Shooting Into Prime Time With Male-Centric Drama

Perhaps like the Columbians that sit down to watch it Thursday night, ABC’s new male-oriented drama Big Shots is raunchy yet refined, and mostly entertaining. On one hand, the show’s attempt to rouse the Y-chromosome in the average guy should be successful: the scenarios are humorous, relatable, and, perhaps most importantly, fantastic—the lives the show’s four main characters live is the stuff men dream about.

Duncan (Dylan McDermott), Brody (Christopher Titus), James (Michael Vartan), and Karl (Joshua Malina) all play successful businessmen with particularly eccentric sex lives, and, really, for most men, that’s a strong enough hook. Yet, despite the attractive concept, the writing just doesn’t feel up to snuff: some of the dialog sounds and feels unnatural—men don’t seriously describe women as “dark and sexy as hell,” especially when describing truck-stop prostitutes— and the writers are already stereotyping the four characters.

Still, the show is lighthearted enough to help viewers overlook some characterization problems—guys aren’t supposed to take everything so seriously anyway. While the early word on Big Shots indicated the show was a testosterone-laced Sex and the City derivative, ultimately it feels more like a bizarro Desperate Housewives, except not quite as well written. Though the show’s dialog will at least tickle the average male’s fancy, one has to wonder just what viewing audience ABC is targeting, as it prominently features four handsome, sexually charged men on screen. Big Shots is definitely worth checking out, but don’t expect any thoughtful soliloquies on the difference between the two sexes beyond, “Men. We’re the new women.”