Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Max
Before I even pose my first question to John Wilson, the eccentric creator of HBO’s most bizarre series How To with John Wilson, he starts asking me questions. Wilson is always the one behind the camera, looking for answers from his—well, let’s just call them unique subjects. So, when our interview begins, as always, he’s the interrogator.
“There’s some heavy stuff in there,” Wilson says of Season 3. “So, uh, what are you curious about?”
Everything. I tell him I want to know everything, because How To has busted my brain more than any other series I’ve watched in the past year. (That distinction previously belonged to Nathan Fielder’s The Rehearsal; not so coincidentally, Fielder serves as an executive producer on How To.) Since 2019, Wilson has documented his strange journeys through New York, loosely explaining how to accomplish simple tasks like preparing risotto, tasting wine, or going to sports games. Instead of actually showing viewers how to complete these quests, though, Wilson loses himself in odd subcultures of the city, like vacuum conventions and Avatar fanclubs, and in doing so, somehow always reveals an enlightening aspect of human nature.