Nathan for You and the New Sincerity aesthetic

Bibliographic Data

ID21783345
AuthorsLucas Thompson (The University of Sydney, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume18
Issue4
Pages431-451
Publication date2020-10-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Review of Film and Television Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1740-0309 • E-ISSN: 1740-7923
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17400309.2020.1812978
OpenAlexW3113414908
LanguageEN
References cited22

This article argues that Comedy Central’s Nathan For You enacts a sophisticated critique of reality television and offers a different way of capturing ‘reality’ on the small screen. By exaggerating the format’s countless constraints, Nathan for You discovers a way to create real and moving drama from reality television conventions. Using examples taken from across the series, the article argues that the show exemplifies the New Sincerity aesthetic that scholars in numerous other fields have found across contemporary US culture. What Fielder’s project ultimately reveals is that the most exaggerated and grotesque forms of reality-television manipulation can paradoxically open up spaces of sincere communication and feeling. The article also explores many of the formal and stylistic devices that Fielder uses across the series, building a case for a reevaluation of the series

Aesthetics · Art · Comedy · Drama · Epistemology · Feeling · Literature · Media studies · Political science · Sincerity · Sociology · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Humor Studies and Applications · Law · Media Influence and Health · Philosophy