The Rehearsal - Nathan Fielder's new HBO series

[Josef K]

I know from interviews with John Wilson that in New York you need a consent form for anyone filmed speaking, so presumably a lot of this was hinging on Tricia actually agreeing to get involved after the fact? Wonder if/how much they paid her? It's not the most flattering portrayal.

Similarly, there's surely a few episodes that had to be abandoned because of consent issues or the outcome not being right?

[Ferris]

I was wondering the same about the bar. Presumably they must have had some money in addition to the free PR.

[retsuza]

As much as I don't like to think about it when I'm watching his shows, I think it's less real than it appears and participants are maybe more in on it than they seem. Not to the point that I'm saying everyone is a paid actor but things can be fudged for the sake of the show.

It's just a very small detail, but someone on Reddit pointed out that when Kor meets the real Trish the "Trish the Dish" line has been ADR'd. It's just more funny if he uses the awful rehearsed line than if he didn't.

[Ferris]

Ferris preddo for the season:

Spoiler alert

It's a giant simulation for Nathan to find the best way to talk about his divorce, which he alludes to then intentionally sabotages.

Might be totally off base there, but it's the kind of small detail I can see him coming back to with an explanatory voice over.

If it's mentioned in passing in the next episode then I think that's where he's going with it (maybe).

[close]

[Thosworth]

Just caught up. I think there's a lot of unseen safety nets in place: for example I have a feeling the couple already at his table were placed there deliberately earlier on, so the first flow chart process could be shown, and get him off to a positive start.

Similarly I just can't imagine they would spend that amount of money and effort with the risk of the target not agreeing, so I would guess that Tricia was approached about unrelated filming earlier, with the release waiver loose enough to allow them to use her footage.

[ImmaculateClump]

This was great fun.
Absolutely astounded that a few here on the sad old bald bloke forum couldn't tell the difference between two black men.



and yes, it was left intentionally vague as to whether or not he'd come clean himself to the real guy.

It's just like the Derren Brown stuff, relax and go with it and have fun, and of course there's manipulative editing and things added after the fact. You have to turn off that part of your brain and enjoy the ride.

Looking forward to the next one!

[Josef K]

As much as I don't like to think about it when I'm watching his shows, I think it's less real than it appears and participants are maybe more in on it than they seem. Not to the point that I'm saying everyone is a paid actor but things can be fudged for the sake of the show.

It's just a very small detail, but someone on Reddit pointed out that when Kor meets the real Trish the "Trish the Dish" line has been ADR'd. It's just more funny if he uses the awful rehearsed line than if he didn't.

Aye I did notice that about the line. Wondered if maybe it just hadn't been picked up by the mics because of the hug so they ADR'd an earlier take. Probably not.

I guess the 'fakeness' is like Nathan For You where they know they're in a reality tv show but they're not quite clear on what the deal is, so they're more receptive to general strangeness and less likely to ruin a take.

[sevendaughters]

At the heart, I think, is a real conceit, and there's manipulation and construction all around it. Sometimes the exaggeration is really ramped, like the 'failed' run through of the confession. You can play the game of spotting it, but sometimes the falseness is pointing to something real that is the real object of attention. His desolation at that run through not working, despite it being absurd is real as fuck!

 These shows - I'm talking Rehearsal S1E1 and the better episodes of NFU - are really great portraits of certain kinds of people and a strange indeterminacy we all inhabit from time to time.

[Thosworth]

It's just like the Derren Brown stuff, relax and go with it and have fun, and of course there's manipulative editing and things added after the fact. You have to turn off that part of your brain and enjoy the ride.

The problem I have specifically with Derren Brown is when he 'shows' you how he did a trick, which is clearly also misdirection. One of my sons was shown Brown's advertising creatives 'animal heaven' trick at his school as proof that subliminal suggestion works, which really pissed me off. There's an entire neuro-linguistic programming industry which uses his shows as proof that it works.

It seems odd that DB is strongly opposed to mediums and spiritualists as exploitative, while propagating equally nonsensical pseudo-science.

[Ferris]

"Ooh but he put up 3 posters on a cab ride to the studio" mate you see more than 3 things in a 20 minute drive, all of which sit in your subconscious if the NLP shit is to be believed.

DB annoys me too, on occasion.

