Hacker Cinema
How To with John Wilson
2020 · TV series · documentary · 25 min episodes · 3 seasons
Created by John Wilson
In a uniquely hilarious odyssey of self-discovery and cultural observation, documentary filmmaker and self-described "anxious New Yorker" John Wilson covertly and obsessively films the lives of his fellow New Yorkers while attempting to give everyday advice on relatable topics. The awkward contradictions of modern life are eased by Wilson’s candid, unpolished commentary. Building upon Wilson’s previously released "how to" short films, each episode takes wildly unexpected turns but is grounded in John's refreshing honesty.
10 positive3 neutralfrom 13 commenters
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13 comments on Hacker News
Sad news. HBO has a veritable treasure trove of TV shows like The Sopranos, The Wire, Six Feet Under, Silicon Valley etc. Even their more recent ones like White Lotus, How to With John Wilson are leagues above Netflix. Only HBO can bet on artists’ vision like that.
I cancelled my Netflix subscription 7 years ago, 99% of their content is algorithmic drivel. Mindhunter, Dahmer, House of Cards were something I liked but nothing beyond that. I knew they were trash once I saw the sheer number of spinoffs they have just on Pablo Escobar. They had had one decent run of Narcos but then they just tried to extract every drop of juice out of that one persona. Most of Netflix dramas are just the equivalent of abhorrent and ugly graffiti. Their shows are Exhibit A in what happens if you give into algorithmic drivel and have no human touch to curate them.
HBO has some timeless TV classics that I keep rewatching every year even though I have watched them multiple times. Netflix can’t produce TV dramas like that, ain’t in their blood. Completely different DNAs.
Netflix does deserve all the plaudits wrt to their streaming experience though.
filmmaker John Wilson (host of the HBO Show how to with John Wilson) made a documentary inspired by Magnasanti: https://vimeo.com/238073511
Season 1 Episode 2 of How To With John Wilson. Loved lived that show.
Or watch How To With John Wilson, season 1 episode 1 How To Make Small Talk, very enlightening!
The last episode of How To With John Wilson finds a guy who self amputated his penis and testicles in the late 1960s, currently working at one of those cryogenic dead people places.
Oh, I’m so glad you brought up “How to with John Wilson”. I didn’t know there were new episodes and now I’ve got to watch these! I was floored by the first season, especially ending on Covid, so my hopes are high!
It won’t be for everyone but there’s a show on HBO called “How To With John Wilson” where he picks a theme for the week and deep dives down multiple threads around the chosen topic.
A few weeks ago he did one called “How to find a public restroom” and it was shocking to me how unavailable such a necessity is in even major cities with high population density. I get that in general public restrooms end up in disarray but I also think that represents more that we just aren’t willing to fund the required maintenance to keep them in better shape.
Side note: the funniest part from the episode was when he tricked one of the self cleaning bathrooms in New York to run a cleaning cycle while he was inside filming, was hilarious.
A show called 'How to With John Wilson' did an episode on exactly this topic recently, and as a non-American it was truly bizarre to see what the situation is like in New York. Not sure how embellished it was, but I was shocked.
I highly recommend an episode of How To with John Wilson titled “How to Split the Check”
https://youtu.be/LsMdnCO7AOA
The first episode of the series How To With John Wilson is about NYC scaffolding - highly recommended.
There's a show I like called How To with John Wilson. It's hard to explain, but it's kind of just a guy digging into a topic each episode, going down rabbit holes of various subcultures and industries, winding up meeting strange people in strange places, and filling a lot in with mundane footage captured in his day-to-day life in New York.
I have trouble giving an elevator pitch for the show, it's better watched than described. But I think "finding the interesting in the mundane" is what makes me enjoy the show so much.
Well first of all there’s only been 2 seasons of How To With John Wilson. I’ve seen the episode you’re referring to and the only thing it shows is some very sad, lonely and troubled people. I’d hardly call that a lasting cultural impact for a film that made almost 3 billion dollars and was then pretty much forgotten about.
> In NYC the scaffolding is eternal
You might enjoy the episode “How to Put Up Scaffolding” from the TV show How to with John Wilson https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13021528/