Why HBO’s Quirky Docuseries Is Ending After Season 3

Since “How To with John Wilson” premiered in the fall of 2020, stranger shows have definitely made waves — including “The Rehearsal,” which is also part of the HBO family and which is created by Nathan Fielder, an executive producer who works alongside Wilson. In the first season, Wilson went on deep dives that became entirely new things — we genuinely can’t describe the episode about furniture covers on this fine, family-friendly site — and closed out Season 1 with an unexpectedly heartfelt portrait about the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Wilson never mocks his interviewees but treats them with genuine respect and approaches them with real curiosity, turning a study that could skew cruel into something oddly sweet.

For Wilson’s part, he’s still amazed that anybody wanted to make the show. Reminded by the NYT that he said it was a “miracle” that his series got made, Wilson said, “One thing that [executive producer and comedian] Nathan Fielder said when we were in the meeting with HBO initially was like, when I watch John’s stuff, I start to see the world in that way. The perspective of the show was something I took a lifetime to develop, through watching films and watching people and being bored. I think boredom is one of my great ways of inspiring myself.”