[ImmaculateClump]

Yeah, his genius was to drag magic into modern times by getting rid of the whole mystical aspect and replacing it with psychology and psuedo science that people don't quite understand but are totally willing to put their trust in.

He does upfront this in all of his shows by talking directly to the camera, but you're right, the way he phrases it is very underhand, but it's the way magicians have always been and you've just got to go with it.

[Ferris]

Our man on Cash Cab doing his trivia thang.

[Noodle Lizard]

Yeah, his genius was to drag magic into modern times by getting rid of the whole mystical aspect and replacing it with psychology and psuedo science that people don't quite understand but are totally willing to put their trust in.

He does upfront this in all of his shows by talking directly to the camera, but you're right, the way he phrases it is very underhand, but it's the way magicians have always been and you've just got to go with it.

Boring Derren Brown tangent:

Spoiler alert

I think that was more the genius of Andy Nyman and Andrew O'Connor, as well as the late Anthony Owen. The idea of "a Derren Brown" was something they'd been working on for a while - Nyman was going to do it himself, but chose to pursue acting instead. Derren was basically a (very good) card magician who knew a bit of hypnotism, and it was Jerry Sadowitz of all people who introduced him to Michael Vine for the job.

Even though Nyman and O'Connor are still occasionally involved in his stage shows (which have to rely on cleverly-presented magic effects to some degree), Derren himself has been far more willing to present things as "real" now, albeit under the guise of some sort of motivational/self-help initiative. The only "magic" going on in those specials is, similarly to The Rehearsal, a massive production team.

Even one of his more recent stage shows (Miracle, I think it was) was a little blurrier than usual when it came to some routines, but I'd have to watch it again to be more specific. He'll occasionally mention that something like NLP is bollocks, but otherwise he'll spend a lot of time talking about similar things as if they're legitimate techniques he uses. It's sort of fine in the context of a magic show, but a little grubby when he's writing books on self-improvement or doing those big TV spectacles where he solves a racism etc.

That being said, his book Happy which was (mostly) about stoicism and the philosophy of happiness was a bit better than I expected. My expectations were very low, mind you, but not bad for an easily-digestible summary of all that stuff written by someone who knows how to use words.

[close]

[Noodle Lizard]

As much as I don't like to think about it when I'm watching his shows, I think it's less real than it appears and participants are maybe more in on it than they seem. Not to the point that I'm saying everyone is a paid actor but things can be fudged for the sake of the show.

Yeah, I think this is about right. I think it was the same with NFY, at least after the first season, and they were very clever to adapt the premise somewhat and make more of a "story" out of each episode. By the finale, Nathan is basically just himself, and even acknowledges that NFY is a comedy show. It sort of worked regardless because of how great he was at pinpointing and extracting the inherent strangeness of some people, so it didn't really matter how authentic they thought it all was, whereas something like Borat would completely fall apart in the same situation. Him using his own name and not playing a character a million miles away from his true personality was an incredibly wise decision from the outset.

I think Fielder himself mentioned that most of the businesses they worked with were actually doing alright, just looking for some extra publicity. I at least know this to be true of Reign of Terror (the haunted house where pussies go to relax), which is considered one of the best in the industry and has no trouble selling out during the Halloween season. Pink's Hot Dogs, likewise, is an LA staple, with the problem in the episode focusing on their lines being too long! Again, this is a smart decision because nobody involved seems that desperate. It could've easily crossed over into exploitative grubbiness if they had been.

Ferris preddo for the season:

Spoiler alert

It's a giant simulation for Nathan to find the best way to talk about his divorce, which he alludes to then intentionally sabotages.

Might be totally off base there, but it's the kind of small detail I can see him coming back to with an explanatory voice over.

If it's mentioned in passing in the next episode then I think that's where he's going with it (maybe).

[close]

That's exactly what I thought as well. I think the idea that

Spoiler alert

this is, itself, a Rehearsal for Nathan

[close]

is a fairly safe bet. Maybe too safe, though.

[Captain Z]

I loved it, and probably laughed more times than I have at any typical sitcom episode in recent memory. Because I completed NFY with really good grades, I sussed that we were switching back to Nathan's own rehearsal footage before the reveal of actor-Kor at the end.

One Derren Brown-y detail I enjoyed was the real Trish complaining about her roommates, after actor-Trish had used that in rehearsals. Kor even gave a little 'there we go' kind of gesture.

