TV is in its 'yearning man' era. There's a big reason why.

I'm not saying I spend my Friday nights making mood boards of fictional characters, but let's just say my camera roll is currently a shrine to all the most swoony fictional men of the current era.

Because if you've been on the internet, or frankly, just breathing, you'll have noticed a distinct shift in the kind of man dominating our screens this past year. They're moody. They're maybe even a little bit broody. Their eyes follow the person they love across a crowded room. 

If you've been online at all over the past few weeks, you'll have noticed outrageous levels of fan fever where the two leading men of Heated Rivalry are concerned. Stolen glances, slight touches, broody pining, and, yes, steamy scenes. But through it all, it's the romantic wistfulness that has captivated fans of the hockey romance.

Likewise, Bridgerton is set to make a return to Netflix in January with Benedict Bridgerton's love story — and the regency era's (completely unrealistic) pining is sure to have fans across the globe swooning.

This is the era of the yearning man, and let me tell you, it's no coincidence.

Watch: The Mamamia office watching The Summer I Turned Pretty. Article continues after video.

The ground zero for this phenomenon, for me, is undeniably Conrad Fisher from The Summer I Turned Pretty. Forget your standard love triangle tropes. Conrad isn't the guy who writes poems or performs a grand, loud gesture. 

He's the guy who knows your favourite coffee, who wants to be the one to drive you home, and who suffers in the kind of delicious, silent agony that only truly good TV can provide. His love is less of a statement and more of a deeply felt, barely contained need. It's in the way he looks at Belly when he thinks she's not looking. It's quiet but it is completely addictive.

Does this man… actually like the woman he's in love with? Yes!

And suddenly, our screens are filled with his comrades. 

Image: Prime Video

In The Buccaneers (spoiler alert for season 2, but you need to know this), we are being served up a delectable portion of Theo.

He's got that soft, slightly tragic, noble air; he's the kind of man who would give up his entire aristocratic life just to see his lady smile. It's all about devotion, baby. 

And can we talk about Joe from Ginny & Georgia? He's unlike every other romantic lead Georgia has encountered, he's the boyfriend she deserves. He runs a café, he's sweet, and he's been carrying a torch for Georgia since they were literally teenagers. His love isn't possessive; it's steady, reliable, and utterly dedicated. He just… wants her to be happy. And that's beautiful. 

Image: Apple TV+

The big question isn't who is yearning, but why are we, the audience, collectively obsessed with watching them?

You don't need me to tell you what the online climate has been like. This is the year Adolescence was released — the incredible Emmy-award winning show that had parents around the world reeling about the state of our young men and started a million conversations on how to better raise our children. 

This is the year we've seen the sheer, mind-numbing rise of toxic red pill content, the influx of women-hating rhetoric on every platform, and the rise of "alpha male" influencer culture that tells men they are entitled to power, status, and the right to objectify and dismiss women. The Andrew Tate effect. 

And guess what? We're tired. We are exhausted by the ego, the grandstanding, and the relentless, loud performance of masculinity that sees women as a prize to be won, rather than a person to be cherished.

When the real world is serving up men who think contempt is currency, we need our fiction to be an antidote. We are craving men who see us fully. They know her flaws, her strengths, and they love her for all of it.

Image: Netflix

They yearn, not demand; their intense feeling is focused inward — it's their struggle, their desire. They don't use their feelings as a weapon to make their love interest feel guilty or obligated.

We want our leading men to be subtle; the yearning isn't a bold, egotistical grand gesture designed to show off to the world. It's subtle. It's in the quiet acts of care and protection. It's in the look across the room.

We want a love that is pure, honest, and, most importantly, focused on caring for the one they adore.

We want men who feel zero need to perform their masculinity to a camera, but instead direct all that glorious, messy emotion toward the woman they love. 

So, yeah, I will continue to watch any other sad boy stare lovingly at his crush through a rain-streaked window. It's not just escapism — it's a radical affirmation. It's a reminder that beneath all the online noise, we still deserve, and will always yearn for, a man with a genuinely loving heart and absolutely no ego.

Feature Image: Prime Video.