After the electric feature Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie popularized the eponymous fictional band to a global audience, their early exploits in Nirvanna the Band the Show are now available to stream on Disney+. (The film is also available to stream on Crave.)
The show, which was adapted into the film, was itself adapted from a web series of the same name, conceptually developed by Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol while they were still in high school. All three—the film, the show, and the web series—feature fictionalized versions of Matt and Jay as a duo called Nirvanna the Band, desperate to secure a show at the Rivoli, a “landmark” restaurant, bar, and performance space in downtown Toronto.
The duo’s calculated (and often over-the-top) plots to land the Rivoli gig form the outlandish premise, which is visibly enhanced by the equally exaggerated mockumentary style that relies on guerilla filmmaking with a blend of scripted and improvised dialogue often involving candid conversations with bystanders. This documentary-adjacent format results in an entirely unique visual language that is complemented by the irreplicable chemistry between the playful Johnson and the pragmatic McCarrol. The show’s repeated intermingling of reality and fiction is emphasized by the desire to shoot on location, often in an undercover manner, which is evident in episodes like “The Big Time” where the duo attempts to get a film into Sundance, and for which footage of the festival was shot during the actual premiere of Johnson’s Operation Avalanche at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.
Adding to this collision of art-imitating-life is the repeated involvement of passersby. One example arises in an episode in which a woman intrudes the show’s filming to offer Matt alcohol – an incident that the duo reworked into a plot element where Matt’s character tries alcohol for the first time. This spirit carries into the feature when Matt and Jay interact with bystanders while running wire down Queen Street or shopping for pliers at the hardware store.
The show’s placement on Disney+ marks a streaming spot for the first time since it premiered and ran on the Canadian Viceland between 2017 and 2018. For those familiar with the film, the show presents an opportunity to dive deep into the lore of Nirvanna the Band. For those who may have caught the show in its Viceland years, one can never have rewatched the show enough times. In the words of Matt Johnson himself, “Nothing like a good time!” One could argue that Nirvanna the Band the Show is the best of times.