[Ferris]

The other preddo I had (which is not exclusionary, I suppose) is that

Spoiler alert

everyone in the bar has their own episode - bar person, people who have to move tables, the whole lot. Surely they don't have the budget to create a huge set like that from scratch every episode so it'd make the most of the existing asset, and make the people in the bar (especially those being shepherded with their own episodes) more predictable, which makes the other episode easier to plan... etc.

[close]

We shall see!

[notjosh]

I'm not sure how it's going to play out yet except that I can't imagine they managed to get six episodes' worth of stories without at least a couple of attempts going wrong. So I'm expecting there might be an episode built around the failures similar to the failed business montage he did in Nathan For You.

TW: Features probably the cruelest moment in the whole series

Then again, he could surprise us all by making an utterly conventional series that just repeats the first episode's formula six times.

[Noodle Lizard]

I'm not sure how it's going to play out yet except that I can't imagine they managed to get six episodes' worth of stories without at least a couple of attempts going wrong. So I'm expecting there might be an episode built around the failures similar to the failed business montage he did in Nathan For You.

TW: Features probably the cruelest moment in the whole series

Then again, he could surprise us all by making an utterly conventional series that just repeats the first episode's formula six times.

If you're talking about the kid/dead dog one, if it makes you feel any better I think there's some clever production going on there. I don't think the kid was ever shown that video, or even had a dead pet.

[notjosh]

If you're talking about the kid/dead dog one, if it makes you feel any better I think there's some clever production going on there. I don't think the kid was ever shown that video, or even had a dead pet.

I've wondered about that, but then what could prompt such a strong reaction from the kid?

Also, to be clear, just because I found it outrageously cruel doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it.

[Misspent Boners]

I enjoyed it. As others have said, the coming episodes will have to throw some curveballs and subversions to keep it interesting...in Nathan For You an integral part of each episode was outlining the ridiculous/slightly genius ideas he had for each business, and this first episode was also largely Nathan explaining the concept; they can't explain the repeated concept every episode. I've every faith that Nathan will pull it off though !

[Goldentony]

that dead dog bit is one of the funniest things in the series, fucking hell

my favourite thing in all of this was

Spoiler alert

Nathan asking him how this fuck off elaborate plan went and how he feels after it's just ended and hes just glad they won the trivia and has to be reminded what else was going on that night

[close]

[Ferris]

Episode 2 out now

Spoiler alert

Don't really know what to make of it, lots going on.

[close]

[Josef K]

I enjoyed episode 2 but it was very much about setting up the direction of the rest of the show after the slick first episode

[sevendaughters]

Loved episode two. Real pathology of American sickness shit going on.

[Ferris]

Spoiler alert

It was a deep-dive character study, but of some random person that I didn't know, like, or particularly care about so it felt a bit aimless.

She didn't seem all that nice, and I didn't understand the point tbh. Some laughs, I suppose, but 4 eps to pull me back in and I have a sinking feeling...

[close]

[PlanktonSideburns]

is this watchable anywhere in the uk?

[Wezzo]

is this watchable anywhere in the uk?

Not legally, unfortunately.

[Timothy]

Quite surprised when episode two ended. Fifteen minuten shorter then the first episode.

Really enjoying this so far. Curious whats going to happen next.

[sevendaughters]

Spoiler alert

It was a deep-dive character study, but of some random person that I didn't know, like, or particularly care about so it felt a bit aimless.

She didn't seem all that nice, and I didn't understand the point tbh. Some laughs, I suppose, but 4 eps to pull me back in and I have a sinking feeling...

[close]

Spoiler alert

I loved that she was not particularly nice or bright or willing to stick to the task as much as Nathan would want. At times I thought there was a little bit of a 'character' in there, but some of the things she and the numbers guy say, they're so idiosyncratic, how do you write that shit? like the dumb argument he was having with his flatmate. the whole thing was so despairing and sad, but also funny. lots of great little moments and details - the night owl also turning into a conspiracy nut, the parent who just wants to milk the show for cash by offering her kid up for whatever....i thought it was a weirdly angry piece actually.

[close]

[up_the_hampipe]

That episode was kind of infuriating more than funny, Angela and Robin were strange, unpleasant people.