Nathan Fielder’s Comedy Central series Nathan For You has quietly become one of the best shows on television, and its wildly ambitious third season was nothing short of remarkable. Fielder has crafted a universe that feels simultaneously pessimistic and tremendously hopeful as he reveals the kindness of strangers, the insanity of commercialism, and at the series’ core, the birth of a sociopath.
In the documentary series, Fielder visits actual small businesses with the goal of increasing sales. The setup is identical to something you might find on the Discovery Channel or TLC, complete with a cast of non-actors, but the only difference is that Fielder’s ideas are all completely off the wall. The comedian portrays an exaggerated caricature of a clueless television host with no idea how to respond to the emotions of others, which is where the undeniable darkness comes in. But this forces his subjects' true selves to shine through as they struggle to play off him, and nine times out of ten, the takeaway is that the average person is much sweeter than you might expect.
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One of the show’s primary themes is the idea of capitalism gone awry, as Fielder (the character) is the natural product of a society in which doing whatever it takes to get ahead is perfectly acceptable and even encouraged. But as the show has progressed, Nathan For You has also become a character study of this lonely man with clear sociopathic tendencies, and that has never been more evident than during the course of the third season.
The most obvious example came in a recent episode in which Fielder sets out to prove that he is fun. In order to do this, he will take a stranger out for the day and secretly measure the man’s dopamine levels in order to determine if he had a good time. Obviously this is totally preposterous, for one because even if the goal is to prove that this stranger enjoyed himself, observing his actions on camera should suffice. But Fielder is not capable of interpreting the subtitles of human behavior, and so the only solution he can think of is to make use of hard data.
"Nail Salon/Fun" also speaks to a larger point about Fielder’s character. To him, other people are a means to an end, and they only exist to validate his existence. His goal is not to show a stranger a great time; it’s to use that stranger in order to experience the high of being told he’s a fun person.
We see this take shape over and over throughout the season, another instance being during “Smokers Allowed.” In one memorable sequence, Fielder, at this point the director of a stage play, forces one of his actors to repeat “I love you” to him over and over. Again, he has absolutely zero regard for this actor’s emotional well-being or for the fact that she is becoming deeply uncomfortable with the exercise, but that does not matter. In Fielder’s insulated world, the only reason she is on this planet is to see to his profound loneliness. She is a tool, not a peer.
That is hammered home in the episode’s conclusion. Fielder has a conversation with the bar owner he has been working for, hoping she will approve of his idea and praise his wisdom, but instead she simply states the obvious and tells Fielder his pitch would not work for her. We might initially be tricked into believing Nathan’s ultimate goal is to make this nice woman happy and improve her business, but it’s not. Everything he does is in service of Fielder’s own objective of getting others to heap praise on him. As such, when the bar owner does not have the reaction he was looking for, Fielder literally replaces her with an actor who he forces to say nice things.
To an emotionally balanced and healthy person, relationships are a give and take. We want to be loved, but we feel an equal desire to give love back. That is not at all how Nathan Fielder operates. It’s as if people are cogs in a machine that functions purely in service of him, and they can so easily be tweaked and replaced when necessary.
Through the first two seasons, Nathan exhibited this philosophy when it came to his small business ventures, and so he has never had any hesitation exploiting the public at large. It isn’t that he’s a reckless jerk; he legitimately seems unaware that using people is not okay. From Fielder’s perspective, if his manipulation produces the desired result, then what’s the problem? As seen in another season 3 episode, if an antique shop is trying to boost sales, what’s the problem with preying on drunks and tricking them into breaking items so they have to fork over hundreds of dollars? The store owner is extremely skeptical of that concept, but it does not register as morally wrong to Nathan because, once again, other humans exist to fulfill his needs. The ends, whether it’s helping a business or helping Fielder to feel less lonely, justify the horrible means.
And so as we observe Nathan gradually try to open up to others over the course of the series, this is not simply the story of an awkward man learning to love. It’s much bleaker than that. This is the story of a manipulative, sociopathic bastard who will go through life without a care in the world for the damage he inflicts on others, because he actually does not notice it. As much as the show espouses a message that there is plenty of good in the world, it also offers a grave warning that unfortunately, there are plenty of Nathans, too.
Nathan For You's first three seasons are available for streaming on Hulu and on the Comedy Central app.
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