Finally, You Can Stream All of Nathan for You
Earlier this week, a mural appeared in Los Angeles. It was cordoned off behind behind a tent, and protected by a security guard. A posted sign revealed that the only people allowed to take pictures with the mural were "verified influencers" and people with more than 20,000 social media followers.
In the midst of all the predictable hand-wringing about the obnoxiousness of influencers and vapid selfie culture, one clear sentiment emerged: "This has got to be a Nathan Fielder stunt." And while it looks like it isn’t, there’s a good reason so many people’s minds leapt to Fielder.
This is what watching Comedy Central’s Nathan for You does to you. Since 2013, comedian Nathan Fielder has been pulling off real-world stunts so elaborate that they border on surreal, resulting in some of the most exciting and unpredictable comedy on television. And if you haven’t seen Nathan for You yet, head over to Hulu, because all four seasons are available for streaming right now.
Most episodes of Nathan for You follow the same basic format. Fielder—who proudly proclaims that "he graduated from one of Canada’s top business schools with really good grades" at the top of every episode—approaches a struggling small business with an idea that could turn things around. It’s an approach you’ve seen in at least half a dozen other lazy reality shows. The twist is that Fielder’s ideas are ridiculous and insane—but no matter how weird things get, Nathan for You commits to Fielder’s ideas with a straight face. And Fielder, playing a funhouse-mirror version of himself, is transcendently awkward, turning every episode into a wonderfully cringe-y comedy of manners.
A good Nathan for You episode will pack in two or three twists that no one, including Fielder, could have expected. In one episode, he helps a realtor drum up business by advertising her houses as "ghost-free," only to discover she had her own supernatural encounter long before the show began. In another, he requires gas station patrons to climb a mountain for a rebate, only to be shocked at the lengths some will go to attain it. Occasionally, Fielder’s antics break out from the context of the show and go viral, to the bafflement of the public and the press—as in the infamous "Dumb Starbucks" episode, when Fielder’s bizarre "parody" of a Starbucks became a national media sensation.
But as Nathan for You has continued, Fielder has also expanded the boundaries of the show for bizarre, fascinating standalone riffs. One episode finds Nathan assuming the identity of another person in an effort to discover if he can singlehandedly turn a regular dude into a beloved local hero. And the most recent season of Nathan for You culminated in the feature-length "Finding Frances"—a fascinating and mesmerizing episode in which Fielder attempts to help an elderly Bill Gates impersonator track down a long-lost love, with so many unexpected twists and turns that I couldn’t possibly spoil any of them here.
In fact, that episode turned out to be such an unexpected, ambitious, out-of-the-park success—and such a perfect culmination for all the show’s recurring personalities and themes—that there’s a part of me that hopes Nathan for You never airs another episode. Just end on the highest of possible notes. But who am I kidding? There are thousands of small businesses that could use a helping hand, and I hope Fielder gets to all of them before he hangs up his jacket.
