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March 28, 2024, 08:36:07 PM

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The Rehearsal - Nathan Fielder's new HBO series

Started by Small Man Big Horse, June 25, 2021, 09:11:24 PM

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Ferris

Quote from: up_the_hampipe on July 06, 2022, 06:50:09 PMTrailer https://twitter.com/nathanfielder/status/1544728131403218945

Good trailer, I almost wish I hadn't watched it because I feel like learning the key concept of the show in real time would provoke one of those "holy shit" laughs at the sheer absurdity of it all.

Proper looking forward to this now, feels like a spiritual successor to NFY.



Pseudopath

Quote from: MrMrs on July 07, 2022, 12:16:36 AMWhat new Derren Brown show?

Noodle Lizard didn't say it was "new", just most recent. I assume they were referring to The Push.


kitsofan34

A positive review is out, from the trustworthy website "indiewire"! Haven't read it so I cannot vouch for whether or not it contains spoilers. Read at your own risk!

https://www.indiewire.com/2022/07/the-rehearsal-review-nathan-fielder-hbo-series-1234740513/

Noodle Lizard

Quote from: rude soil on July 08, 2022, 06:05:41 PMOr Sacrifice.

Yeah, that's the one I was referring to. Just an extremely elaborate and impractical way of getting a garden-variety Daily Mail reader to maybe not be quite so racist anymore, culminating in a ridiculous action movie setpiece in the Nevada desert. One of the earlier bits involves sitting him down and making him stare at a brown-skinned person in silence for a few minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEnYAUvlTS8

Hero At 30,000 Feet is similarly daft, though, and presumably Fielder had seen that before constructing Nathan For You.


Utter Shit

This sounds great. Nathan For You, but for people instead of businesses.

scarecrow

I'm afraid to read anything about this. Is the full series dropping tonight?

Ferris

I think it's one episode a week. It's not available until 11pm for me, so time difference might scupper UK viewers until tomorrow.

retsuza

Believe its out 4AM GMT, will be watching it tomorrow evening. I absolutely love Nathan For You so I hope this is even half as good

AngryGazelle

Is there a non downloady way of watching this in the uk tomorrow?

fucking ponderous

Tears of laughter at
Spoiler alert
"It's days like these I curse the Chinese for inventing gunpowder."
[close]

Noodle Lizard

I'm not quite sure what to make of that. It's certainly closer in tone to the Finding Frances finale of Nathan For You than anything else he's done. I didn't find it particularly funny, but I'm not sure it was really supposed to be most of the time (with a few exceptions, as quoted above).

Other than that ... I dunno. The outcome was pretty much exactly as any reasonable person would expect, so it never really felt like there was all that much at stake. Although I'm aware that the extreme and impractical preparation for something mundane is partly "the joke", as with Nathan For You, I'm not sure it found the right balance between comedy and sincerity so it sort of ended up being neither funny nor profound - or even particularly interesting, to be honest. Not having Nathan be a "character" as such has something to do with that, perhaps - without a strong guiding presence, you're not really sure where your focus is supposed to be, and Nathan more or less disappears for large chunks of it.

It's probably one of those things that'll exist better within the context of a full series, and the first episode of NFY was far from the best, but those are my thoughts for now. Looking forward to seeing where it goes.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Noodle Lizard on July 16, 2022, 07:03:55 AMI'm not quite sure what to make of that. It's certainly closer in tone to the Finding Frances finale of Nathan For You than anything else he's done. I didn't find it particularly funny, but I'm not sure it was really supposed to be most of the time (with a few exceptions, as quoted above).

Other than that ... I dunno. The outcome was pretty much exactly as any reasonable person would expect, so it never really felt like there was all that much at stake. Although I'm aware that the extreme and impractical preparation for something mundane is partly "the joke", as with Nathan For You, I'm not sure it found the right balance between comedy and sincerity so it sort of ended up being neither funny nor profound - or even particularly interesting, to be honest. Not having Nathan be a "character" as such has something to do with that, perhaps - without a strong guiding presence, you're not really sure where your focus is supposed to be, and Nathan more or less disappears for large chunks of it.

It's probably one of those things that'll exist better within the context of a full series, and the first episode of NFY was far from the best, but those are my thoughts for now. Looking forward to seeing where it goes.

I think I enjoyed it a little more than you, and did find it fascinating,
Spoiler alert
but apart from the set up with the quiz answers being revealed on their walks
[close]
, it was only occasionally funny, though as you say that was often deliberate. The part at the end where he's genuinely fucked off about the quiz cheating was uncomfortable too, as was Nathan's (possibly fake?) compliment.

Hmmmm, yeah, not sure what to make of it overall, and again, like you say I think it'll depend on the direction the show goes in now as to whether or not it'll be a worth successor to Nathan For You.

brat-sampson

Quote from: Small Man Big Horse on July 16, 2022, 11:37:40 AM
Spoiler alert
The part at the end where he's genuinely fucked off about the quiz cheating was uncomfortable too
[close]
, as was Nathan's (possibly fake?) compliment.

Might want to check that part again...
Spoiler alert
took me a second to realise, but that was also a rehearsal. Real Nathan bottled it and gave the compliment instead.
[close]

Loved all of this. A whole season of extended premise N4Y episodes on an HBO budget is going to be something to treasure.

notjosh

Quote from: brat-sampson on July 16, 2022, 12:05:10 PMMight want to check that part again...
Spoiler alert
took me a second to realise, but that was also a rehearsal. Real Nathan bottled it and gave the compliment instead.
[close]

Yeah, took me a minute to realise this as well.

