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

  • thethirdgracchi [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I think what's amazing about the show is that Nathan himself seems to realise that you can't do this with child actors. It's fucked. Like he clearly understands that, or else he wouldn't have made the last episode be what it was. I still think the best episode was the first since it was unabashedly hopeful and life affirming (despite making fun of all its subjects) in a way I've never really seen Nathan capture before, but the best moment is in that third episode as you said.

    • BerserkPoster [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      My honest question is whether this was all planned out, or if he was presented with this problem that he didn't expect and basically uses the show to address his mistakes. I don't know

      • thethirdgracchi [he/him, they/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I think that's part of the beauty of the show. We can't know. Maybe the show itself was all scripted, who knows? That's another level of meta to an already meta enterprise. My honest answer is that it was not planned, he was presented with this problem, and legitimately did not know what to do with it. That's the vibe I get, but we can't know for sure.

    • The_Walkening [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Did he really do it though? I mean just thinking about it it seems like he might have written that in? I dunno, kid actors aren't that good, but he's also kinda great at casting/finding people on his show.