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March 29, 2024, 09:20:05 AM

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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

Previous topic - Next topic

elliszeroed

Another episode which is so strange.

I can't help worrying about the child actors in this, even though I am sure they are protected/ know what they are doing and saying is for a show and not real, it still itches my brain.

Favourite film? Apocalypto!

I have no idea how this will all end.

elliszeroed


sevendaughters

incredible episode, lots of little details, but that ending FUUUUUUCK

up_the_hampipe

Spoiler alert
Fair play to Angela for being so awful that even Nathan got visibly angry at points. It's no easy feat to get under his skin.
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That ending was a giant facepalm. Oof. Is next week the last one?

QDRPHNC

Spoiler alert
Nice that Angela is gone, although to be fair she dealt with being accused of being called an anti-Semite on TV pretty well.
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This is the only TV show I can't fully focus on, I need to listen to it while I read my phone or something. It's profoundly uncomfortable to watch without a distraction.

wrec

The new episode was the least engaging so far for me. What I've enjoyed most are the occasional big laughs
Spoiler alert
Well... first off, it's eels.
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and the disarming moments of authenticity from the "real" people e.g. Kor's combo of awkward vulnerability and ruthless trivia ambitions, Patrick breaking down about his grandfather, despite the slight uncomfortableness about exploitation. But I could not give a fuck about Nathan's desire to be a parent or to connect or whatever, which increasingly appears to be the thrust of the whole thing. That part is just standard melodrama to me.

sevendaughters

i loved the shot where

Spoiler alert
the camera went vertically up above the house looking down and it looked like a cross inside a human head
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fucking ponderous

Quote from: wrec on August 13, 2022, 09:32:51 PMBut I could not give a fuck about Nathan's desire to be a parent or to connect or whatever, which increasingly appears to be the thrust of the whole thing. That part is just standard melodrama to me.
Neither would I theoretically, but I don't think it's meant to be the point. The fact he's exploring these desires in such an absurd and morally shaky way is what makes it interesting.

Ferris

Spoiler alert
Suspect at this point the entire thing will feel like a C+ graded episode of Nathan for You but with 10x the budget. It's a completely fine piece of high-concept telly, without being massively funny or even (in the latest episode) entertaining.


Nathan has always been the audience surrogate fish out of water, so why are we grappling with something he himself doesn't particularly care about ("because it's so boring" is funny but completely ruins the setup)? The cursory "this will be the only rehearsal this week" screams 'multiple segments that didn't work' which is a shame.

It's still a fascinating show but orders of magnitude below my own fever dreams of what it could have been.

My own perception and problem, of course.
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sevendaughters

Like TTWAP, rewatches reveal so much and work to show negatives are often in your head. Here's something that Mrs 7D pointed out last night that escaped my attention first time:

Spoiler alert
so he is teaching 'Adam' about the Maccabees in the basement of the house - the Maccabees were a cave-dwelling people who ultimately revolted to take back control of Judaism - which connects to the fantastically awkward ending where he's getting lectured to by a bigot of his own faith.

there's much more going on here than situation/joke/funny edit/voiceover

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QDRPHNC

I caught that, @sevendaughters, there are clever things going on here, but that's also partly what's so frustrating about it - I can see how clever it is and how much work it took, but I'm more impressed by it than engaged with it.

Ferris

Spoiler alert
I was just about to say the same thing - that's clever (I guess?) but not particularly funny or entertaining. If the show was firing on all cylinders then little moments like that would be a deft finishing touch.

As it is, it's putting the cart before the horse somewhat.
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sevendaughters

Only if you think that the horse is 'making me laugh all the time'. There's something deeper and diagnostic and thematic going on here, I can see why some people think it is huffing his own farts, but it's working for me. Like has any N American comic had the stones to take on or critique

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Israel
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I've skipped straight to the end of the thread to ask where you are all watching this. I was seconds away from a nowtv sub yesterday before clocking it wasn't actually on there

Ferris

Quote from: sevendaughters on August 14, 2022, 12:22:09 PM
Spoiler alert
Only if you think that the horse is 'making me laugh all the time'. There's something deeper and diagnostic and thematic going on here, I can see why some people think it is huffing his own farts, but it's working for me. Like has any N American comic had the stones to take on or critique

Spoiler alert
Israel
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[/spoiler]

Spoiler alert
Yes fair point, though it's not just "making me laugh" I'm after - obviously it's all subjective but I'm finding it difficult to engage with.

If the character of Fielder doesn't really care about his faith, why should we buy into how he raises a child? My conclusion as I was watching - it's being used as a plot device and hopefully one that will drive some conflict to give the piece some structure and a possible ending, rather than any real narrative reason. That undermined it as a construct, for me anyway.

Obviously my opinion is fallible and I watched it half drunk after a day in the sun so I'll go back and give it another go. It's very possible I'm missing something tbh.
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Ferris

Quote from: drummersaredeaf on August 14, 2022, 12:53:55 PMI've skipped straight to the end of the thread to ask where you are all watching this. I was seconds away from a nowtv sub yesterday before clocking it wasn't actually on there

I don't think it's available in the UK via traditional means, unfortunately.

I'm watching it on HBO/Crave in Canada.

PlanktonSideburns

#256
Quote from: Ferris on August 14, 2022, 01:13:20 PM[/spoiler]

Spoiler alert
Yes fair point, though it's not just "making me laugh" I'm after - obviously it's all subjective but I'm finding it difficult to engage with.