I really enjoyed it for the most part. At the moment I can't see how it would have the freewheeling unpredictability of Nathan For You, which was loose enough in its form that you never knew if an episode was going to be one story or four. This feels like Nathan putting all his idea eggs in one risky basket, and I feel like there is a high chance of some complete duds later. But early days, so we'll see.

As someone who works in TV and has occasionally come up with similar ideas (I spent a long time trying to figure out how to do a real-life time loop show) but eventually discounting them as unworkable, it was really fun seeing the insane level of commitment and attention to detail it takes to actually pull something like this off.

ETA: I thought the actress doing the Fake Trish was fantastic. Will definitely be happy to see more of that sort of thing in the upcoming episodes.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: brat-sampson on July 16, 2022, 12:05:10 PMMight want to check that part again...
Spoiler alert
took me a second to realise, but that was also a rehearsal. Real Nathan bottled it and gave the compliment instead.
[close]

Loved all of this. A whole season of extended premise N4Y episodes on an HBO budget is going to be something to treasure.

Ha, can't believe I didn't notice that, but you are of course absolutely right.

Vitamin C

I thought this was beautiful, honestly. Not at all what I was expecting.

Spoiler alert
I found it really powerful when Kor finally delivered his confession. To bottle it all up for so long and for it to all come out like that and for it to go well for him, I was really touched by it. There was a lot at stake, purely because Kor felt there was. I think the show did a really good job of sucking you into the tiny minutiae of his life and making you care about it, but obviously your mileage may vary there.

As someone who suffers from social anxiety and has occasionally fabricated things about my life to make myself seem more interesting, I was on the edge of my seat when he was faffing about with the pizza order and it seemed like he wasn't going to go through with it. And then punching the air when he had the guts to open up. Also, some great laughs along the way of course, but I didn't mind too much that the funny parts weren't coming thick and fast. Nathan For You was never end-to-end gags.
[close]

Ferris

Spoiler alert
It's more impressive in its scope and vision than actually funny.

It feels more limited that NFY because once you know the gimmick ("we mock up locations in very intricate detail!") then there's not much else there.

Even that premise is limited because the people make the conversation, not the location so while the sets might be faithful reproductions, the actors are just doing a facsimile based on incredibly limited information. They're good, but how could they be accurate? If someone tried to impersonate you, how much of your personality (and predicted reactions to scenarios!) would you get from a 20 minute conversation or whatever. Undermines the whole thing for me.

The question bits were funny but beyond that, not a whole lot of chuckles. Still enjoyed it though because it's such unique telly - who else would make this?!

I loved Nathan for You so I'm still excited to see where this will go (and Fielder isn't one to do the same thing twice so I imagine it will get more freewheeling and madcap as the weeks go by) but a few more gags wouldn't go amiss.
[close]

Ferris

Spoiler alert
Also - was part of the gag that he wasn't that good at trivia? Those were some pretty easy questions especially for someone who's so into the whole trivia vibe?

"Tallest building in the world" and giving you the year and then the name of the person executed at the end of the French Revolution? Come on. You could even see basically everyone else in the bar got them right and all.
[close]

Small Man Big Horse


Joe Oakes

Enjoyed it.

Spoiler alert
But I'm embarrassed to admit that, like others on this thread, I also missed the rehearsal 'switch', and was left thinking that it ended on a surprisingly dark note.

On second viewing, they don't even look similar, and I was left thinking that we all are racists. Especially you.
[close]

Pseudopath

Spoiler alert
I noticed the switch, but it created more questions than it answered. I assume Nathan had to tell Kor what clothes to wear for the quiz?
[close]

Spoiler alert
Can easily see how some might have missed it, but was my biggest laugh of the episode when it reveals Nathan is actually confessing to the actor
[close]

Noodle Lizard

I'm surprised more of you didn't notice
Spoiler alert
the switch itself, which was pretty blatant
[close]
, but I wasn't quite sure whether or not he actually had confessed, because the real Kor did look sort of annoyed when they cut back to him. It made sense by the end, but I think the editing could've been a bit clearer there.

Ferris

Spoiler alert
I noticed the switch so I'm not a racist, obv.

The cut was unclear though, I think they used the same backdrop shots for Nathan across both conversations which didn't help.
[close]

Ja'moke

Quote from: Pseudopath on July 16, 2022, 07:46:06 PM
Spoiler alert
I noticed the switch, but it created more questions than it answered. I assume Nathan had to tell Kor what clothes to wear for the quiz?
[close]

With the trickery of shows like this, it wouldn't shock me if some of the "rehearsal" bits involving Nathan were actually filmed after. So they'd have known what clothes to wear, etc.

Spoiler alert
I really liked this first episode, and I do think it has the potential to veer off in some interesting directions. The stuff about him going undercover as Thrifty Boy (amazing outfit) to find out the trivia questions was an example of something that could have become its own story.
[close]

brat-sampson

Quote from: Pseudopath on July 16, 2022, 07:46:06 PM
Spoiler alert
I noticed the switch, but it created more questions than it answered. I assume Nathan had to tell Kor what clothes to wear for the quiz?
[close]

Spoiler alert
pretty harsh criticism. Who's to say they didn't just have full knowledge of the guy's wardrobe and simply refilm the same script in n^3 different outfits...
[close]