The Observer.

Struggles with "Your Friends & Neighbors," plus "Lady Vengeance," Meander Sampling, and several thoughts on the why of anything.

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The Observer is a spoiler-free curated collection of television series and films.

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A slightly different take in this week’s “The Observer” that weaves in some questions with the endorsements, but let’s start first with a combo platter:

“Your Friends & Neighbors.”

I have been struggling with this show from the beginning, partly captured by its intermittent flurry of excellent writing — the kind that even makes the voice overs work well — and partly hanging around to look at all the main stars, particularly Jon Hamm, whose character “Coop” periodically morphs into Don Draper and by being one-degree-of-separation from the greatest drama of the Platinum Age, gives me bonus warm feelings.

But if all that is true, why is it a labor to get through these episodes?

I certainly had my own reasons, which were shared by Viewing Partner KB, but it was also a welcome sign when a friend reached out to say he was split on the series for exactly the same reason — nobody is really likable because they’re all rich and even Hamm’s “Coop” character is only truly, uh, suffering, because he’s now a 10 percenter instead of a 1 percenter, which hardly moves the needle on relatability.

Or likability.

And I’m something of an outlier in the viewing world where I don’t need any character to be likable to love a series or movie, although it helps, which is scientifically proven. But there’s a difference between awful people and unlikable people. Awful people, as portrayed in art, often have no other choice. Unlikable people do, they’re just choosing — to use a technical term here — to be dicks on purpose.

A few other quick problems with “Your Friends & Neighbors” and then onto to other observations: