I’m not sure how to describe the HBO television series “How To with John Wilson,” but if I’m going to recommend it, I’ll give it my best shot.

Before each season, filmmaker John Wilson captures thousands of hours of public life in New York City. He then whittles those hours down to a small series of half-hour episodes organized around a seemingly instructional theme: “How to Improve Your Memory” or “How to Throw Out Batteries.”

But this isn’t a series of mundane tutorials you might Google in a pinch. Instead each episode plays out like a visual essay, Wilson’s thoughts and musings acting as a soundtrack to a montage of the streets and homes of New York. It turns out living in a dense urban area with nearly 9 million souls lends itself well to commenting on the absurdities and inanities of everyday life.

But what really sets apart “How To” is Wilson’s willingness to pull the thread of each theme as far as it will go. In “How to Improve Your Memory,” he travels to Ketchum, Idaho, to attend a conference on The Mandela Effect, a series of falsely remembered facts that some people mistakenly attribute to alternate realities.

Wilson meets plenty of odd people in his journeys, but he’s never cruel. Wilson’s presence is awkward but insistent, and he sometimes brings out genuine emotion from his subjects. “How To with John Wilson” is fascinated with people and that means it’s equal turns hilarious, dramatic, shocking and poignant.

I’m not sure I’ve done a good job selling the show, and “How To” is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. But in a world where mainstream entertainment is rigidly dictated by a handful of studios, something as strange and humane as “How To” is worthy of celebration.

— Antonio Sierra, reporter, East Oregonian