nathan fielder

Nathan Fielder took the Internet’s attention captive with four seasons of Nathan For You and his satirical, intentionally unwitting(?) attempts to improve real-life small businesses. While Fielder had a hand in How To with John Wilson, we’ve all been waiting a long time to see what Nathan had inevitably been working in secret on.

The Rehearsal on HBO was that very thing that we’ve been constantly refreshing any sort of social media feed to see any news about and it truly hasn’t disappointed. If anything, HBO gave Nathan a near infinite sandbox to play with in the concept of having people prepare for tough life situations via near identical rehearsals complete with fully immersive sets and trained actors. Fielder, of course, doesn’t leave the humor inherent in the premise to fuel the show, but, as always, goes deeper and follows the truth of whatever real people have gotten involved with Nathan’s comedy experiments. There is a great deal of Nathan having to adapt and deal with the direction of the show that’s actually part of the show and one might fervently ponder, even more than in Nathan For You, how much Nathan is in control and how deep his rabbit hole of “all-of-this-being-a-bit” vs. “it-being-real” goes.

The incredulity of it all might be the point rather than trying to figure out how much Nathan is in on everything. How else do you process, slight spoiler here, Nathan trying to “rehearse” as an actor of one of his “acting classes” that’s all set up to be the veritable theater group that he uses for the actual rehearsals for the show itself?

It might be Nathan’s most brilliant work to date and something that really highlights comedy truly as art.

Thank goodness that HBO is giving him a whole second season where Nathan will undoubtedly pull several rugs out from underneath us all yet again.

The Rehearsal is streaming now on HBO Max with the season finale airing tonight on HBO and streaming on HBO Max.

One more chance to get it right.#TheRehearsal has been renewed for Season 2. pic.twitter.com/Y8uECt4EfD

— HBO (@HBO) August 19, 2022

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.

(via Deadline)

In addition to overseeing another season of How To With John Wilson, Nathan Fielder has another hand in another pie over at HBO. Just announced today, the premium cabler has ordered up The Rehearsal which will have folks “rehearse” for their “own lives”.

As to what that will exactly entail and how much Fielder is pulling a complex multi-layered, bordering-on-performance-art prank on real people has yet to announced or revealed. Something tell us that he’ll probably never reveal exactly what’s going on or tell us so much that would misdirect us in a whole other splendid way.

Perhaps, it might be a little like the “I Love You” loop?