Indie Series: ‘How Men Become Dogs’ Provides It's Take On Relationships

The notion that women don’t like nice guys is severely detrimental for two reasons: it validates men who misbehave and shifts any blame for their wrongdoings onto women because they’re made out to be hypocrites for demanding and criticizing the same things.

Marc Cunningham’s How Men Become Dogs is based on this unsound rationale. This ten-part series has racked up over a million views and 15K subscribers, and is centered on the idea that women corrupt men by pushing them to the limit, then go on to complain about it. The simplicity of this understanding of male-female chemistry is deeply insulting to men and women alike because it pays no mind to individuality.

The first episode introduces the three male leads in three unrealistic scenarios through the poorest quality of character development. These are the bad breakups that position them to become heartless.

First, Julian meets up with his girlfriend, Sam, at a park. She is upset at him for bringing her a picnic basket, and she then proceeds to complain about how he’s not “man enough” for her.

“What man do you know owns a picnic basket?” Sam asks. “And where did you get the picnic basket from — West Hollywood?”

For reference, West Hollywood is one of the most distinguished queer districts in the United States, and for the writers to casually sprinkle in a gay cliché goes to show just how much thought they put into their work. She then states that “only women are supposed to pack picnic baskets,” suggesting that men who do are gay. The irony is that this particular brand of ignorance sounds an awful lot like high-school boys bullying each other; to find a grown woman who actually talks like that is rare.

Sam points to a couple bickering across the park from them, wherein the man is clearly loud and threatening to hit his woman. “Why can’t you be more like him?” she says. “He over there showing her that he’s the man she’s the woman.”

A woman pointing to an abuser and asking her companion why he can’t be more like that — you can only make this stuff up. She calls Julian a “little bitch,” shows him the finger and walks away.

In the next scene, another couple is shown getting into a tiff. Mario can’t afford to keep taking Megan out for dinner, so he suggests they eat at home. He claims to try his very best to give her the things she wants, but it’s still insufficient.

“Your best is not good enough,” she says. “Call me when you get that promotion …that is if your phone is still turned on, with your broke ass.”

The third and final scenario shows Cameron walking in on Jessica, his girlfriend of three months, in his bed with another man. When he tries to fight her lover, she intervenes by saying that her boyfriend “can’t fight.”

Sure enough, he gets knocked out.

While Cameron’s out cold on the floor, they proceed to get back in bed together and finish what they started. The characters in this series exist only in extremes — they’re either angelic or pure evil; there seems to be no in-between.

To sum it up, their thesis suggests that women:
1. Claim to want sensitive men, but gravitate toward dominant and aggressive ones instead
2. Claim to want emotional support, but gravitate toward financial pampering
3. Claim to want loyalty, but gravitate toward adventure

And just like that, villains birth more villains — just the kind of origin story a frustrated man needs in order to desperately cling on to his misogynistic outlook.

A little later, all three protagonists sit around a table and discuss the truth behind the saying, “good guys finish last.” They decide to start acting more the way women want them to be i.e. aggressive, condescending “dogs.” The first sign of them making this transition is shown through their seemingly natural tendency to refer to women as “bitches.” The creativity behind it all, put mildly, is simply unremarkable.

They quickly switch gears and summon the “dogmaster,” who teaches them how to be that way. Hamlin, who is the slick patriarch of the show, states that women are just as guilty of the wrongdoings they accuse men of, except “ no one ever calls them out on it.” This doesn’t seem like the most outrageous claim, except the show is centered on portraying women as opportunistic, gold-digging liars who only want what’s best for them.

The writer then makes a weak attempt at creating the illusion of objectivity. They devote an entire episode to showing both sides of the situation so viewers can decide for themselves who is in the wrong. It comes as no surprise, then, that the women are made out to be far more irrational and selfish. If one of the men is shown to be a little too sensitive or vulnerable, they counter that by making it seem like that’s what their significant other needed.

Julian is the “nice guy.” He’s respectful and affectionate because he was raised by his mother to be a gentleman, but Sam still considered that inadequate because he comes off as weak. That, however, is no match for Sam’s violent attitude problem, which implies that someone “crazy” like her does indeed need an overly sensitive man to balance out her many shortcomings.

Mario is the “broke guy.” He gave Megan everything despite not having much, but she was forever unimpressed and ungrateful for his hard work. She doesn’t have the patience for him to grow and make more money, and she expresses this to her one-dimensional, sassy, flamboyant male friend — more evidence that the show was composed by straight men with very limited perspectives.

Cameron is the “gullible fool.” He’s loyal and trusting, but that only backfires on him because Jessica is only concerned about always getting what she wants. She wants more despite him giving her his all, so she cheats — “what one man won’t do, another one will.” One of her friends, yet another stereotyped Black woman, finds this hilarious and “gangsta.”

How Men Become Dogs is premised on lopsided injustices that distort the true nature of gender and relationship dynamics. Even though it eventually takes a turn that is somewhat critical of this infantile take on dating, it’s too late by the time the writers try to save the series. By the time it circles back to suggesting that maybe the real issue is compatibility, the damage has already been done. Even then, the writers never budge from their look-what-you-forced-us-to-become approach toward women.

It almost sounds as though their blueprint for this entire operation was “Man good, woman bad” — it truly is that shallow. You’d have to see it to believe it, but those ten minutes of your life (assuming you don’t make it past the first episode) will never come back.

Though Original Hitta did generate high engagement, they never got enough support to make another season. Each episode came with a captioned request for donations via Patreon, which the team would’ve then used to make a sequel. It has, however, been almost four years since the first season and there seems to be no signs of another.

Whereas it would be unfair to hold independent content creators’ production quality to the same expectations as a major production house, this series is subpar by any standard including plot, script, casting, acting, cinematography and overall production value.

How Men Become Dogs makes an irreparable first impression such that its redeeming qualities instantly fall flat.