The Rehearsal - Nathan Fielder's new HBO series

[Ferris]

Spoiler alert

Just watched this, annoyingly only had time to watch the first half in the morning and the second half late at night so it really felt like two separate sections to me.

Preferred the first section, some really funny and interesting meta ideas in amongst it all.

Less enamoured with the second half - I still don't know where this is going and by making the actor break character it felt less engaging (to me, anyway) than the previous episode. You can't be taken in by a faux-overdose when you know it's acting, and more importantly you know that Nathan knows it's acting. Why would he care? He can (and will) yell cut at any time, the last shot underlined that for me along with Angela openly saying "yeah sure whatever you need for the show" which sort of reveals she's been playing along the whole time.

I'm still loving it, and intrigued to see where it goes. It's lost some of the genuine energy from the third ep but I reckon it's going to start getting weirder with the rules of the show's reality getting warped and ageing happening backwards so... yeah.

[close]

[elliszeroed]

This seems like its becoming less of a comedy and more... I really don't know. I am intrigued as to where it goes from here, but the "reality" of the whole thing seems so plastic/ malleable that I wonder if it will amount to anything.

[Ferris]

This seems like its becoming less of a comedy and more... I really don't know. I am intrigued as to where it goes from here, but the "reality" of the whole thing seems so plastic/ malleable that I wonder if it will amount to anything.

Yeah very well-put. I worry it's becoming so wonky timey-wimey that it ends up undermining its own payoff.

[QDRPHNC]

It's a hard show to make statements about. I couldn't tell you what the overarching theme is, or even if it has one. Certainly the ending of episode 4 seemed like Fielder is showing us how easily we can be emotionally manipulated and how quickly it can be undercut.

Another theme that occurred to me was the relentless overthinking of the anxious mind, where you question what you think, then question why you're questioning it, then question that question, so on. And the eventual absurdity that leads to, for better or worse.

[Joe Oakes]

That was probably my favourite episode since the opener (which still has the most laugh out loud moments for me).

I'd have happily just swallowed up more NFY, but glad he did something different. Think he probably realised while working on Sacha Baron Cohen's last show that the format was getting stale, so decided to lean into the Finding Frances/Derren Brown angle as others have noted. Btw, I know someone who went to school with Derren Brown. His name was Darren Brown then, and was suitably less mystical.

[The Crumb]

In terms of payoff, I wonder if this is supposed to be a one and done self contained 'story' or whether it will leave things open for another series.

[QDRPHNC]

I also can't shake the feeling that the whole thing has been a misdirect, that it was never about "rehearsals" at all. Episode 1 may as well be from a different show entirely, feels like it was just there to set expectations so we could have the rug pulled out later.

[up_the_hampipe]

I also can't shake the feeling that the whole thing has been a misdirect, that it was never about "rehearsals" at all. Episode 1 may as well be from a different show entirely, feels like it was just there to set expectations so we could have the rug pulled out later.

Yeah I've decided to wait on how I really feel about this show until it's ended. There seems to be a bigger concept developing.

[Mobius]

I guess he never said this was a comedy, and people like me just figured it would be because of Nathan For You. It definitely has funny moments.

The ridiculous effort and how convoluted it all is, is funny in itself. But also fucking exhausting, like I feel tired watching Nathan.

I'm along for the ride, definitely curious where it's going.

[retsuza]

Didn't really enjoy the first half so much, I was really interested in what the Fielder Method was going to be, and it's just method acting a stranger? The meticulous do-over Nathan does from the actor perspective doesn't hit as hard as the effort put into the fake sets from previous episodes for me. Would have been interesting if Fake Nathan looked a bit closer to him but I guess that's not really the point.

Second half was great, felt a bit surrreal. There was "Nathan is manipulative" discourse recently so it's funny that this episode he picks up on Angela's issues with her dad and drug use and has the actor rehearse that.

Definitely did not notice the EMTs were played by Thomas and another from the group, that's amazing.

