The Week in Mustaches

Some men look great with facial hair. Some men don't. Here is a look at what happened this week in pop culture in terms of the mystery fascination that is the mustache.

On Sunday night, two different shows presented viewers with two different characters who are in transitioning periods in their on-screen lives. One man is still struggling to come to terms with the loss of his unrequited love friend, which was not easy considering that both men often drove each other insane. The second man is attempting to move forward professionally and personally, but still would like to initiate a probably meaningless fuck with a new co-worker.

The one thing they have in common is that they sport mustaches.



Good Mustache
Dom (Murray Bartlett), "Looking" (HBO)

Jonathan Groff (l) and Murray Bartlett and his mustache (r)

This is what a mustache should be. It does not completely dominate nor distract you from the man's face. This mustache is a homage to the mustaches of yesteryear, like the one Tom Selleck sported throughout his run in "Magnum P.I." or the mustache William Daniels had during his time on "Boy Meets World" (and pretty much all his adult life).

Having no prior experience to seeing Murray Bartlett, the Australian actor who portrays Dom on the HBO series, I did a basic Internet search and discovered many, many pictures of him sans mustache. Murray looks younger than his 42 years without facial hair. The mustache does age him in the series, which may have further driven home that Dom is the oldest of the three gay friends who still hasn't put his whole together yet as he approaches middle-age.

Bad Mustache
John Watson (Martin Freeman), "Sherlock" (BBC/Masterpiece)

Martin Freeman and his not so good mustache

No one on the series premiere was fond of the mustache. Even his supporting fiancée, Mary (a great turn from Amanda Abbington), does not like it, though she was hesitant to admit it out loud. (Which means that Sherlock has to reveal this as well.)

There are several theories about the mustache, but they don't particularly matter, because it looks bad on him. I believeWatson grew the upper lip hair as one of many ways to deal with his grieving of Holmes, who by the way was pretty much being a dick to him throughout the whole episode, especially in the Underground when Sherlock allowed Watson to continue to cry, thinking that the bomb was really going to go off.

Martin Freeman, who is also the same age as Bartlett, doesn't need to look older. The bags under his eyes are doing a good job with that. (Probably from all those late nights thinking about Sherlock. I am not kidding, there is one scene where he is doing just that.)

This is the Internet coping with the mustache, which luckily was gone halfway through "The Empty Hearse."

http://xenaashe.deviantart.com/art/John-Watson-s-Moustache-362280087

''I don't shave for Sherlock Holmes."
"You should put that on a T-shirt."

And look, here it is. Yep.

Sidebar: Richard Sherman was going to be the featured in Bad Mustache, but I figure the man has more than enough on his plate.

A Look Back at a Mustache
Alexi Lalas

This is what his mustache looked like in November 2012.
According to his Twitter feed, it appears that the mustache
may make a return.

Not only is this a very awesome looking mustache, but it is a ginger mustache. The recipient of this double-wonder is Alexi Lalas, a former professional soccer player whose career included playing defender for the U.S. National Team from 1991 to 1998 (which included playing/representing the red white and blue at the 1994 FIFA World Cup.) He is currently a sports analyst for ESPN and ABC Sports. You can follow him and his adventures with facial hair here.