WILLIAMSBURG — After a marathon viewing session of "Girls" last year, Anthony DiMieri realized just what he could bring to sitcom-land that was missing: the Manhattan-centric, male version of the popular HBO show.
So he wrote his own version, called "Bros."
"They're the same age, the same basic socioeconomic demographic," said DiMieri, 24, of the stars of his new web series compared to the "Girls" cast. "They all probably went to college together, except these guys were in a frat doing keg stands and the girls hung out at the coffee shop and read poetry."
DiMieri's four 20-something male protagonists — who have so far only existed through one episode, launched this week on YouTube— are designed to be outrageous variations of the sporty, preppy "bro cultural archetype," just as "Girls" speaks to the hipster demographic, DiMieri said.
"There's a stigma to being a 'bro' probably equal to the stigma around hipsters," he said. "And I wanted to do the bro-hipster clash."
That "clash" quickly appears in the pilot episode of "Bros," in which the leader of the pack, Drew, gets decked out in purple and ventures to Bedford Avenue from the East Village in a quest to hook up with a hipster girl.
"It's Brooklyn, it's different over there," he says when his friends doubt his chances.
After he and a flannel-shirted female burst through the door of his Manhattan apartment voraciously making out, the other three guys hop on the L train as well on the hunt for Williamsburg women.
As ridiculous as the characters appear, DiMieri said each one is relatable in his own way as "four different bro archetypes" that will develop more if the show finds funding to continue.
"Drew's the Alpha bro, nonchalantly bringing girls home all the time and doesn't have to try...I have a doctor friend like this; the rumor is he'll walk into a bar and the girls will just gravitate toward him," DiMieri laughed. "Tyler is a bully, a jerk, but deep down he wants someone to love so he can show his soft side. Mike is the one in relationships."
The fourth character, John, would likely be the guy "chasing after a girl that’s his really good friend and missing signals from her," DiMieri said of the show's potential future episodes. "This is something people will relate to — me personally very much."
DiMieri, a Fordham University graduate who makes a living doing freelance video production, did not identify as being a "bro" or a "hipster" himself, but the upstate native said his personal experiences have directly inspired the show's narrative.
"I used to live with three girls in a four-bedroom apartment in Williamsburg, and I'd come home from work and there'd be a glass of white wine waiting for me and 'Glee' would be on TV," he said of the popular show. "I'd count all the time I lived there as research."
Now, after living on the Lower East Side and seeing "packs of bros" all the time "going out on hunts for girls," DiMieri said he got his first taste of satisfaction that all the work had paid off — when "Girls" started following him on Twitter this week.
"It was a big deal for me...they only follow like 600 people," he boasted. "I think I'll really make it when Lena Dunham gives me a call and wants to talk about 'Girls' and 'Bros.'"
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