For the past week I have experienced a sleeping pattern that has me looking back at my earlier twenties. Completely nocturnal. Eyes slow, brain abilities practically nonexistent. I have wanted to write about this show for a week now, but every day I tell myself I should do it, I just can't find the energy. Throughout this week, though, I have been watching a lot of things, and having great fun with it. Relaxing and taking my mind off things a bit more and endulging in some various shows riddled with stupidity. Precisely what I needed! One of these shows was suggested a few weeks ago, with the person effectively pressuring me to check it out as we discussed films and shows. To be honest, at a first hearing, I completely ignored this show. I judged it entirely based on the name. I had never heard of it before, and my first Google search was lazy, void of my attention. After finally deciding to watch it having nothing else to watch, I was instantly hooked. Nirvana the Band the Show is one of those rare shows that just doesn't really exist anymore. Low budget, insanely fun, and full of ridiculous humour that you just know a thousand different groups would take offense to. Even when that clearly isn't the intention of the creators. To me, this show is very special. Rejecting the norms of today and being its own thing. And it shows!
Nirvana the Band the Show is what happens when filmmakers take matters into their own hands. When the foundations of cinema and its most pretentious forms are pushed aside in favour of the most basic form: friends just filming stupid things with each other. Though, beneath the stupidity is a genuine love for cinema. With references sprinkled all over. Never really mocking the industry with its own stupidity, instead just displaying a passion for it all. Its style being as minimal as it can be, shot in the streets and with no real budget to it. Though sometimes its humour takes reign and the creativity can come flourishing alongside the idiocy of the events. This is definitely my humour, and definitely my kind of show. Actually having me quite excited for the upcoming third season of How To with John Wilson, of which it felt rather similar to; despite being a little more scripted. Other than that, I don't think I really have anything else to compare it to. It seems like the kind of thing a group of aspiring filmmakers would throw up on YouTube in their spare time. Instead, this airing on Vice TV in back in the day. I never thought I'd be praising something that aired on Vice!
Nirvanna the Band the Show
Shows with no degree of actual seriousness tend to be quite obnoxious, riddled with obscure references and sketches, ending up as part of the fever dream lineup that is often found on Adult Swim. But very rarely does something with an actual theme or narrative to it get released, especially in this weird climate. Nirvanna the Band the Show takes place around two Canadian musicians under the name of Nirvanna the Band, their band obviously having one of the most confusing names possible given the existence of Nirvana, the very famous band. These two friends have their life goal of playing their music at some regular bar in the city. Each episode is simply a ridiculous scheme to get them potentially seen or given a show at the location. What's funny is that despite these insane schemes the two come up with, we never actually really see any of their music. They don't seem to have jobs beyond what we can assume is making music. And they don't seem to have any other shows elsewhere. It makes each episode absolutely ridiculous given the total insignificance of the place they wish to play at. And the total lack of any actual music careers aside from the slight jingle singing by the piano inside their home. These two characters are best friends since childhood, however. And they seem to have an inseperable bond that keeps them together through their insane schemes.
What are these schemes exactly? Well, they seem to vary throughout the seasons. Some are just setting up big terrible posters in the streets on buildings of their band outside of the bar in hopes of getting seen. There's an episode of stealing from a museum to get the city plans to find out if there's a tunnel system into the bar. In one episode, these two characters find themselves caught up in a bank robbery, they decide to join the robbers in hopes that negotiating with the police will get them a spot to play at. It's utterly ridiculous, with a lot of character development that gets thrown between it as the toll of these schemes has weight on the characters and their relationship. Of course, however, the comedy never stops. Everything is done with humour, so much so that you can even see the characters starting to smile and laugh during their line delivery. And the icing to it all? Much of the show is heavily improvised. Meaning their interactions with people in public are authentic, they're in a role just being utterly stupid and trying to find ways for the public to end up helping them. This means the camera is often from afar, taking perspectives from across the street or hidden somewhere. In one episode, they break into a studio to use the phone to call from that location as part of a highly complex, but utterly stupid scheme. Of course, none of these plans ever actually work. And they're back to the drawing board each episode.
This heavy use of improvisation is what makes the show so good. The lines the characters deliver to each other seem authentic, similar to the Curb Your Enthusiasm structure of writing in which they have a general theme or plan of what the subject will be, and then go from there. It allows for the characters to have really stupid conversations and throw out random sentences that the other isn't expecting, making each other laugh in the process. It's hard to not find yourself loving this aspect of the show, laughing alongside them as the comedy mixes with reality. The way these episodes handle the story never actually feels repetitive, I noticed I watched through two seasons of the show within the span of 48 hours, and still wanted more. Though the second season felt a little more scripted, it never stepped away from its central theme or really removed that feeling of improvisation. I think they balanced things quite well without it looking like a studio had finally stepped in or that budgets had increased. Supposedly there is a season three and a film in the works, but releasing these have been a struggle as the production company that handled it all effectively collapsed in Canada. I'm pretty curious as to how the next season ends up, though. I can see this becoming very repetitive or perhaps too scripted in efforts to tie up the show.
There's a lot of simplicity here that works in the show's favour. Only two actual characters. A simple setup each episode with lots of room for ideas. And heavily reliant on letting the writers, well, not even write. Instead just being themselves around each other and having fun. Yet it blows a lot of the large budget comedies out of the water!
