The Rehearsal (2022– ) User Reviews

Nathan Fielder's best

[chrsstout · 9/10 · 8 August 2022]

It's self-help reality show satire. Idk how else to put it. If you don't get it, then sorry. His situational comedy hits a little too close to home for some. But for those who have the humility to appreciate the awkwardness of the human condition, then you appreciate just how absurd this show gets. It's comedic inception, I started the show chuckling, and by episode 4 I was in tears. Layers upon layers of absurdity. This show has the perfect guy (and apparently the budget) to do it.

A lot of reality shows do the same thing Nathan does in this show. But they polish it up to make it seem like interactions are flawless, use actors to stage nearly everything, and all works out perfectly in the end. This show just exploits that aspect of those reality tv shows. His mindset is (believe it or not) not too far from a regular reality television producer. Nathan just has a little more of a nihilistic approach. I love it.

Days like these I curse the Chinese for inventing gunpowder

[winecellarwomack · 8/10 · 17 July 2022]

Fantastic show. So unique and creative! Nothing like this out there! Must watch. I can't even begin to fathom the mind that came up with the idea for this series, but I would certainly love to pick his brain.

Nothing like this on TV

[brettpod · 8/10 · 16 July 2022]

I usually wait until the entire season is over before giving a rating. With that said, this show is so funny I couldn't wait. The Rehearsal continues the Nathan Fielder brand of elaborate schemes, awkward interactions, and overall funny situations that he built with Nathan For You. If you loved Nathan for you, you will love The Rehearsal .

So stupid, and yet, it's one of the best things I have ever seen

[crbrown25 · 10/10 · 5 August 2022]

Everything about this show is amazing. It's an absolute masterpiece.

The show is about giving people the ability to rehearse an important event in their life. They go through incredible lengths to make sure everything is perfectly accurate. That part is impressive, but it's not really the best part of the show.

Somehow, the makers have an incredible ability to highlight the subtle things that make life complicated, fascinating, weird, and most importantly, human.

The Rehearsal is an emotional rollercoaster that everyone should experience.

"Next thing you know, I'll bring home some oranges and that will be Satanic!"

[ryanpersaud-59415 · 9/10 · 14 September 2022]

I've long been a fan of Nathan Fielder (from both Nathan For You and from How To With John Wilson), so one night, I popped The Rehearsal on and could not believe what I was seeing.

So, I stopped watching and decided to watch it with some friends and family. And, predictably, they fell in love with the show. You may not love the Rehearsal (at first), you may find it quirky and odd, but you will be unable to look away. This is easily one of the most unique and innovative shows I have ever seen. Fielder is an absolute master and just when you think you know where the season is going, it takes so many different turns.

By the end, The Rehearsal goes from a fun social experiment to a profound, contemplative, and deeply human experience. It's a show that questions identity, relationships, our attempts at controlling the world...yeah, just watch it. It's amazing.

Another multifaceted comedic masterpiece from Nathan Fielder

[thefendiprint · 10/10 · 16 July 2022]

If you love Nathan for You, then you'll love this. It's nearly the same in terms of vibe and layout, just with a new way to "help" strangers. He's once again proven he's a force to be reckoned with in comedy. Ignore the low ratings... If you get it, you get it. And those people clearly don't.

Synecdoche New York

[ivannushu · 9/10 · 16 July 2022]

This is where movie becomes reality, and vice versa. After helping with people's careers on Nathan For You, the wizard of loneliness returns to help with people's relationships.

No words to describe it!!

[karimnomatch · 9/10 · 6 August 2022]

This is the most creative, unique, and original show I have watched in many years.. Maybe ever! I loved Nathan For You (NFY) and I knew this show would be good as well. However, while NFY is a comedy show in essence, The Rehearsal is mostly a social experience that is so special and authentic.

