- Network: HBO
- Series Premiere Date: Oct 23, 2020
Critic Reviews
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“How To” is filled with the kind of unexpected surprises that lead to belly laughs rather than gasps. Out of context, some of the ways that these episode topics connect to wider-reaching metaphors would seem saccharine or forced. But in the hands of Wilson and co-writers Michael Koman and Alice Gregory, there’s an earned earnestness to how this all plays out. There’s a certain strain of comforting self-awareness as “How To” connects the dots to those heartfelt conclusions the only way it can.
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The potential emotional revelations of "How To with John Wilson" pale in comparison to what it can teach viewers about what we probably used to take for granted when operating in public spaces. This series is built on some of the most meticulously captured B-roll I have ever seen in my life. ... Wilson crafts visual punchlines that elicit belly laughs and landscapes that will make you ache for the days you could have been outside, actually noticing things.
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The first season comes together in astonishing and unexpectedly beautiful fashion in the last of six episodes — a piece of narrative unification and compassion that I hadn't previously thought I wanted, much less needed. The finale is a half-hour of television that turns How To with John Wilson from a drolly esoteric curiosity into a special document.
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An endearing, oddball comic documentary. ... What makes the show spark is the specificity of the images that Wilson pairs with his deadpan text.
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It’s like a nice light dessert after all the heavy fare the network offers. We love seeing and hearing from the intensely uncomfortable Wilson, and marvel at how his filmmaking instincts take him in very strange and interesting directions.
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Much of the show works because Wilson’s just so great at finding unexpected things, whether they’re surprising conversations with people, or unusual scenes happening on a typical New York street corner, or revelations about Wilson himself. He’s a master at the art of defamiliarizing, of taking the kinds of things that happen all the time and presenting them in a way that lets you see just how strange they are.
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How to is simultaneously delightful and baffling, until it all fits together perfectly, like that was the plan all along. If you give a talented director a camera, he might make something great. John Wilson sure did.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 14 out of 16
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Mixed: 0 out of 16
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Negative: 2 out of 16
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Sep 2, 2023This is just DUMB, they'll put anything on TV. Not funny, interesting, or worth watching.
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Dec 25, 2021
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Oct 28, 2020