The Modern (Gentle)Man

For someone who doesn't buy into TV shows until they've proven to be worthwhile, I was uncharacteristically intrigued by How to Be a Gentleman.  Maybe it was partly a residual affection for Johnny Drama.  But mostly, I was drawn by the promise (well, possibility) of a new look at classic questions of what makes a man -- something I've pondered far before it became a fad with this television season.

The new show gave small hints of insight in this regard.  Drama's catchphrase, repeated in the opening montage of each episode, was "You know everything about being a gentleman, and nothing about being a man."  An interesting contrast... but less so when the archetypes are a stiff and a meathead.

And that's the least of the show's disappointments.  Maybe I haven't watched enough network TV recently, but the recycled sets and laugh tracks were just grating to my eyes and ears.  CBS is a big step down from HBO for poor Drama!  While there were a few good laughs, there were not nearly enough per 20 minutes. Not surprisingly, CBS has already pulled the plug on HtBaG.

As an aside, I found it crazy how the speculation over which new TV shows are due for cancellation begins within two weeks of the start of the season.  A Google search turns up so many hits for features and even websites devoted to ridiculing new offerings and gloating in their demise.  And with reason -- shows really do get the axe that early.  What a morbid industry where failures (and schadenfreude) are so routine!

This ill-fated show's execution shortcomings aside, I think Drama's quip misses the mark.  I'd like to think that the modern "man" can, and must, have a bit of the "gentleman" to him.  The gentleman doesn't have to be as pathetic as the show portrayed him.  And I think today's manly men strive just a little more to show some refinement.

That balance goes all the way back to the origins of the gentleman.  Chivalry may have arisen in the medieval nobility, but its exemplars were the knights.  These weren't your stereotypical British fops.  They were dudes riding stallions, wielding two-handed broadswords, and building and bowling down castles.  Not sure if there were actually dragons back then, but if so, dragons! 

Think this guy's not a gentleman?  You tell him...

People always talk about the death of chivalry, or bringing it back.  That's fine, but realize there's more to it than treating some lady fair right.  Sure a man could hold the door for a woman, but she should also accept that the same guy's got manly sh*t to do too.  The point of How to Be a Gentleman, had it lasted, was probably to have Drama and the blond dude learn a bit from each other and end up closer to that middle ground.  But it will take more than a mediocre show (and this blog post) to figure out what it really means to be a man in today's world.