Watching Nathan Barley again, there’s an episode (episode 5: Vice) where Barley reveals his true colours. He’s a scumbag, like Tate, Mizzy, or any manosphere jerk -off. This is the dark side of Nathan, and one of the darkest sitcom episodes ever made. Is it even a sitcom? Probably more of a satire, really, and so prescient.
Until this episode, Nathan had been a narcissist, using people to further his own career . But this is next level. When he meets Mandy (Ophelia Lovibond) a teenage junkie, he’s attracted to her, and gets Claire (Claire Keelan) involved, suggesting she takes part in her documentary about the people living on the edge of society. But only after Mandy gives him a blowjob for money. Mandy also records a tasteless pop video for a song called Bad Uncle.
Then it emerges that she’s actually thirteen. Initially, Nathan is horrified. Not at her age, oh no. He’s just concerned he’ll end up in prison. So he sabotages the filming.
Claire enquires if she’s really underage, Mandy says she’s actually eighteen, but when Claire and Nathan relocate to a cafe and Nathan’s moron mates turn up they’re impressed by his lie that he pulled a minor, a lie which he reiterates. “Well Polanski” .
The whole episode is like a nightmare of exploitation and stupidity. Thiis is Nathan as proto-edgelord. He’ll say and do anything to try to be ‘cool’. He’s amoral, not just stupid. He ‘s even dressed like Harvey Keitel’s pimp character in Taxi Driver. Morris and Brooker weren’t messing around. This is brutal stuff. Suddenly, it didn’t feel funny anymore: the catchphrases and media in -jokes had been replaced by some ugly truths.
Hit The North 