Nathan For You is now and will forever be noted as a lightning bolt to the TV landscape when its titular Nathan, Nathan Fielder blurred so many tones and genres for something that was beyond both comedy and performance art, but always endlessly enthralling.
Since the end of Nathan For You, we’ve only gotten flashes of Fielder with things like his Summit Ice jackets that fought anti-semitism and How To with John Wilson, but have waited for his unflappable face and demeanor to be squarely in front of a camera. Thanks to HBO, that time is just under from a month from now with The Rehearsal.
Fielder is going to have “rehearsals” for life to allow folks to practice before going out and perhaps risking everything in the world. It feels like an idea that might have been too grand for a single episode of Nathan For You, but very much in the spirit of such acts as Nathan rehearsing how to say, “I love you.” You can see in the promo art that Nathan is surrounded by either life sized human figurines or maybe animatronic humans that will simulate real life scenarios. While it’s a straightforward-enough premise right now, one can only ponder what über-clever twist Fielder has up his sleeve and, with that in mind, Jul. 15th can’t come soon enough.