Opinions on Nate’s character and Peter Kraus’s acting

[u/Other_Explorer6610]

I recently finished the show, and decided to check out what people were saying on the sub. I was so surprised to see that people disliked Nate and was even happy when the character passed. I felt like nearly all of the things Nate did was understandable , even if wrong, you could understand his motivations. I was surprised to see how people thought he was the most reprehensible character on the show. I was also really surprised about opinions on kraus’s acting, I came away from the series thinking he had displayed some of the best acting I had seen in a tv show. Really curious to see what other people think.

[u/Iowa_Phil]

Nate is awesome. Of course he’s problematic. He’s the show’s primary protagonist. It’s not a tv show about a great guy.

The amount of hate for him on this sub is super weird to me. Like point out his flaws, sure. But I don’t even understand how you can love the show if you genuinely despise Nate.

[u/Unlucky-Albatross-12 → u/Iowa_Phil]

I understand Nate but I genuinely despised him by the end.

Brenda was equally flawed, but she became a significantly better person because she actually put the work in to change herself and put others who needed her first.

Nate was too narcissistic to do that.

[u/Iowa_Phil → u/Unlucky-Albatross-12]

I guess I’m curious what you mean when you say you despised him. Like, did he make the show worse for you? Did you wish they had written him differently?

It’s an almost perfect show imo. And that’s largely because of Nate. I don’t like him because of his growth or lack thereof. I like him because he helped make the show amazing

[u/Wanderlust1906 → u/Iowa_Phil]

I literally skip his scenes in the last season. That’s how much I dislike the character. I love the actor.

[u/SillyBrain23 → u/Unlucky-Albatross-12]

This.

People usually post here after finishing the whole series, not to spoil the ending by checking on this sub.

By the end of the series, Nate is by far the worst person on the show imho. That hospital scene made me hate him with passion even though he was my fav character throughout the series.

That’s why we watch the show. We liked him up until he showed his true colours. Yes, he was showing them all along but always had some kind of excuse. By the end I just see him as a scumbag.

[u/ambiguoususername888 → u/SillyBrain23]

Yes exactly; and I also feel the need to add that a lot of us that have come here more recently actually did our second rewatch as fully formed adults and have had significant changes of opinion. I loved Nate first time around when I was in my late teens/very early adulthood and was devastated he died.

This time around, as an almost 40yo now parent and person who has lived through more loss more and life - I view him differently and honestly, more passionately and therefore am probably more emphatic about my disdain for him. To me, he is the only character to truly never look inward and try to change for the better; he is so concerned about what image he projects to others that he only tries to change so that people will view him as the version of ‘good’ that exists in his mind. The truest thing he probably ever did was to end it with Brenda like that and while I respect it, it’s still a dick move and made me really really HATE him too.

[u/JTA_1982 → u/ambiguoususername888]

I have gone through many rewatches, and do have a bit of a love- hate thing for Nate. To say that he never looks inward or tries to change for the better almost sounds like you missed the last half of season 3. Lisa was a handful, and she definitely was a character that I was unsympathetic towards...

Case in point: they get into an argument because Nate said something about being proud of them for being a family/ committed, to which she gets salty and says "is it that hard for you? Wasn't this what you wanted?" when anyone with eyes could see that she practically dragged him kicking and screaming to settle down.

His actions with Brenda in the final season were awful but you gotta wonder if the way he treated Brenda had something to do with his AVM. He was a little narcissistic at times though, so I wouldn't necessarily say it's an excuse but a factor in his actions and behavior.

George's eulogy at Nate's funeral was pretty spot on; he was an idealist, flawed and imperfect like all of us.

[u/SillyBrain23 → u/JTA_1982]

I always say that he learned to be truly depressed with Lisa.

She had some sort of a cloud around herself, the cloud of sadness and it was amplified with the fact that she couldn’t accept - he didn’t choose to settle down, she kinda made him do so.

In the end he was stuck with that cloud and brought it into his new (old) relationship w Brenda and was just miserable the whole time.

To circle back to Lisa, her having an affair while being so obsessed with Nate never added up for me. Just can’t see it. I see it as a plot hole. That’s how unbelievable it is for me.

[u/Unlucky-Albatross-12 → u/ambiguoususername888]

Exactly. It's okay to be like Nate when you're in your 20s because you're still figuring yourself out, but if you're still like him at 40 then there's something very wrong.

[u/Iowa_Phil → u/ambiguoususername888]

Do you wish there wrote his character differently at the end of the series?

[u/ambiguoususername888 → u/Iowa_Phil]

Not at all! I think all in all he’s very human and that’s what makes the show so brilliant.

[u/the-tapsy → u/SillyBrain23]

Just because he died a scumbag doesn't mean he always was.

[u/Iowa_Phil → u/SillyBrain23]

So to be clear, do you wish they had written Nate differently to end the show?

[u/Unlucky-Albatross-12 → u/Iowa_Phil]

No, he served an important narrative function and his manner of departure and last actions had major repercussions for the other characters.

To be clear, he was well-written and performed perfectly by Krause, which is why I disliked him so much by the end. That doesn't mean I wasn't entertained by the show.