.

All of that is interesting.

But I’m still not totally sure how cleanly it’s coming together.

The show leans harder into those ideas this time, and sometimes it feels like it’s pushing them a little too directly. There’s a monologue from Tori Cooper (Isabel Gravitt) about legacy and institutional power that’s performed well, but feels more like the show explaining its themes than letting them come through naturally. It stands out in a way that some of the quieter moments don’t.

At the same time, the central premise is still doing a lot of heavy lifting.

Coop continuing his run of break-ins starts to stretch credibility a bit, especially as the show tries to expand everything else around it. It feels less like a natural extension of the story and more like something that has to stay in place to keep the structure intact.

That’s kind of where I landed with this premiere.

It feels like the show is trying to push further into commentary about wealth, status, and power — almost turning those ideas up to full volume — while still holding onto the elements that originally grounded it.

It’s not just referencing The Great Gatsby, it’s almost throwing a copy of the book at you. The subtle touch of season one feels mostly gone.

There’s still a lot here that’s compelling, especially in how it observes this world and the people trying to survive in it. And the cast is great. But it also feels like it might be trying to do a little too much all at once.I

’m curious to see where it goes, and optimistic, but I’m also a little more cautious than I was with the first season.

Verdict: I’m On Board (with some concerns)