“How To with John Wilson” is a show about daily life, but the end result is something remarkable.
Shot primarily in and around New York City, the six-episode HBO series was described by its Executive Producer Nathan Fielder as “Planet Earth” if it was concentrated on New York. This comparison to the BBC nature documentary holds true as Wilson—the show’s director, producer, writer and cameraman—captures the mundane occurrences one may see on an average commute in New York and lifts them into the light for examination.
As the title suggests, each episode acts as a tutorial but one in which the narrator is not set on a solution. The episodes begin with a basic premise (“How To Cover Your Furniture,” “How To Split The Check”) and consistently grows stranger as Wilson interviews experts and locals on a journey typically centered around an event. All the while, he matches his anxious, awkward narration with hilarious and poignant visual representations of his words.
Every episode has at least one moment where the audience is forced to ask themselves, “How did he manage to film that?” From visual innuendo to a cartoonish argument over parking, Wilson must have stockpiled thousands of hours of footage to find the clips that marry his narration.
Mistakes abound as well. Wilson leaves in his “ums” and long vocal hesitations for all to hear. Wilson also leaves in small mishaps, like clumsily drops of soda cans and pots full of boiling water with his camera-free hand. And matched with the handheld camera footage, this all makes for a singular cocktail of DIY travel documentary and observational comedy.
The show’s magic is its sincere attempt to reach an understanding of its topic by the end of each 30-minute episode. Whether that comes from a trip to a “Mandela effect” conference or a scaffolding collapse well outside the tristate area, Wilson’s excursions never feel forced. The footage of his unaware subjects never comes across as exploitative or insulting. Wilson is hilariously self-aware and humbly self-deprecating.
Fielder’s presence can be felt in more than just the credits. Frequently, there are lingering moments that force the viewer to bathe in the awkward exchanges between host and passerby. But Wilson’s deep dives are much more internal and subtle than Fielder’s. Wilson reflects on his own habits like smoking or his desire to keep his furniture scratch-free through earnest narration and he, at times, seems like the real-life version of the anxious Larry Gopnik from the Cohen Brothers film “A Serious Man.”
The final episode perfectly bookends the show with direct references to each previous one in a montage simultaneously filled with hope and existential worry.
In a time when people are forced to slow down, Wilson pushes the audience to take in and appreciate the magic hidden in the trenches of day-to-day life.
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