Nathan For You
“Nathan Starts A Rock Band”
Season 4, Episode 5
It was clear right away I was drowning in talent.
One of the favorable aspects of Nathan For You is the show’s looseness with its own rules. Nathan often deviates from his original plan, getting caught up in twenty different schemes only to return to his first one. Of course, it doesn’t happen often. When it does, though, it’s more entertaining than following a linear path. With “Shipping Logistics Company,” Nathan manages to subvert the audience’s attention to a larger ambition. He does this with the charm and grace we’re accustomed to. And, best of all, it’s completely unexpected.
This week, Nathan wants to help an LA shipping broker save a little cash. Obviously, he can’t take over all of the packages and accounts the broker works with so he choose the smallest (yet equally hardest) item to work with: smoke detectors. The plan is to rebrand smoke detectors as instruments in order to avoid tariffs. Take a minute to appreciate how expediently Nathan comes up with the ideas. Yes, there is a full team of producers behind him but lets pretend Nathan is the only brain behind the outfit. The broker tells Nathan that smoke detectors are difficult to ship and end up heavily taxed. He doesn’t even blink at the challenge. Say what you will about Nathan – he’s awkward, sociability is non-existent, women avoid him, etc. – but he is nothing short of brazen.
Quickly, with almost no real reference to the starting point, Nathan turns focus of the episode to starting a band. There are a couple of steps he takes in order to arrive at the next evolution of the idea but all in all he lands there fairly quickly. From hiring a blues legend to make an instructional video to rebranding the boxes the detectors come in, Nathan is ready for any roadblock. He eventually builds the band -- The Banzai Predicament –using flyers and not Craigslist. Replacing the skilled guitarist’s instrument with a lone smoke detector turns into the band needing to release an original hit. In one scene, the viewer gets a possible hint as to why Nathan went down the musical route. He options a song he wrote and oh so painfully sings against his lead singer’s. Obviously, the band chooses the latter. It’s here that Nathan’s true feelings are revealed ("And that's great. Because the best song won and that's what we wanted”). In one sentence, his dreams have been dashed – almost as if this entire venture was for him to reach the singing spotlight.
The second half of the episode deals with one of the more industry perilous plans Nathan’s had. Tricking a poor fool into thinking he was hired by Shell Corporate, holding a fake town hall in Shell’s name to “apologize” for recent oil spills and presenting a fake promo (using the song from the band) only to use said promo as a platform to protest against the corporation. There’s no sane way to describe anything that occurs on Nathan For You. Which begs the question: why? Why is he doing this? For the smoke detectors! They need to be seen as instruments. Again, he manages to trick KTLA. And, again, the video is no longer able to be found. Regardless, the scheme works. All of it. A small package of smoke detectors are able to be shipped with zero tariffs attached, the band sells an original song and some guy had a job for a few days. So what if the broker was entirely skeptical?
Should you watch “Nathan Starts A Rock Band?”
While he still hasn’t earned my trust back from last week’s escapade, Nathan manages to weave yet another interesting plan. I have no idea how he curves around loopholes and things of that nature. He’s a master at what he does.