Nathan Fielder’s new present, The Rehearsal, must be acquainted to followers of his 2013-17 Comedy Central collection Nathan For You. Within the new collection, Fielder helps actual individuals in his common elaborate methods, along with his discomfort for being round individuals absolutely on show. However whereas he helped companies homeowners within the earlier present, he’s serving to people attempt to get previous a very uncomfortable social scenario. He does that by rehearsing the particular person by way of each chance which will come up.
Opening Shot: A person is in his residence watching Jeopardy!. Then we hear the distinctive voice of Nathan Fielder say in voice over, “I’m not good at assembly individuals for the primary time.”
The Gist: Within the first episode, Fielder helps Kor Skeet, who thinks it’s lastly time to inform the members of his bar trivia group that he solely has a Bachelor’s diploma and never a Grasp’s, as a he has been telling them for the previous 12 years. Individuals have even been sending him job listings that require masters levels.
As a result of Fielder is so awkward himself, he tells Kor that he’s rehearsed their complete first assembly, full with a reproduction of his residence constructed on a soundstage and an actor enjoying Kor (Okay. Todd Freeman). Nonetheless, Kor doesn’t speak in confidence to Fielder in regards to the one particular person in his group, who might need essentially the most excessive response to his information. Fielder tries to do some out of doors bonding — together with skeet taking pictures, given Kor’s final identify — to open him up.
When Kor lastly offers Fielder the identify, Tricia, he units up a ruse with the actor he employed to play her (Gigi Burgdorf) as a way to get extra data on her mannerisms and what she likes to speak about. Then he units up an actual reproduction of the bar the place the 2 of them will meet, play trivia, and Kor will reveal his secret. And that rehearsal is simply scratching the floor of what Fielder does to get Kor to the real-life second with Tricia.
What Reveals Will It Remind You Of? Nathan For You with an HBO price range. In fact, The Rehearsal pairs effectively with How To With John Wilson, which Fielder additionally produces.
Our Take: We’ve been followers of Fielder and his awkward real-life strategy to serving to individuals since Nathan For You premiered nearly a decade in the past. Even within the first season of the present, his advertising schemes tended in direction of the complicated: Bear in mind the staged video of the pig serving to the goat out of a pond? Or Dumb Starbucks from the second season?
However with The Rehearsal, Fielder takes the complexity of his concepts to new, expensive heights. He’s constructing actual replicas of bars and residences. He’s hiring talking actors and tons of extras. He’s seemingly sparing no expense to make it possible for his interactions with the individuals he’s serving to go effectively, and that the individuals’s interactions go roughly as deliberate.
In fact, he can’t rehearse away each single chance, but it surely’s positive enjoyable watching him strive. So not solely are the elaborateness of his rehearsals humorous — like how he replicates the bar’s brick oven pizza with out, , having a brick oven put in — however his voice over and reactions when issues don’t go as deliberate are equally entertaining.
All of the planning positively generates rigidity when the large second arrives in actual life, however the lead up, the place Fielder awkwardly interacts with the particular person and tries to get to know them, regardless of all the safeguards he put in for himself, are what make The Rehearsal such a enjoyable watch. And, since he’s already confirmed with Nathan For You that he can do loads with this format over a number of seasons, it signifies that the work he did with Kor is just a bit little bit of what Fielder can do with HBO cash and his seemingly limitless creativeness.
Intercourse and Pores and skin: None. And let’s hope it stays that manner by way of the primary season.
Parting Shot: “Pure Creativeness” from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Manufacturing unit performs (lengthy story) as we get a last glimpse of the reproduction bar Fielder had constructed, full with the smiley-face balloon floating proper subsequent to an air-con vent.
Sleeper Star: As somebody who is very quiet and uncomfortable round strangers, we appreciated simply how pained Kor was with not solely his first interactions with Fielder however with the concept that he has to bear his soul to somebody who could finish their friendship with the information.
Most Pilot-y Line: Kor decides on greeting Trish by calling her “Trish the Dish.” What 12 months is that this, 1947?
Our Name: STREAM IT. The Rehearsal continues the Nathan Fielder model of elaborate schemes, awkward interactions, and general humorous conditions that he constructed with Nathan For You. And we’re very joyful he’s again doing his factor.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about meals, leisure, parenting and tech, however he doesn’t child himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared within the New York Occasions, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Quick Firm and elsewhere.