I will not spoil anything, but I will comment on one scene in Episode 4. When Adam is taken by the ambulance after overdosing, the paramedics are listing his current symptoms, vital signs, and possible drugs he is on, and being a physician I was impressed by the accuracy and amount of work that went into a 5-second scene. This is a simple example of the attention to details and the amount of effort put into this amazing show.

Kaufman-esque

[ant-medi · 21 August 2022]

I know I'm probably the millionth person to say this but this is the most Charlie Kaufman-esque show I have ever seen in my life. The show is really introspective. Reminded so much of Synechdoche, New York, Adaptation, Being John Malkovich and even other films like Eternal Sunshine and I'm Thinking of Ending things. Especially when it came to the idea of a character viewing themselves through the eyes of another person or trying to view experience in that way. It's something that Charlie Kaufman loves exploring and I loved seeing Nathan Fielder's take on it.

Horrifying. But very good. This is stealth therapy disguised as something else.

[Safetylight · 8/10 · 16 July 2022]

This show has value as a cautionary tale. Nobody should live like this!

This is exactly the wrong way of engaging with life; trying to control and micro-manage every possibility is based on fear and a lack of developed connection with one's instinct. People have instincts, and they can tell that something isn't real.

I knew a guy who approached women in this way, hyper-studying the object of his obsession and planning flow charts of possible actions and reactions. It sort of worked for a while, but fairly soon, she reacted like a trapped animal. It was insanely frustrating for me to hear about this. "No, no, no! Don't DO that. That's NOT how you interact with people. (What the hell is wrong with you??)"

You have a soul. Souls are like surfboards. Trying to freeze everything to get it right is like trying to reduce yourself to a reaction machine. It's like trying to cheat god. It cannot last.

HOWEVER...

The point of this show is not to attempt success through the method of hyper-control.

The point is to demonstrate the futility of trying to control god, and through the exercise, stealth-grow the subject's confidence in dealing with random events.

Weirdly creepy social experiment makes for compelling viewing

[paul-allaer · 7/10 · 17 July 2022]

As Episode 1 of "The Rehearsal" (2022 release; 6 episodes of about 45 min each) opens, we get to know Cor, who loves trivia and plays on a bar trivia team. One little problem: he told the team that he has a Master's degree, but he doesn't. Cor wants to come clean but how? Comes in Nathan, who is prepping Nathan how how exactly to do this, along the way building an exact replica of Cor's apartment and the Brooklyn bar hosting the team trivia...

Couple of comments: this is the latest project from Canadian creator-writer-actor-producer-director Nathan Fielder ("Nathan For You"). Here he pushes the boundaries even more, by recreating the real world for purposes of rehearsing how things could play out beforehand. The amount of detail that Nathan puts into this is astounding, and frankly a little creepy. But I found myself sucked into Episode 1 as this social experiment, because this is what it really is, was playing out.

Episode 1 of "The Rehearsal" premiered this past Friday om HBO and is now available on HBO On demand and HBO Max, where I caught it. New episodes will be released on late evenings US Eastern time. If you liked "Nathan For You", or simply are interested in a social experiment on human behavior, I'd readily suggest you check this out and draw your own conclusion.

Comedy Magic

[vgvczvk · 10/10 · 16 July 2022]

Wow. The work Nathan and the crew put into this is insane. Another comedy masterpiece from Nathan Fielder. I won't go too deep into what happened because I don't want to ruin the magic of just how well they did this.

Practice Makes Perfect

[eraserhead92 · 7/10 · 9 September 2022]

At first I didn't know if it was a comedy or not.

It didn't take long to realize the absurdity of the situations. These people have problems. Luckily Nathan can flowchart and root-cause outcomes that would make any Six Sigma Black Belt proud.

The key is covering all the bases down to the last detail.. it reminded me of an Antonioni or David Lynch film where the characters start to question their own realities. Eventually, the actors become the characters and are so involved that the viewer eventually can't tell who's who any longer.

When I saw the pizza oven simulation I damn near fell out of my chair. Holy Moley that was perfection!

