With audiences anticipating his long awaited return to television, Nathan Fielder’s (Nathan For You) new show The Rehearsal has generated a mass amount of hype, and with the release of the first episode the anticipation continues to build for the rest of the season. Prior to the first episode being released, the advertising Fielder released on his social media was very cryptic. No one was really able to make out what the show was going to entail, this immediately made audiences talk about the content and make predictions before it was even out! To simply put it, only Nathan Fielder could have released a teaser trailer not showing much actual footage and fans everywhere would still be just as excited.
Known for his awkward, sardonic, and dry sense of humor, Fielder provides an original and fresh take on comedy that anyone can enjoy. Best known for his previous show Nathan For You, Fielder has created an unmatchable character dedicated to helping everyone and spreading his gospel of awkward situations turned comedic. In episode one titled “Orange Juice, No Pulp,” Fielder presents a system that anyone can use to better their success in social situations by simply re-constructing key areas, hiring actors to play friends, charting scenarios, creating fake personas, etc. in order to ensure one is ready for anything, simple right?
Nathan and Kor rehearsing outside of a replica set.
One of the main reasons this show is already so undoubtedly original and impressive is due to how perfectly the feeling of anticipation combined with awkward and cringey interactions lead to such an exciting and hilarious viewing experience. Fielder has literally found a way to turn every day seemingly boring and uneventful interactions between average people into a high-stakes, anxiety-inducing, dramatic watching experience. At its core, this show gives the audience insight into a person’s life and what the most high-stakes situation is to them and turns it into something suddenly everyone is invested in. He has perfectly crafted his cringey persona and plays it up to the fullest extent. For example, in Nathan For You, he tended to rely on his subjects not knowing who he was, however in this show he fully embraces the status quo he’s built for himself resulting in the other main appeal of Nathan Fielder which is his awkward sense of humor. This aspect definitely makes him stand out since it’s not very common among comedians, let alone showrunners/producers/actors like himself. He is simply able to reach so many different types of people by keeping his ideas and projects not only accessible but so simple and easy to enjoy. HBO Max made a genius play by giving Fielder the budget they did, just from the first taste of this episode, it’s already obvious how much more insane and mind-boggling this series is going to get.