With the release of the second episode of Nathan Fielder and HBO Max’s new show The Rehearsal, things continue to descend into madness. While the first episode of the series was mind boggling enough, the second episode takes it up a notch by going further into Fielder’s method of nailing every awkward situation life has to offer and by adding more crew, more actors, and higher stakes to the mix.
The episode starts off with Angela, an extremely religious woman who has always dreamed of having a baby and starting a family with her husband/love of her life. The only problem is she is single and has no prior experience taking care of a child full time. However, Fielder provides the perfect solution, a 24 hour around the clock experience on raising a child from baby age to a full on teenager in the span of a short amount of time. In order to fully immerse Angela, Fielder rents out a perfect house in Oregon and hires a large group of child actors, switches them out every four hours (to abide to child actor laws) and even brings in a robot baby for Angela to take care of overnight (also to abide by child actor laws).
Fielder’s lineup of child actors.
However, Fielder, wanting to commit to the full experience, informs Angela that she should be actually looking for a partner to participate in The Rehearsal with her. During her pursuit for the perfect husband, Fielder follows along watching her swipe on dating apps, having the camera crew follow her around, and even spending quality time with her dates. It’s needless to say that this episode truly shows how committed Fielder is to making a difference in people’s everyday life; and just how far he’s willing to go to make sure that the perfect rehearsals take place.
Fielder and Adam.
One of the main strongsuits of The Rehearsal, as well as Fielder, is the people they find to bring on the show. From tiny jobs to Angela herself, Fielder has such a hilarious way of finding the perfect people/stories to turn into pure, high-stake, entertaining drama. For example, in this episode Nathan brings on a self proclaimed “night owl” to control the robotic baby, but he falls asleep within 15 minutes of the first two nights, then later in the episode proceeds to ramble about sasquatch and bigfoot. Fielder’s ability to not break character throughout these little interactions is another aspect of his comedy that is incredibly entertaining to watch. His interactions with Angela, who also says some very funny and surprising things regarding how she wishes to take care of her baby, are especially gripping. Some of these included her insistence of rubbing lavender essential oils on the child actors, to staying away from cell phone and electronic waves that could potentially damage her baby’s brain development. Overall, this episode definitely holds up and surpasses the hilarity of the first episode by far.
Angela and Adam.
Rating: 9.5/10