So absurd you will question your own reality.

Interesting start and then...

[cdc123 · 4/10 · 10 September 2022]

Creepy show. Messes with very young actors' sense of self. First episode is good and gives you some hopeful anticipation that future participants will emotionally grow and have a cathartic experience. This says it's a comedy and documentary. It's a train wreck. Nathan's initial appeal diminishes with each episode until I find that he's lost more than he gained. And so do we. I hope there's not a season 2. If there is, I won't be watching. A good idea that failed to maintain the same level of interest on the remaining episodes. Amazed to see positive reviews for a disappointing series on HBO. This is an experiment that needs to be dissected and discarded.

What's just as fascinating as the show is...

[krupocin-1 · 10/10 · 31 July 2022]

Reading some of these reviews. It's really interesting to read some of the dissenting 1s or 2s on a show with a 9/10 average, it's funny how some people can just completely miss the concept. "This isn't a comedy!" as if there's only one way to do this. Everyone doesn't have to like the same things but there's no world in which this is a 1/10, just even considering the execution, originality, ambition, etc. Then again we live in a world where every moron has a voice now and 90% of new movies are people prancing around in costumes pretending to have magic powers so maybe I shouldn't be surprised. One of the low reviews hates the second half of Better Call Saul's final season, another loved The Gray Man but hated Sicario, another I assume is basically a real life version of The Simpsons Comic Book Man...so it's not like we are dealing with anyone you'd likely trust for recommendations but I still think it's really interesting, since I always wonder how some of the completely cheesey new shows on HBO Max or Netflix get picked up for second seasons and I forget how many mouth breathers are out there. At least the small audience who has watched this so far has loved it, and hopefully we get many more seasons. Along with Saul, Succession, Barry, a couple others, it's one of the few bright spots on TV at the moment.

Unique, Hilarious, and Thought-Provoking

[CulvertonSmith · 10/10 · 20 August 2022]

Nathan Fielder's new series The Rehearsal is easily one of the best seasons of television I've seen all year. As a big fan of Nathan For You, I couldn't wait to check out his new project. I was delighted to find that I loved it even more. As hard as this show is to describe, I'm going to try my best.

Nathan Fielder's awkward comedy finds a new home when he tries his hand at providing people with an opportunity, an opportunity to rehearse important moments in their life. In the first episode a man must rehearse a confession that he will give to his friend, with a re-created studio set of a real location and a paid actor who portrays his friend.

Sounds insane? It absolutely is, but in the most bizarre, entertaining, hilarious, and unpredictable way possible. What starts as a ridiculous premise that I found particularly hilarious, ultimately winds up becoming a reflection on its own structure that questions the ethics of the rehearsals themselves. The show gives room to laugh, become invested, and constantly pulls the rug out from its own audience in the most shocking and delightful ways possible.

You are almost always aware of what you are watching, because the show doesn't let you forget what it is. I absolutely mean this in a good way, because that is how the show manages to be something so unique, by staying hilarious while reflecting on what its doing.

It's impossible to fully sell the experience of The Rehearsal because at the end of the day, you have to experience it for yourself. I loved the first season of this show, and I highly recommend it if you want to watch a unique and extremely funny series unlike anything seen before. I can safely call this one of my new favorite series on television, and I can't wait to see what is explored in Season Two.

Season One: 9.3/10.

blown away!!

[emme-29150 · 10/10 · 17 July 2022]

Please watch!! This show is not only funny but a brilliant commentary on modern day anxieties, making it extremely relatable. Nathan goes above and beyond in this show.

After the finale, easy 10

[joshualholmberg · 10/10 · 20 August 2022]

In the end, I was so confused on what this show was and what it was trying to accomplish, as it strayed far from the simple (yet still amazingly complex) first episode. And yet even through the confusion came lots of emotion in what must be the most original tv series ever.

