Men's Group

Logline

Men’s Group is a show about exploring and revealing the inner lives of men in order to heal and make them whole.

Synopsis

Everyone experiences shame from real or imagined causes, and this shame - and other negative emotions - is holding them back from reaching their great potential. Men’s Group is a show about exploring and revealing the inner lives of men in order to heal and make them whole again.

Format for Show

Like women, men put on masks they wear in public. However, in the case of men, these socially constructed masks have led to a societal delusion that “real men” don’t cry, have to be strong, ‘should’ be hard-working, don’t complain, and basically don’t show a lot of emotion. This has led to many, if not most men, frequently, and very unhealthily, keeping all their emotions bottled up inside them.

Men’s Group is a reality tv show that explores the inner lives of men - from the dreams they have at night to their worries about love and intimacy, fears about money and dating, the loneliness they feel from a lack of authentic connection with other men, and surprisingly often, the shame they experience just as a result of being a unique individual with needs. It’s somehow ok for women to share, and even explore their emotions, but in our society the same has not typically been true of men. Men’s Group seeks to rectify that damaging dynamic through television.

The show starts by introducing the therapist who will then select all the men for the group. The therapist serves as the individual psychologist for each man in one-on-one sessions and also serves as the moderator of the group. The first episode explains to the audience the format of the show and what the therapist does and what the men are there to accomplish. We then get to meet all 8 of the men who will participate in the group, each of whom has a unique personality with both redeeming and flawed qualities. Each man will have the opportunity to say why he wants to get help through therapy and what his expectations for the group are.

Each episode after the first focuses on a combination of the uniqueness of each man in group, their unique circumstances, and the special problems they encounter in life, as well as the challenges all the men in the group share together. Conflicts will often occur between men in the group and they will be challenged to discover why they act the way they do, how they are defensive, and where their feelings of shame and guilt really come from. The group is the men’s petri dish where they can explore and practice with all their emotions - good and bad - and see how other men react to them in a controlled setting.

The format for the group is one in which each man has the freedom to talk when they want to share something. The therapist is there to make sure the men stay on track and focus on their feelings and other helpful, therapeutic exercises, and to focus on one man specifically if the therapist believes there is an opening for a profound moment of realization or understanding to take place.

Each episode will begin when one of the men shares a significant feeling they have had about group or another group member since the previous episode, or a significant event that has occurred to them since the last show that affects them on an emotional level. Each episode ends with a last share by each man in the group where they share something they thought or felt during the episode that went unsaid: this helps invigorate discussion for the next show, as well as provide suspense.

Since each man also has individual therapy sessions with the therapist, snippets of these therapy sessions are also shown, where appropriate or necessary for advancing the show, or to provide context for something important one of the men is revealing to the rest of the group.

The evolution of the show revolves around group members becoming better able to connect with others in a real way and reaching the goals they set out in individual therapy as well as in group (or at least towards those goals in a tangible way).

There is no elimination or judging that takes place.