I want to hear your thoughts on this. I still don't know what was fake and real, but this episode made me feel extremely uncomfortable.
spoiler
However, it's clear that the show recognized and tried to address what was clearly the exploitation of a fatherless child. I haven't fully formed my thoughts on this yet, but I feel like this show was a critique of reality TV and how it exploits the raw emotions of its participants for cheap entertainment. When shown with an innocent child who can't necessarily differentiate between what is real and what isn't, it becomes very obvious and very disturbing.
All in all this show was a work of art regardless, I can't tell if Nathan is a complete sociopath or was actually speaking to us when he was saying that it was all pretend. What a wild ride Jesus christ
the running part with the christian woman who wanted to be a mom was not my favorite part, and the part with the kids did not make me feel good. I can see it as a critique of the exploitative nature of reality shows, but he was basically doing the same thing with his show. having the kid and seeing the kid breaking down when they were explaining that he wasn't his real dad and his mom crying because she was worried about how it was affecting him was just heartbreaking. idk how I feel about the whole thing, and I kinda wonder if they intentionally picked kids with single parents or if it all happened "organically".
I thought the parts when he was trying to help people prepare for difficult situations were less bad, and the fielder method episode was hilarious. but bringing kids into it who really don't understand exactly what they're doing just didn't feel right