[notjosh]

I'm not sure this works for me. A lot of the fun in Nathan For You was watching his mad schemes butt up against the real world and real people. This is so constructed that a lot of it seems a bit pointless. There's not much satisfaction for me in seeing a group of actors jump through hoops in order to be on TV.

The scenes with him and his son felt especially redundant. Who are they performing for exactly? If it's just us then it might as well be a scripted show. Angela seems to have accepted the world of the show as some kind of mad holiday, so even though I think there was some genuine shock at the ending (mostly at being surprised that Nathan was going this far with the 'experiment') I think she's happy to just play along.

[selectivememory]

I got strong Synecdoche, New York vibes from the bit where Nathan was trying to live as Thomas, whilst also directing Thomas's actual life. Very convoluted and slightly disorientating.

Strange show. I dunno what to make of it either, but I do find it totally compelling and I'm still very interested to see what it's all going to add up to in the end. He's definitely an original, whatever it is he's doing.

[QDRPHNC]

I think Fielder has earned the right to have the thing judged in its entirety. Having said that, I have to admit to a slight suspicion that he might have drunk a bit too much of his own kool-aid.

[PlanktonSideburns]

I'm in the

Wait - let's see where he's going with this

Stage with it

[Ferris]

I just watched it a second time, enjoyed it but didn't change my initial opinion at all. Reinforced it, if anything.

Spoiler alert

Just watched this, annoyingly only had time to watch the first half in the morning and the second half late at night so it really felt like two separate sections to me.

Preferred the first section, some really funny and interesting meta ideas in amongst it all.

Less enamoured with the second half - I still don't know where this is going and by making the actor break character it felt less engaging (to me, anyway) than the previous episode. You can't be taken in by a faux-overdose when you know it's acting, and more importantly you know that Nathan knows it's acting. Why would he care? He can (and will) yell cut at any time, the last shot underlined that for me along with Angela openly saying "yeah sure whatever you need for the show" which sort of reveals she's been playing along the whole time.

I'm still loving it, and intrigued to see where it goes. It's lost some of the genuine energy from the third ep but I reckon it's going to start getting weirder with the rules of the show's reality getting warped and ageing happening backwards so... yeah.

[close]

[Ferris]

Some additional thoughts:

Spoiler alert

Ok so maybe a teacher from Brooklyn in his 50s wouldn't know Nathan, but a class of aspiring actors would at minimum all have googled him, especially after day 1 with all the HBO cameras around so it's difficult to take those scenes seriously.

It would have been nice to do another scene in the bar somehow (maybe set up one of the actors to "accidentally" trail an extra from episode 3 then get them to work in there, and leave some Easter egg gags of the extra copying an extra in the background of other scenes). Just for fun I checked a few previous episodes in case any of the acting class were extras - they weren't, which feels like a bit of a missed opportunity. Also reused the "actor miming eating" sight gag from ep 3 which seems a bit lazy.

I'm also at the "wait let's see where he's going with this" stage, but I don't know how rewatch able this will be (compared to NFY). I don't remember who said it first in the thread, but it feels like it would work much better cut as a 90 minute film.

[close]

[Goldentony]

IDGAF where it's going exactly, it's funny and the absurdity of the utter web of bollocks he's created starting with the exact replica of a bar from across the country that he's kept hold of all the way up to referencing videos of Episode 1 happening in Episode 4 is helping keep it going. It's amazing watch what a fucking complete disaster he's made up under the guise of it all being self helping bullshit thought up by a desperate and lonely twat. That's carrying it for me.

Spoiler alert

Liked the second half a lot. That ending shot of him holding the kid in his arms and going AWOOAOOWERGGGHH??? AWOOAOWOOOROREGHGHGH? and pretending sobbing while that insane woman stands there going EERRRRRRRRRRRRRR was piss out loud funny. Setting it up with her dancing in the bedroom and this soft bastards set up a CSI level overdose finish when previously the level of acting and depth from any of the scenarios has been superfluous.

