Why LIB's "nice guys" season was a dud
I think this show truly tried to cast "nice guys" this season in order to have more "love stories" and it still blew up in their faces. The men this season are a reflection of why "nice guys" are often not nice at all, many are just dudes who think getting sex means telling women what they want to hear and living with the simmering resentment that causes until it explodes. The men this season:
- Refuse to be vulnerable. They'd rather lie to a woman than tell her what they really think.
- Live unexamined lives. They have these "rules" and "standards" that were handed to them by parents/religion/friends that they have never bothered to interrogate. They just robotically judge themselves and anyone they interact with according to these rules that are not reflective of how actual human beings operate and then find themselves stuck.
- They are more concerned with what others think of them rather than acting on how they feel. They will do whatever it takes to conform, including getting married and having kids, just to feel "normal". The entire time, they are suppressing their feelings and then when they realize that they don't know their wives or barely like them or that they hate the responsibilities that marriage and family bring, the marriage goes to shit.
- Demonstrate a lot of insecurity. Any little thing that can be perceived as "different" is met with fear that reaches panic levels or total shutdown.
