Icecream Man was slow paced, but it was interesting. I thought the other YTer segments weren't necessary and felt more like padding. He had Smosh, Tay Zonday, and Jacksfilms. Everyone was questioning if Dax was a character or a real person. The answer is a little bit of both. After Hollywood, Dax works at an Ice Cream Parlor, a job that he hates, where he "sabotages" his employers by doing little, passive aggressive things like reorganizing work stations and entering the wrong flavors into the POS system to confuse their data. He admits it's not the most mature behavior. He wrote a book about it and wants to get back into performing. He had a plan to make a smoothie based game show and Ian, Dane and Ben went to LA to make that happen.
The opening with Dax is pretty wholesome and he's interesting to listen to tbh, during his main interview and him chilling and having ice cream. He tells Ian that if he ran an ice cream shop he'd make it a self-serve type business. No employees and only a single flavor you can dress how you like.
Some note worthy points: Dax hasn't been formally diagnosed with autism or any type of disorder that might explain some of his quirks. Ian awkwardly asks him is he has any "social disorders or anything mental" and Dax says no and he doesn't care. He doesn't think he has anything but he is an "anxious person". Ian right off would talk about how high energy Dax was and they're honestly a pretty funny duo. Both have questionable social skills (even if Ian's skills are far better) yet Dax is incredibly friendly while Ian isn't. At one point Ian starts getting some serious social anxiety in this crowded park where they're asking people about their opinions on YT and smoothie game shows and Dax tells him to "challenge himself" by talking to more people after Ian states how uncomfortable he is LOL.
They put up a Craigslist ad looking for game show contestants. They reject having a homeless guy on to possibly win the $150 prize with Ian rationalizing he has problems bigger than they can help with and Dax says something like "he doesn't really look like he's into smoothies" in response to that. On filming day, one of their contestant's car breaks down and they ask William Osman's housekeeper to film with them. It's all super awkward tbh and it can be a little hard to watch if you're sensitive to cringe. It's worth pointing out that Ian had been doing collabs with William O around the time of filming the doc and I wonder if there was obvious hints in hindsight that he was working with Dax that were just overlooked.
At the end, Ian plugs a limited shirt designed by Dax and that's really the gist of things. He sort of concludes his doc similarly to the end of Fullforce with a recap, saying he "mistook Dax's authenticity for awkwardness" (Dax IS incredibly fucking awkward btw even if he's likable) and his thoughts on the doc and on Dax are far more thought out and well articulated. Dax is a guy who is trying to get "a leg up on life" and he's wiling to put himself out there to get that leg up.
Showing who Dax "really is" was a central focus, but they didn't make him into a spectacle compared to the last doc. There are segments with Ian himself that are awkward, showing his odd reactions or fidgeting or discomfort in some circumstances but they're genuine and not framed in a way that would suggest he's mocking Dax. The whole thing comes off kinder and more professional than Fullforce and I would assume he did listen to some of the criticisms and hate he got after that first one dropped. This one didn't come off underhanded and it's more put together as a whole, and I think it shows that Ian is improving in making this type of content.