Nathan For You

precisely, and I never really felt like this was a tightly-plotted show, like a Breaking Bad that had you wondering what development was coming next - which was refreshing, because I could just watch and not fight my brain trying to figure out what was coming next.

Asher/Whitney were like a patch of weeds growing in the middle of a garden, growing larger while continuing to insist that they're not destroying the garden, and my "enjoyment" of the show was seeing them faceplant in handling challenge after challenge because their intentions aren't pure and that sullies everything they do. Española grows more tainted through every interaction with them, such as Whitney almost arriving at the right solution for the jeans theft ("we should be focused on de-escalating") but for the wrong reasons (wanting to keep crime in Española out of the press), which leads to a far-fetched solution nobody actually wanted, which actually makes things much worse for everybody involved.

I like your point about artifice because that's all it is - their marriage is stage managed by Dougie and HGTV! The shops can only remain open if the show is picked up, and to ensure the show gets picked up, they have to tread a fine line of creating enough fabricated friction to make the it interesting but not too much to where people don't like them, which leads them to make a lot of rash decisions that play well for a tv bit but make life worse for everybody long-term, including themselves.

Asher abases himself to atone for being Whit's curse, they seem to finally reach the finish line, and then their show gets picked up and it's not even a victory lap, they're second fiddle to Vincent Pastore on Rachael Ray, they're financially struggling to turn what they do into a living without the aid of Whit's parents, and their relationship is still fractured, even if Asher is a bit oblivious to it.

his last pickle being one he ultimately can't escape is kind of artistically brilliant - he can't get helped to safety because everybody misinterprets what's happening based on who he is and has been to this point (Dougie thinking he's shirking parenthood, for example), only to send him careening upwards to his death.

that VF article is pretty bad!
David Lynch has some ideas on that:
https://archive.org/details/ConsciousnessCreativityAndTheBrain around 00:13:00

I think one of the running threads is how Asher even fits into this other than being “the husband” and trying to use his incredibly limited social, sexual, and handyman capital never works out. He’s just a normal guy who is kind of a jerk but hey, he’s kept it level enough to get married and that’s the american man second act.

He constantly seems like he’s trying to not even be relevant, just keep himself tethered to this marriage, tv show, partial friendship with Dougie, but… his tethers all fail

I think that’s the second phase of the unfocused american man, the child (after the marriage, precluding a successful career) and as his child is born…

Working off of a very cliched stereotype of “american man” here, as reality shows will

I’m halfway through, and kinda squint-scrolling this thread so as not to spoil anything

This show gives me such anxiety, like Portlandia before it (I like this show better than Portlandia, so far, but it does feel like an extended sketch from that world). I described the show to my brother today as Nihilist Mon Oncle

Asher’s first visit to the comedy workshop reminded me of a game I invented years ago that I called Bob Saget, I just made it up at an afternoon picnic table party thing, you go round in a circle and plainly say a funny word, and then everybody votes out the loser (who doesn’t have to leave, but has to drink). The following round, the goal is to say an unfunny word, and the loser is who fails and inadvertently says something funny. As the loser drinks, everybody pounds the table and says “Bob Saget”

Anyway, the entire comedy workshop sequence reminded me of that game, that Asher’s contribution was so extremely unfunny, and it felt like this was in fact the format for much of Fielder’s comedy language, to set up a joke, and then deliver the least-funny imaginable punchline

I think if we retroactively look for signs of something supernatural going on, the comedy class is a possible example. It's a scene that unsettles a lot of people, me included. Asher is unable to contribute anything at all when it's his turn; his outburst has nothing to do with the rules of the game, and comes after he fails to come up with anything at all. It seems he's physically incapable of being a likable person -- the only person who seems to have ever found him funny and charming is Whitney, for reasons unknown -- and his reaction betrays some intense inner struggle.

At least Charlie Kaufman makes his intentions perfectly clear from the get go and doesn’t let you get 9 and half hours into a series to get metaphysical on your ass

He constantly seems like he’s trying to not even be relevant, just keep himself tethered to this marriage, tv show, partial friendship with Dougie, but… his tethers all fail

your analysis is interesting mh -- i have struggled to figure out how Asher fits into this at all as he seems to fuck up everything he touches and we have no idea where he comes from. i'll buy it!

i do get a strong whiff of "i married a women whose family has money and i am not letting this go without a fight" only he's bad at fighting and also at everything else

oops WOMAN

I think the end of the season is just a set up for S2 in which grown Asher plays baby Asher

Still fucking fuming about this