In this article, Mark Harris decries how pop culture has become “the realm of Men Who Won’t Grow Up and the Women Who Tolerate Them” :
On TV this fall, it’s impossible to miss. CBS’ The Big Bang Theory is about a bunch of science dorks who stare in awe at the blond bubblehead across the hall (seriously — the bubblehead character still exists! In 2007!) like abashed sixth graders at a dance. NBC’s Chuck offers the story of a sweet tech-support doofus who works nights as a superspy but who hasn’t quite mastered the whole tucking- in- his- shirt- and- talking- to- girls thing. The CW’s Reaper showcases a 21-year-old who lives at home and works (like Chuck) in a spirit-shattering chain store while sending damned souls back to a different hell in his off hours.
It’s a good time to be an appealing but sexually nonthreatening leading man; play your hand well, and you can farm this particular piece of turf for a long time. Witness boy-man pioneer Zach Braff, now beginning year 7 as Scrubs’ perpetually self-infantilizing doctor J.D., who’s still noting everything that passes before his wide eyes as fodder for his mental journal. (That’s nice for him, but when you’re choosing a physician, do you really want to be anybody’s learning experience?)
Every species of bumbling boy-man — nerd, geek, fanboy, slob, slacker, screwup — is having his day in the spotlight. In Knocked Up, Judd Apatow tagged him perfectly as a laundry-challenged stoner who likes his pals, his pot, and his porn but can’t figure out how an actual woman operates.
The question, as usual with entertainment trends, is a chicken-and-egg one. Do all the pathetically immature men in TV shows and movies simply reflect the current state of manhood, or is Hollywood dragging all us respectable men down and brainwashing us to believe that it’s all good for a 30-year-old guy to spend the majority of his time in his underwear playing XBOX? Unfortunately, I think it’s probably the former. We really need to grow up.