Review: Wonder Man, “Self-Tape” & “Pacoima” | Season 1, Episodes 2 & 3

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In my rush to praise the premiere of Wonder Man, it occurred to me that I have absolutely zero sense of how interesting the average person finds acting. I grew up a theater kid, studied acting and directing in college, and now still have a ton of actors among my closest pals. To me, the idea of getting roped into helping a friend film a self-tape is just a normal part of life, not an insider detail. And that means I sort of feel like I’m watching Wonder Man the way a doctor watches The Pitt rather than like, well, how I watch The Pitt. The verisimilitude is part of the pleasure.

In fact, I’d go so far as to say I’m obsessed with actors and all their weirdo little eccentricities and self-indulgent processes. (I once built a whole podcast around the concept.) But is that true for everyone? Or were other people just bored watching Simon try to nail his self-tape for a new indie feature for most of show’s second episode? By the time we get to the meta reveal of Joe Pantoliano a.k.a. “Joey Pants” playing himself, it feels like the show is operating in a broad enough Hollywood satire mode that anyone can relate. But I’m really impressed by just how much Wonder Man cares about the actual craft of acting beyond just the classic Hollywood send-up stuff. There are occasional moments that ring false (like a self-tape studio that requires you to use their reader), but for the most part there’s a real attempt to capture a working actor’s life in a way I’m not sure I’ve seen since Slings & Arrows.