#fridaynightdinner

Adam from Girls and Martin from Friday Night Dinner - they have one thing in common. 

Shirtlessness, it’s everywhere! Well, more specifically it’s a character point in both Girls and Friday Night Dinner, and despite the fact that these shows were made on two different continents in two different cultures, shirtlessness is used in a very similar way. 

Let’s have a brief look at the two characters we’re comparing. Adam Sackler is a rude, gross caricature of the bad boyfriends girls have in their early 20s (and even though I can’t say I particularly enjoy the show, I do think my BFF Adam Driver makes this character surprisingly watchable.) Adam Sackler treats Hannah’s heart “like monkey meat”, he’s inconsiderate, tactless and if you knew somebody who was dating him you’d say “break up with him immediately.” 

Martin Goodman is the quintessential dad character: eccentric is probably the gentlest word to use to describe a character who collects staplers, washes his privates in the bathroom sink, and eats sprigs of parsley just because he “fancied some.” Martin is a very well observed portrait of a dad, and one of the things which drew me into Friday Night Dinner is that I instantly recognised Martin as a dad. Of course he’s got a shed full of old magazines. Of course he’s always the wrong temperature. Of course he’s barely ever wearing a shirt. The late Paul Ritter gave a performance as Martin that was the heart of the show, and there are lines of his which, even remembered out of context, make me laugh every time, “I’m going to go downstairs and stare at my hands” being a particular favorite. 

So the characters are different, yes, but they are both male archetypes: bad boyfriend and cringeworthy dad. What these archetypes share is a lack of social awareness, or interest in social convention, that is often associated with male characters. Remember in Mean Girls where Cady notes that in girl world, all the fighting has to be sneaky - that is an observation about men and women: female aggression is stereotypically considered to be carried out as part of a complex social hierarchy, while masculine aggression is presented as simpler and resolved through physical violence or other confrontation. Martin and Adam both show a disregard for other people, Martin not caring for his sons’ embarrassment, and Adam not caring for Hannah’s feelings, through one simple costume choice: shirtlessness.  

The shirt signifies something. In Friday Night Dinner, Martin often only puts a shirt on when he is told to by Jackie, his wife. It’s a sign of deference to her that he puts on a shirt, respect for a social custom and respect for his wife. Martin’s shirt usually ends up removed because he’s either concentrating on a different activity, frustrated or “bloody boiling”. He doesn’t think about the shirt as a necessity, more of a hinderance. The shirt is only ever donned for the benefit of others. 

Adam Sackler does not wear a shirt when Hannah is around, because he has no respect for her. The impression given by his character is that he is only grudgingly bothering to wear trousers or underwear. Adam is self-centered, and doesn’t think at all about the impact his actions have on others. So no shirt. 

Interestingly, Martin’s shirtlessness is born more out of hapless obliviousness than selfishness, the thought that his son’s new girlfriend might not want to see his naked chest hasn’t occurred to him. When Jackie makes him aware that he should wear a shirt, he puts one on. Adam’s character is presented differently, as if the putting on of a shirt would only take place if it were absolutely necessary for his comfort. To take another example of shirtless Adam Driver to contrast, Kylo Ren appears shirtless in The Last Jedi, and when Rey requests that he “put something on”, he ignores her, because he is laser focused on continuing the conversation the two have been having via their force bond. Shirtlessness here indicates both vulnerability and the same disinterest in social niceties displayed by Adam and Martin.