Have you ever wondered what it would be like to dress up like Jane Austen’s quintessential husband material Fitzwilliam Darcy and role play your way into a marriage?
One Air Force veteran is doing just that as a contestant on NBC’s newest dating show ‘The Courtship,’ which premiered on Sunday.
“Transported to a Regency-style England, a group of eligible hopeful suitors will have to win the heart of our heroine, and her court,” promotional materials read. “Housed in a castle on the countryside and set on a beautiful backdrop of rolling hills, the heroine and suitors will experience that of which dreams are made.”
Capt. Danny Kim, who now works as a confidence and dating coach, is one of 16 bachelors seeking the hand of Nicole Rémy, a 26-year-old engineer from Seattle.
The former airman believes that his time in the military helped prepare him for the epic quest for love.
“The etiquette and how to be a gentleman is something I picked up while I was at the Air Force Academy,” Kim told Military Times. “Even the costumes felt like the uniforms I wore at USAFA, so I feel like I was born ready for this.”
Kim noted that he joined the cast because he wants to fall in love the old-fashioned way.
And with carriage and boat rides, archery competitions and communication via handwritten letters, Kim has certainly taken a time machine to find love.
Unfortunately for viewers, it does not appear that the cast will have to face hardships like dying from dysentery, having to go days without proper bathing and grooming, or farming for their own meals.
As for whether or not this set-up will work in the real world, Kim said he knows he will have to separate that from the experience, but “living in a fairy tale taught me to embrace the romance in this Disney story and bring it into the real world.”
Sarah Sicard is a Senior Editor with Military Times. She previously served as the Digitial Editor of Military Times and the Army Times Editor. Other work can be found at National Defense Magazine, Task & Purpose, and Defense News.
