Nathan for You is a show I was first introduced to by Sweeney four years ago, and yet I've never posted about it on the blog until now. No need for me to recap the premise, but it's a very funny and extremely cringe-inducing pseudo-reality ostensibly show about Nathan Fielder helping out struggling businesses in bizarre and unconventional and questionably legal ways.
Or at least, that's what it used to be about. Here in its fourth season Nathan for You really became more of a show about a sad and lonely business reality show host who goes to insane lengths to justify or legalize the actions he's taking to help struggling businesses.
It's one thing, for instance, in the first season, when Nathan tries to garner some buzz for a frozen yogurt shop by introducing a poo-flavored yogurt. It's a simple concept, the show spends ten minutes on it, and then we're on to the next segment. It's quite another thing, in the fourth season, when Nathan wants to help a shipping company out by reducing the tariff rates on smoke detectors by rebranding them as musical instruments. In order to establish that they're musical instruments, he needs to establish a precedent that a successful band has used them in a recording before; in order to do that, he needs to assemble a band in the first place, then force them to use a smoke detector as a musical instrument after they come up with a catchy single. Then Nathan needs to get local radios to play the song; all of them refuse, citing the annoying smoke alarm beeps interspersed. So then Nathan has to make the song a viral hit, which he accomplishes by staging a fake town meeting on behalf of Shell (yes, the oil company) which ends with a shitty little canned PR video that uses the band's song. Nathan shows this to his new band's lead singer and songwriter, who is enraged - "that's not really our song's intention, man, to support Big Oil like this." So Nathan convinces him to stage a protest in front of a Shell gas station in which the band gives away free gasoline while playing their song. This, understandably, makes the local news, which gives Nathan the legal precedent he needs to establish that, yes, in fact, at least one instance has occurred in which a band has used a smoke detector as a musical instrument, making smoke detectors qualify for a lower tariff rate for the international shipping company.
That was long-winded, and I left out about three steps of the process. Point is, this is what Nathan for You is now - a virtual laboratory for human contact for a sad, lonely man. What's absolutely unclear to me is how much the real Nathan Fielder is living vicariously through the Nathan Fielder character presented on screen. The real Nathan went through a divorce a few years ago, and it wouldn't shock me at all if this newer, deeper, sadder version of Nathan for You is an intentional manifestation of a real-life deeper, sadder Nathan Fielder. But then, who even knows which parts of this show are staged and scripted, and which parts are genuine? Who can say how much of Nathan's horribly awkward persona is an act? Who knows what the few recurring characters on the show think of it all, and to what extent they're in on the joke?
I can't say Nathan for You is as clever or funny as it used to be, and the stunts feel more and more forced by the year. But it's evolving in other ways and continues to provide a fascinating look at one man's loneliness - and however fake or real that man and his loneliness are, it's still a fascinating endeavor. This season ended in a two-hour special that stretched the limits a little bit - easily could have been an hour, frankly - but that special itself ended with maybe the darkest and most depressing scene imaginable for this show, for this character, for this man.
This show's lost some speed on its fastball, but it's now commanding the edges of the plate like it never used to. It has been fascinating to watch it change and evolve and become less about the hijinks and more about humanity. I'm excited to see where a fifth season goes, and if there is no fifth season, I'm excited to see what Nathan does next. He's still only - holy shit, and no offense to him - thirty-four years old! Here's hoping he's got decades of content left in him.
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