TV Review: "Man Up"

I don't do many requests. But a couple of weeks ago a twitter buddy posed a writing challenge so difficult, so daunting that I had no choice but to accept it. After all, we cannot call ourselves human if we don't every once in a while challenge ourselves and test the very limits of what we believe is possible. With this post I am doing just that. So as requested by the one they call Julia, I present to you my TV review of the new Christopher Moynihan series Man Up.

Prejudices are bad. As much as it is human nature to try to draw the most broad conclusions from the least amount of research, it's a habit we would all do better without.

Take the new ABC comedy series Man Up, for instance. Sure it takes its title from one of the most obnoxious phrases in modern American vernacular. Sure it’s being marketed as a companion piece to the painful Tim Allen series Last Man Standing. Sure the previews made it look like what the writers of Entourage would have to cobble together if they didn’t have access to the sex, vulgarity, or any of the other premium cable elements that made Entourage palatable.

But those are all prejudices. Only an honest and objective viewing of an episode or two can prove if those prejudices have any merit. So with 45 minutes to spare, I sat down to the second and third episodes of the testosterone-drenched series (as a rule I avoid the pilots of every TV show I can. Even the most brilliant shows are prone to dull, uninspiring pilots).

Man Up follows the friendship of three men who have delayed maturity long enough and need to start becoming adults. Mather Zickle stars as Will, the straight man of the of the trio. Despite being the only family man in the group, Will is really no more mature than his two buddies Kenny (Dan Fogler) and Craig (Christopher Moynihan). Sure, they all hold professional careers (I’m still not sure what, but I know it takes place in an office and they all have to wear suits) and are encountering more and more responsibilities. But, as evidenced by their video game rituals and inane random chatter, these three are in for a long journey to adulthood.

One of the worst habits of “gender-specific” TV shows is having all the characters speak in the same voice. What good is a show about men if you can’t make any distinctions between one character and another? Man Up avoids this trap for the most part. After the first three weeks we can see Will, Kenny, and Craig’s distinct personality traits and they play off each other (as opposed to gelling together into one amorphous blob) pretty well. But there are still unfortunate moments when the three act like the same hackneyed male stereotype. I would much prefer if each character took one hackneyed male stereotype and claimed it as his own. If it's Kenny as hairy and emotionally unstable, Craig as the effete metrosexual, and Will as the henpecked bore, fine. It's when the three come together as "Generalized Manchild" when the show reaches its lowest points.

The Y-chromosome presents comedic potential from countless different angles. Use them.

Before totally buying into the series I still need reassurance that the writers won’t run this “adolescent bromance” angle into the ground. That’s a pretty tall task considering “adolescent bromance” is, well, the entire reason Man Up exists. But every good show is able to find depth in a one-note concept. The second episode did that beautifully by turning “adolescent bromance” into a study on Star Wars geekery. The third episode, however, fell short. Having Kenny and Craig build a pool in their backyard for no real reason is exactly the kind of thing one would expect. And for a show like Man Up, it’s best if you keep giving the audience the unexpected.

Man Up still has a ways to go before it reaches the upper echelon of current comedy series. Praise for avoiding pitfalls can only go so far. The writers and cast still need to make positive and consistent gains on their own right. But critically speaking, the show is not in any apparent danger of being unfunny or hard to watch. It’s a clean, technically-sound tee shot that lands smack dab in the middle of the fairway. For a concept that could have gone very wrong very quickly, I consider that a credit to the cast and crew—especially considering there’s plenty of room for growth.

So instead of blaming myself for holding prejudices, I’m going to do the American thing and point the finger elsewhere. ABC should be ashamed of itself for an advertising campaign that was as cynical as it was sparse. I’d like to think that America can handle a sitcom about men without being hit over the head with scenes of them playing video games or being nagged by their wives. Male adulthood is so much funnier than that. Man Up appears to be up for the task of showing it. I hope ABC's marketing department is as well.