[close]

[Ferris]

Spoiler alert

See I don't think that overdose section was played for laughs.

To me, it looks like Nathan is genuinely trying to perform "anguished" for the cameras so that he can treat that rehearsal as a nightmare parallel universe before resetting back to age 6.

Nathan's screaming is him trying to sell his investment in a fake teenager but it's not convincing, to the point where you (and a few other reviews I've read) pinpoint it as (inadvertently?) the funniest bit of the show.

[close]

[elliszeroed]

I also can't shake the feeling that the whole thing has been a misdirect, that it was never about "rehearsals" at all. Episode 1 may as well be from a different show entirely, feels like it was just there to set expectations so we could have the rug pulled out later.

This is what I am starting to think, that the whole thing was planned/ designed from the start to reach a specific goal with a audience shocking twist.

[retsuza]

I always wondered about the stuff that didn't get into Nathan For You, I think they've admitted that a huge amount of footage and work is just dropped because a segment didn't work out or even in a successful bit they film way way more than the episode ends up having.

Is The Rehearsal like that, Nathan is showing us that there is so much 'rehearsing' over and over and over and this is the what is left?

Maybe not even on purpose he must be sick of trying to get the right person for the show, trying over and over.

Just some thoughts but did anyone else laugh as soon as 15 year old Adam was about to get into the slide knowing the kid would come out?

[elliszeroed]

Side bit: Just rewatched S2E2, The Souvenier Shop episode of N4U and almost vomited from laughter. The way it just grows and grows is tremendous.

[QDRPHNC]

YT suggested this clip from back when he was on This Hour Has 22 Minutes and it made me laugh. Weird seeing him with the laugh track, it's like going back and watching I'm Alan Partridge.

[Ferris]

There's tons of those little THH22M sections on youtube - the show itself wasn't great, but the Nathan sections are all worth watching if you can find them.

Esoteric bonus for me - they're all filmed in Halifax (part of a CBC bung to the regions) so I recognize the locations which is weird. There's Nathan Fielder! But he's in Bayer's Lake, next to the building we used to go for PCR Covid tests, what on earth is he doing there? Etc.

[retsuza]

There's a lie detector segment from that show that seems to have been repurposed on Nathan For You (with the mechanic where Nathan blames the results on him having a Dell).

The THH22M Nathan reminds me of the Onion's reocurring "Autistic Reporter" character:

[Ferris]

Bit dodgy of the Onion that. The joke there is "haha autistic people are funny in ways they can't help!" which I'm not a fan of really.

Fielder has aspects of that, but is careful to make himself the butt of the joke (with mixed success) and tries to bring people along with him.

[QDRPHNC]

Yeah, THH22M was pretty crap. I never found Rick Mercer funny.

[Ferris]

Yeah, THH22M was pretty crap. I never found Rick Mercer funny.

Yah Mercer is a total ham, I cheerfully avoided his shtick as much as possible.

This is a cracker if you've never seen it, with the Canadian equivalent of the BBC director general:

[up_the_hampipe]

Bit dodgy of the Onion that. The joke there is "haha autistic people are funny in ways they can't help!" which I'm not a fan of really.

It is a bit dodgy, but there seems to be a lot of autistic people in the comments praising it for being well observed.

[QDRPHNC]

I think intent can go a long way with these things.

Esoteric bonus for me - they're all filmed in Halifax

Hah, as soon as I saw the store was called Wacky Wheatley's, I figured it must be either the Martimes or Ontario cottage country. It's just that kind of name.

That CBC one was great, thanks for that.

[Goldentony]

Episode 5 out

Spoiler alert

"as much as we all love Mel Gibson as a director, he's not the director of this show, and in this show I decide which religion gets featured"

[close]

Spoiler alert

"I hadn't been to synagogue in years because it's so boring"

[close]

hall of fame moments