Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | Film | August 6, 2026
Sometimes you find out that you’re uncool or culturally irrelevant when someone tells you (in this case, my Podjiba podcast partner, Dan Hamamura) about this great show that you’ve never heard of in your entire life even though it’s been out for 9 years and has the kind of title that sounds appealing (Nirvanna the Band the Show!) and an end theme from one of your favorite artists (“Army” by Ben Folds Five). But then you hear that it originally aired on Viceland and that makes more sense because you’re not Canadian, and also that it was adapted from a web series that aired nearly 20 years ago, which kind of makes you feel worse because it means you apparently weren’t cool enough to know about it two decades ago, either.
And then, in an attempt to catch up with the times, you spend two days watching the entire series and the movie, which was just released on Hulu (after debuting at SXSW in 2025 and being released theatrically in 2026). And I’ll just say this: It’s too much Nirvanna the Band the Show for such a short period of time. Should you watch Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie? Absolutely! It’s great. Should you watch Nirvanna the Band the Show before watching the movie? Yes, you should!
But also, you don’t need to watch it all. In fact, unless you’re doling it out over several weeks (or even months), I’d recommend against watching the entire series, not because it isn’t good but because it’s very repetitive, and you can get the gist with one episode and the full texture of the thing in four or five.
The premise is very simple: Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol — who also write the show and the movie — star as fictionalized versions of themselves. Their only apparent goal in life is for their band to play at a place called The Rivoli. They have basically spent the last 17 years (or 16 episodes and a movie) hatching increasingly outrageous plans to accomplish this task. Their plans fail. Every time. What does the band actually sound like? We may never know, because they never actually play together. Jay often plays the piano while Matt talks about what kind of entrance he might make if the performance ever comes to fruition, but it never does, and if it did, there’d be no more show or additional movies.
The plans range from the logistical (call the local alt-weekly and trick them into putting the band on the schedule for the Rivoli) to the promotional (screen a film at Sundance, gain fame, and the Rivoli will have no choice but to let them perform). There are a lot of plans. Many of the episodes borrow elements from a variety of genres (my favorite is the one that spoofs Mark Wahlberg’s reality series about the creation of Wahlburgers).
It’s a lot. Sometimes, the show is very funny. Sometimes, it can be a little tiresome. What is hilarious, and fully worth the investment, however, is Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, which brilliantly parodies Back to the Future, combines elements of both shows with the movie, and involves a stunt so dizzying that I had to literally look away from the screen to avoid vertigo. The movie is spectacular and, as Dan tells me, even used crime scene footage from around Drake’s home after a drive-by shooting (this is the kind of creative, guerilla-style filmmaking you can expect).
Do Matt and Jay ever grow and evolve? Not really (though their friendship deepens). Does anyone ever stop and think, “Maybe we should try a different venue?” Yes, Jay does! But that doesn’t really work out, either. Does Nirvanna the Band ever get mistaken for Nirvana? Absolutely! And if you were only going to watch five episodes before watching the movie, am I going to give you a list? You bet!
Season 1, Episode 1: “The Banner”
Season 1, Episode 3: “Growing Pains”
Season 1, Episode 5: “Daredevil”
Season 2, Episode 1: “The Burger”
Season 2, Episode 8: “The Banned List 2”
And then watch the movie, and you’ll finally be caught up on what was popular in the underground comedy scene in 2007.
