Hey buddy. Welcome to Dad Shows.
A TV newsletter for people who love Dad Shows, by a guy who loves Dad Shows
Am I a good man?
I don’t know.
But after my most recent layoff (I’m averaging one every other year), I started thinking about what I want. I’ve been writing about TV professionally for almost a decade. I know what I like. I know what I want to write about, and how I want to write about it. And I have to make a Substack to do it.
So welcome to Dad Shows.
Dad Shows are in the zeitgeist. People are writing about them. I’ve written about them. Apple TV+ is making a lot of them, and Anthony Boyle is acting in them. Most of the good shows of 2024 so far have been Dad Shows. I just left a hipster coffee shop and everyone in there was talking about Dad Shows. We’re living through a Dad Show renaissance.
But what are Dad Shows?
Dad Shows are a state of mind, and you certainly don’t have to be a dad to enjoy them. Dad Shows are TV shows that have some essential dad-ness to them. It can be hard to define exactly what this means, and you may have your own definition.
My definition that I’ll be using for Dad Shows is Shows About Cool Guys Who Are Also Bad Guys.
Jacques Reacher. Jean Dutton. Ramón Dónavon. Antoni Sopranowicz.
Antiheroes. Guys who are good at their jobs. Killers with codes. Well-dressed men willing to get their hands dirty.
Dads don’t necessarily want to be these guys, but they are drawn to them. Dads enjoy the vicarious thrill of watching someone get results by any means necessary, free from the constraints of traditional morality. And they like to see the consequences of that, too.
“Am I a good man?”
If the main character asks this question, buddy, you’re watching a Dad Show.
I’ll be writing about those kinds of shows, and the people who make them. You can expect reviews, as well as, how you say, I’d guess you’d call them blog posts? More than anything else, what I want to do is inspired by my friend and former TV Guide colleague Allison Picurro’s wonderful Substack Boy Movies. I’m so inspired, in fact, that I’ve shamelessly nicked the name format. Hopefully I can be half as funny and insightful as her.
One thing I’ll be doing is a column (sub-vertical? idk) called Sheridanverse, about the works of Taylor Sheridan, America’s most transcendent creator of Dad Content. In my opinion, no one writes about Taylor Sheridan correctly. And like dads everywhere say, if you want something done right, do it yourself. For a lot more on this subject, stay tuned for Sheridanverse #1: Hell or High Water.
(I reserve the right to write about Dad Movies or non-antihero types of Dad Shows [sports documentaries, History Channel reality shows, etc.] if I want.)
I plan on sending one email per week to start. I will add a second weekly email when I turn on paid subscriptions. If you could imagine someday enjoying Dad Shows so much that you’d pay for it, please consider pledging your support.
The Gentledads
The best way to introduce what Dad Shows is all about is to write about a Dad Show. And today I’ll be writing a little bit about The Gentlemen, the most popular Dad Show of the moment. As of this writing, it just left the top spot on the Netflix chart after two weeks at #1.
Due to its everything-to-everyone identity, Netflix is not thought of as a Dad Show destination the way Prime Video and Apple TV+ are. But Dad Shows do very well on the platform. The Gentlemen is Netflix’s fourth Dad Show #1 in the past year, after The Night Agent, FUBAR, and Griselda.
(Griselda is the exceedingly rare Dad Show about a woman. Griselda Blanco is a terrible person who the show can’t help but admire. She does classic Dad Show protagonist things like order people killed, traffic cocaine, and organize an army of Cubans. But I digress.)
The Gentlemen comes from noted Dad Director (you could say Dadrector, but I won’t) Guy Ritchie, a guy who’s such a guy that his name is Guy. It’s based on his 2019 movie of the same name. I didn’t enjoy the movie very much, even though it has Colin Farrell in a tracksuit, a combination that should make it my favorite movie. The show, to me, is better.
The Gentlemen’s Dad Show-ness is articulated in the title of its first episode, “Refined Aggression.” Dads love a dapper British guy who knows about art and fine wine but gets so PISSED that he takes charge and commands his brother to put on a chicken suit and dance around for a psycho gangster in order to save his own life. Theo James, as both the character he’s playing and as a performer, embodies “refined aggression.” He could have been James Bond, if not for his black, shark-like eyes. James Bond needs to have irises.
It also features Giancarlo Esposito, who is a little too widely beloved across too many genres to truly be a Dad Actor. But dads love character actors, and he rules. He is starring in and producing a Dad Show, Parish, which premieres at the end of this month. I’ll share thoughts about it in a future issue.
I haven’t finished The Gentlemen. I might write about it more when I do. But its popularity, I hope, is evidence that there is an audience for Dad Shows. If you feel underserved by the lack of dad representation in TV criticism, this newsletter is for you.
Thanks for reading this far. It means a lot to me. I would be honored if you join me on this journey into the heart of Dad Shows. It’ll be fun. We’ll get silly and stupid. We’ll eat snacks and watch some nice shows. And when it’s over, we’ll be able to answer the question, “Am I a good man?”
All you gotta do is subscribe.
already iconic!!!!!! thrilled that my brother publication has finally been born into the world!!!