If the character of Fielder doesn't really care about his faith, why should we buy into how he raises a child? My conclusion as I was watching - it's being used as a plot device and hopefully one that will drive some conflict to give the piece some structure and a possible ending, rather than any real narrative reason. That undermined it as a construct, for me anyway.

Obviously my opinion is fallible and I watched it half drunk after a day in the sun so I'll go back and give it another go. It's very possible I'm missing something tbh.
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Spoiler alert
I thought the idea of someone having a lapsed faith, but when faced with a co-parent who challanges your families beleifs, becomes religious again, almost as a matter of principle, to be a really interesting one, - weirdly i was struggling with the show a bit till this episode, and the twists and turns in this one i found really interesting - particularly now that angela, and Nathan's little army of feilderians can get under his skin- people have been like 'how could all these jobbing LA actors not know about Nathan Fielder' - but then the lady who was playing rehersal angela seemed to know exactly what time it was in terms of how to make nathan feel akward - would love to see what a load of weaponised LA actors could do within a Nathan Fielder situation, - theyve got all his manipulation skills, but with the ability to emote!
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The Crumb

Quote from: drummersaredeaf on August 14, 2022, 12:53:55 PMI've skipped straight to the end of the thread to ask where you are all watching this. I was seconds away from a nowtv sub yesterday before clocking it wasn't actually on there

A dodgy streaming site which opens up such a lot of pop ups it'll make your head spin. Even with an ad block.

QDRPHNC


sevendaughters

I torrented it. Sorry. I did spent a shitload on an import DVD of N4Y whose box was smashed to bits though.


g0m

i google searched The Rehearsal watch free, and then I clicked on the most illegal site i could find

Josef K

Quote from: drummersaredeaf on August 14, 2022, 12:53:55 PMI've skipped straight to the end of the thread to ask where you are all watching this. I was seconds away from a nowtv sub yesterday before clocking it wasn't actually on there

HBO Max

It's fairly easy to sign up to from the UK - you just need a VPN and an android phone

Nice one folks. I've procured the first five. I'll try to play catch up before the finale.

Chollis


Ferris

Next week is the finale as far as I'm aware.

sevendaughters

there was a very small and incidental part of this recent episode where
Spoiler alert
Nathan is pouring water on 'Adam' outside of a store
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and in the window of the
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store
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there is a big sign advertising
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kratom for sale
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.

QDRPHNC

Watched this with someone else, all in one sitting, and I am far more impressed by it that I was. I'm actually wondering if the finale is going to reveal that the entire thing is a set-up, including all the social media stuff from Angela and Robin's brother.

I don't know, something about the experience of watching it with another person took some of the intensity out of it, and watching all 5 episodes back to back made each one seem less jarring. Still think a couple parts of it patchy though, but I'm really looking forward to the last episode now.

colacentral

#267
I don't get most of the complaints. It's a comedy and each episode has had at least three big laughs out of me so far, which is more than I can say for the vast majority of other TV comedy being produced.

As far as how staged it is - do people not watch this and NFY as almost sitcoms with an unwitting improv element to them? Yeah, much of the humour comes from those real world moments and the tension between the people thinking they're in a reality show versus the "prank" element of it; but a lot of it (including NFY) comes just from good scripted comedy and Nathan's performance as a fictional comedy character. Like when Nathan narrates "I hadn't been to synagogue in years because it's really boring" in a completely flat monotone, that's just funny writing and a funny comedy performance that has nothing to do with whether the fake actors know what sort of show they're in.

I buy into the fiction of Nathan asking the teenage actor to change his character and become a drug addicted runaway for the benefit of his own spiritual journey as a kind of meta sitcom, regardless of how in on the joke the actor is, though the amateurishness of the performances (and things like leaving in the bits of Nathan asking the actors to redo certain bits and the footage of Angela pissing about when Nathan isn't there) helps sell the concept.

I don't know, probably not explaining myself well but basically I don't understand watching this and NFY and only seeing the humour in it as a hidden camera prank show. It's meticulously planned, scripted comedy with the improv of the participants and their unpredictability as a wrench that adds another dimension to it. 90% of the humour comes from Nathan Fielder the fictional character and his bizarre neuroses.

Having said that, I am disappointed that there wasn't at least one more self-contained rehearsal like the quiz one in the first episode, just because it's a great concept and there hasn't been a line as funny and memorable as the gunpowder one yet, and I'm worried that this is a one and done miniseries and this concept will have been deemed to have run its course once this six are over.

The Crumb

I wouldn't say I treat it as a totally scripted sitcom, but I'm aware there's a very heavy amount of editing and manipulation. The audience is as much in the dark about the reality as the participants. Alongside the ambiguity, the level of contrivance and over-complexity is definitely part of the fun to me, no matter how 'real' it is.

Ferris

I don't begrudge it any laughs at the expense of being scripted, or improv, or a mixture at all. I think that's fair game and the people going into it know (or should know) what they're getting into.

I do think editing choices and other performative/storyboard decisions have undermined it for me so far but I'm such a massive NFY-head that I'll eagerly watch the finale and am totally open to fully turning around my opinion.

I'm even willing to rewatch it (a show I'm not particularly enjoying) because I like NFY so much. I'm giving it my best here, and I don't think it's just a case of me "not getting it" (though... maybe? I'll know after a rewatch I suppose).