One of 2020's best surprises was HBO’s How To With John Wilson, a hilarious and oddly tender docuseries in which one man’s attempts to help people make small talk or put plastic on their furniture slowly unfold to highlight the human condition. Today, following the show’s slow rise in popularity, the network has announced a second season for the series.
“John’s lens is so deliberate and dear,” HBO’s Amy Gravitt says in a statement. “Seeing the audience connect with How To has been an absolute joy. We’re eager to see what 2021 has to offer with him behind the camera.”
We are, too, especially as we imagine he’s been behind his ubiquitous camera throughout this entire pandemic, capturing NYC oddballs and reams of B-roll that tell their own unique stories.
Maybe he’ll even film what’s sure to be a tremendously awkward dinner with executive producer Nathan Fielder, so long as Nathan isn’t too busy with his new crop of influencers.
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This is covered in next season’s episode, How To Get Renewed.
love this show. seeing a real shift away from ‘omg epic lolz’ tim & eric style* comedy into slower burn, more deliberate stuff like this and joe pera talks with you.whole series is also a masterclass in editing.*no disrespect to those kings, but it’s always fun seeing a change happen.
By the way, Tim & Eric revealed they have a new project in the works during their Chrimbus watch along the other day, but didn’t reveal any specifics.
awesome! one of my greatest joys was seeing them with john c reilly as steve brule live. tim in particular had a monster 2020, too. loved his youtube standup special.
man I’m loving this new wave of comedy- led by John Wilson and Joe Pera. Sublime.
Do you think T&E is representative of the current state of comedy? It seems pretty niche to me. A larger niche than Joe Pera + John Wilson, I’ll grant you, but not by a big margin.
not the overall current state, but i think over the last 10 years the style they were doing in 2010’ish has gone from niche to pretty much ‘normal comedy’. like, their style got aped by mainstream commercials pretty quickly. that being said, certainly someone like connor o’malley is doing stuff in that vein with a new, very contemporary twist (but pushing it way further than t&e or even eric andre IMO)less about the current state overall, more about the current state of ‘cutting edge’ comedy/things i consider more groundbreaking.
Ah, I get it now. T&E was once considered avant garde and perhaps the future of comedy, but JP & JW might fill that role now.Maybe? I’m not good at spotting entertainment trends. I do like variety, though, and a shift towards low-key comedy could be refreshing.
Oh, thank God. I binged it all last week, and it blew me away. Intimate, neurotic, and heartwarming all at once. I was worried it wouldn’t connect with wider audiences, but I’m so glad it did. The Risotto episode was wild and frustrating. I remember those early days of the pandemic. It feels like so long ago, but…it wasn’t. It was this year. Mama is the only good landlord. (I should get back to work. But work isn’t nearly as fun as talking about all the TV I’ve been watching.)
I loved the first season so much, and the sort of free-association combined with the oddities of NYC seem like a match that could easily go on for another season if not several. Looking forward to it.
Much the way regional variations of The Office exist, so too should multiple cultures have their own versions of How to with John Wilson. New York works terrifically for this show, but what does a digressive, circuitous journey down the side streets of humanity look like in Tokyo or Rio de Janeiro or Lusaka? Is casual pigeon theft unique to the US?
This is such a fantastic show. His writing and the way he delivers the narration is so perfectly complementary to his visuals.
This is…uh…really good…uh…news.
This was the most beautiful, moving series of the year for me. Big Nathan Fielder fan since Jon Benjamin Has a Van, and very happy to John Wilson continue to build on that sensibility in his unique way.