Amanda Peet isn’t necessarily interested in playing a long-suffering wife battling suburban ennui, so it’s a good thing she has a lead role as Mel on the Apple TV+ drama Your Friends and Neighbors from creator Jonathan Tropper (This Is Where I Leave You).

“A lot of times, when we see women in middle age, it’s sad, older women drinking white wine, lamenting the dating scene and, looking to get liposuction,” Peet tells Gold Derby. “The way Jonathan Tropper wrote Mel, she’s having great f--king sex, she’s torn between two men, and she’s keying a car — it just feels much more active and maybe less sad.”

Created by Tropper, Your Friends and Neighbors is a modern spin on domestic noir thrillers like Desperate Housewives and American Beauty. The show is focused on Andrew “Coop” Cooper (Jon Hamm), who in rapid succession loses his wife,...