Masculinity, #MeToo and misleading marketing: The unmet sexpectations of the American Gigolo remake

American Gigolo , the 2022 television series which functions as a sequel to the 1980 film, has received an overwhelmingly negative reception with both critics and viewers. An insightful review declaring the show ‘more dud than stud’ encapsulates the problems with viewers’ expectations: despite raunchy marketing promising a direct continuation to the original, there was ‘very little actual sex’ compared to its Paul Schrader written and directed neo-noir predecessor, a choice complicated further with the addition of a controversial backstory in which protagonist Julian Kaye (Jon Bernthal) was revealed to have been a victim of child abuse. The misleading marketing certainly influenced viewer rejection of the show by both promising a continuation to the original and deliberately obscuring the plotline. The post-#MeToo context it was released in, furthermore, may have impacted reception. The sheer venom with which reviewers broached the portrayal of a male victim of abuse, however, raises questions of its own. Despite the rightly criticized aspects of the show, its choice to depict an unconventional male victim as a lead character on primetime television is groundbreaking. Did audiences reject the show for disrupting their nostalgia for Julian, or does heterosexual male victimhood continue to be a societal taboo?