I almost gave up on Apple TV+’s No. 1 show — then ChatGPT convinced me to keep watching

Apple TV app on iPhone — (Image credit: Shutterstock)

I hate giving up on a show. This is especially true if I've raved about it to my friends and already invested several hours into the story. I want to believe there's a payoff coming.

I know that not every episode can be exciting and a weird detour is often intentional. And sometimes the character that I suddenly find annoying is essential to a more satisfying arc.

But, that's exactly where I found myself recently with "Your Friends & Neighbors " on Apple TV+. The Jon Hamm-led drama has been one of Apple TV+’s biggest shows recently. Not only is it ranked No. 1 on Apple TV+ in the U.S. (at time of writing), it has also topped Apple TV+’s worldwide TV chart.

So this wasn’t some random show I had stumbled into. This was Apple TV+’s current hit. But after forcing myself to finish episode 6 of season 2, after already getting bored with episode 5, I had one thought: Is this show starting to drag?

Why I almost gave up

Jon Hamm in Your Friends and Neighbors — (Image credit: Apple)

The first season of "Your Friends & Neighbors" had a killer premise. Jon Hamm plays Andrew “Coop” Cooper, a disgraced hedge fund manager who starts stealing from the wealthy people around him after his life falls apart. It had the sharp, almost addictive quality of watching terrible rich people make terrible decisions in extremely nice kitchens.

I felt that very familiar streaming-era panic: Am I watching a great show deepen, or am I watching a good show lose momentum?

Season 2 keeps a lot of that appeal. James Marsden joins as Owen Ashe, a new neighbor whose arrival threatens to expose Coop’s secrets and pull his family deeper into danger. Season 2 premiered April 3, 2026 and is rolling out weekly through June 5, with 10 episodes total.

On paper, that should be enough to keep things moving. But around episodes 5 and 6, the show seemed to shift gears. The crime-thriller energy slowed down. The pacing became more emotional and more interior. Instead of feeling like the walls were closing in on Coop, it started to feel like the show was wandering through grief, family drama and relationship fallout. I found myself scrolling during episodes or even fast forwarding to skip the "boring" parts.

I realize some of the best shows slow down before they get better. But as a viewer, I felt that very familiar streaming-era panic: Am I watching a great show deepen, or am I watching a good show lose momentum?

The ChatGPT prompt I used when the show got 'boring'

Here’s what I asked ChatGPT: “I just finished episode 6 in season 2 of Your Friends & Neighbors. The show seems to be dragging since the last two episodes. Is it worth continuing?”

What I liked about the answer was that it didn’t just say, “Yes, keep watching.” It reframed the question. ChatGPT pointed out that episode 6 might not be filler as much as a pivot. The show seems to be moving away from pure burglary tension and into the emotional consequences of Coop’s choices. In other words, the slower pacing may be intentional.

That made me think about the show differently. I had been judging it by the energy of its premise: rich man steals from rich neighbors, chaos follows. But season 2 may be asking a slightly different question: what happens when someone builds a second life out of lies and starts believing he can actually survive it?

That’s a better reason to keep watching than “I’ve already come this far.”

ChatGPT was right about one thing

After thinking about it, I realized my frustration wasn’t that "Your Friends & Neighbors" had become bad. It was that it had become less instantly satisfying. That’s different.

The first season gave viewers a clean engine: Coop needs money, Coop steals, Coop gets pulled deeper into a mess of his own making. Season 2 is messier. It’s more about consequences, grief and whether Coop is still the smartest person in the room or just the most delusional.

Rotten Tomatoes’ critic consensus for season 2 makes a similar point, saying the show “digs itself into a deeper and richer character hole” while praising Hamm, Olivia Munn and Marsden.

That doesn’t mean every slower episode works. But it does suggest the show is trying to become something more textured than a glossy crime caper.

And honestly, that’s where ChatGPT was useful. It didn’t tell me whether the show was objectively good. It helped me separate two different questions: Am I bored because the show is failing? Or am I impatient because the show is changing?

The takeaway

My verdict: I’m giving it one more episode. I’m not fully sold yet. Episode 6 still felt slower than I wanted, especially after the sharpness that made the show so easy to binge in the first place. But I’m not quitting either, thanks to ChatGPT's advice to help change my perspective.

At this point, "Your Friends & Neighbors" has earned at least one more episode from me. Jon Hamm remains the show’s biggest reason to keep watching, and James Marsden’s Owen Ashe gives season 2 a new kind of threat that could still pay off in a big way.

My hope is that episode 7 reconnects the emotional fallout to the central tension between Coop, Owen and the secrets piling up around them. If that happens, I’m back in. If it keeps drifting, this may become the kind of show I finish later, not one I rush to watch every week.

And that may be the real lesson here. ChatGPT didn’t tell me (or even know) whether the show would stick the landing, but it did help me figure out what I was actually reacting to. For now, I’m sticking with Apple TV+’s No. 1 show. But episode 7 has work to do.

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