Nathan for You (2013)

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   Siskoid

   Weaponizing the Street Cents-like consumer advice skits from his days on This Hour Has 22 Minutes, master of deadpan Nathan Fielder created a business makeover reality show pastiche for Comedy Central called Nathan for You, using his awkward persona to help business owners with just the craziest ideas. Over his four seasons and 30+ episodes, Fielder did go beyond the makeover and tried his hand at the dating show, the live stunt, and the reunion with a lost love, expertly sending up those genres with his crisp understanding of reality TV's vocabulary. Chugging the program inside of a week, I laughed a lot and couldn't believe some of what I was seeing, Fielder creating problems for himself that he could only solve in the most extravagant and impractical ways. But there was more going on under the surface. Fielder's real interest is to put a camera on something and see what happens. I don't even know how you "script" or even "improvise" something like this. Faced with strange suggestions and a needy, awkward host, the people he helps, or hires to help, or simply interviews as a matter of course, expose something of themselves, often accidentally. Because they have expectations about these kinds of shows, it affects their reactions, certainly, but if Fielder defies those expectations, what happens? I surmise that a lot of this kind of material is caught on camera on straight shows, but just isn't shown. Fielder thrives on the odd conspiracy theory a guest might mention, on those sad silences, or moments where the guest makes him look bad. Along the way, there are hoaxes that got picked up by the mainstream media, recurring "characters", and somehow, the thread of Nathan's own loneliness and quest for love. The last episode, Finding Frances, is emblematic of the show without actually being straightforwardly funny. It's even sad, and strange, and taps into that odd kind of documentary where the film maker loses track of his subject and discovers things about himself. Or makes us think that's what's happening. Because if Fielder is trolling the people on his show, and the media, and the world around him, well, he's probably trolling us too. 3 years 8 months ago

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