On its surface, Nathan Fielder’s most recent television project is incredibly simple. The Rehearsal helps ordinary individuals prepare for difficult situations. However, anyone who is familiar with Fielder’s body of work, particularly the spiritual predecessor to The Rehearsal, Nathan For You, knows that the comedian utilizes real-life situations as a jumping-off point for his absurdist comedic sensibilities.
In the first episode of The Rehearsal, “Orange Juice, No Pulp,” Fielder helps a man share an almost decade-old secret regarding his educational background. In the series’ second episode, “Scion,” he creates a realistic simulation of motherhood for a woman who hopes to someday have children. However, when one of his subject’s potential romantic interests abandons his fake patriarchal responsibilities, Fielder opts to involve himself with his own experiment, which will likely cause him to have to juggle the events of future episodes with the duties of fatherhood. The third episode continues the child-rearing storyline and also sees Fielder helping a man prepare for a difficult conversation with his brother. All in all, The Rehearsal is an unapologetic showcase of Fielder’s twisted imagination.
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Here’s what audiences have learned from the first three episodes of The Rehearsal.
Nathan Fielder Is a World-Class Comedic Talent
The sheer scope of the social experiments presented in The Rehearsal is truly staggering. In only three episodes, viewers of the show have seen Nathan Fielder have an entire fake bar built, which he later transported across the country for seemingly no reason. They’ve witnessed Fielder create a false reality for a woman who wanted to experience motherhood, complete with a rotating cast of child actors and a garden made to mimic the passing of time with the assistance of nightly produce excavations.
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Though the social experiments presented in The Rehearsal are fundamentally absurd, Fielder never breaks character and appears to treat every situation with the utmost seriousness. On its surface, the show is entirely scripted. Fielder fully prepares his subjects for dealing with their respective problems, going so far as to script out entire conversations, and hire actors to portray the real-life acquaintances of said subjects. He is even shown to have hired actors and written scripts to prepare himself for conversations with the simulation’s participants. The humor of the series stems from its preposterous planning.
The Show Attracts Some Peculiar Folks
For the comedic styling of Nathan Fielder to work, he needs to find individuals who will fit into his strange social experiments. In Nathan For You, this meant finding business owners who were willing to go to extreme lengths to bring in new clients. His range of potential subjects is broader in The Rehearsal, as he could theoretically find anyone seeking assistance in solving a problem. However, one common thread unites everyone who has appeared on The Rehearsal thus far: they’re all a bit peculiar.
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Fielder seems to radiate awkward energy that attracts similarly socially maladroit individuals. Of course, individuals who agree to appear on a television show to find a resolution to their real-life issues will be a particular type of person. However, the folks Fielder continues to find for his series never cease to surprise audiences. What other reality show has appearances from the likes of Robin, the intensely religious, numerology-obsessed, weed-smoking man who briefly dated Angela during “Scion?”
It’s Easy to Sympathize With the Kindhearted Simulation Participants
At times, The Rehearsal can be rather difficult to watch. Some participants in the social experiments have somewhat abrasive personalities, making it easier to accept their role in Fielder’s manipulations. However, though Fielder’s comedic character is cold and calculating, he has proven capable of crafting sympathetic narratives surrounding the participants in his television experiments. An example is when he helped a Bill Gates impersonator search for his long-lost love in the finale of Nathan For You.
In “Gold Digger,” the third episode of The Rehearsal, audiences are introduced to Patrick, who wants to prepare for a conversation with his brother regarding their grandfather’s will. Throughout the episode, Patrick proves to be an incredibly kindhearted spirit. He quickly forms a relationship with an older man hired to play the grandfather of one of the show’s actors, who was in turn hired to play Patrick’s brother. When Fielder creates an artificial scenario that turns the simulation into a situation similar to that Patrick is dealing with, Patrick has a genuine emotional reaction before disappearing without even notifying Fielder.
It will be interesting to see what Fielder has in store for HBO Max audiences as the first season of The Rehearsal concludes. Some storylines are still ongoing. Fielder has heavily involved himself with Angela’s experiment in motherhood, and it is unclear how that simulation will resolve. The first three episodes of The Rehearsal have been fantastic, and it’s difficult to imagine how Fielder will continue to escalate the series’ stakes in future episodes.