Borat meets Charlie Kaufman

[etay-43510 · 10/10 · 21 July 2022]

And yes, it is as good, funny, charming and brilliant as the headline sounds. Not bothersome or complex, just humane and wholesome. Despite its documentary style, Nathan's editing and story-telling give a lot of volume for your heart to expand and laugh; not stealing the participant focus but adding another layer of its own.

The Genius of Nathan Fielder

[tylerjyounger · 10/10 · 18 July 2022]

Once Nathan For You came to an end, I remember thinking, "when will we ever get something so funny, yet moving like this again?" - Well, it turns out it was years later from the same guy.

The genius of Nathan Fielder is not only his incredibly dry humor and even dryer delivery - but the fact that there's a true goodness that lies beneath the comedy. He wants things to work out for the people involved and he never intends to shine them in a bad light.

The way he concluded the first episode gave me chills and I can't wait for more of those moments as the season goes on.

Impressive production value and attention-to-detail, but completely disjointed, empty, and fruitless

[theemotionmachine · 29 August 2022]

I know this will be unpopular, but I honestly find "The Rehearsal" to be complete trash and not that funny.

The most impressive thing is the big-budget effort to recreate environments and attention to little details, but the whole substance of this show is constant meta awkwardness and, "Here's the actor to play the actor to play the actor!"

Nathan clearly puts in a lot of work into building these situations, but there's almost zero pay-off.

I know the title is "The Rehearsal," and the show is meant to blur the line between what is "real" and what is "scripted," but everything in the show comes off completely inauthentic and manufactured.

Even in a dumb (but entertaining) show like "Impractical Jokers," you get a great combination of "contrived scenarios" with "real people reactions."

In "The Rehearsal" it's not clear if *any* of the reactions are genuine or authentic. That's a cute intellectual exercise (for 6 straight episodes), but it leaves the viewer waiting for something to actually happen - and the pay-off never comes.

If the show is completely scripted, then the script sucks. If the show has any real world responses, you either can't tell or they aren't that interesting.

Again, I suppose that's an interesting concept, but there's zero substance here. Nathan being meticulously OCD and making stupid faces isn't enough here.

Such a bizarre but intriguing experience

[AdilPickle4 · 7/10 · 7 September 2022]

While this show isn't as funny as Nathan For You, it clearly has higher aspirations. It was so bizarre to experience all these rehearsals and rehearsals within rehearsals. Made you feel like you were watching Inception only with acting. The show definitely had its funny moments.. but brutal moments as well. Watching the young boy in the finale try to come to terms with the fact that Nathan wasn't his real father was difficult to watch. I shed a few tears... it was really powerful stuff. I loved the variety of different actors that they were able to hire to play the various roles within the show. There were a lot of very eccentric characters which helped to keep the scenes interesting. Overall, this was a very unique show that I don't think entirely fits in any one particular category. I recommend it!

Masterpiece. Period.

[Stranger_Sins · 10/10 · 7 August 2022]

Nathan Fielder being Nathan Fielder again. After following his work since 2011-ish it's fascinating to see how he has evolved. Especially episode 4 is very intriguing.

This is human psychology at its best.

Think "Truman show", but real, to get an idea of what this is.

I can hear the "OK Boomer" reactions already

[skeanie · 6/10 · 7 August 2022]

I watched 3 episodes and I can't think of a good reason to give this any more of my time. It's not terrible or offensive, I just find it pointless and not particularly funny. I'm not sure what exactly the likers find so brilliant that merits a 9.0 average, but this is neither the first nor best mockumentary I've seen. I'm not looking to insult anyone for liking this, I just don't think it targets my demographic, which is fair enough.

Started well, became Self-indulgent

[johnnymonsarrat · 5/10 · 16 October 2022]

I liked Nathan For You, and I loved the first episode of this show. It seemed like Nathan was going to help quirky people in a clever way, like a super hero.

But episodes 2, 3, and 4 drifted into self-indulgence, with Nathan himself becoming the focus, the main theme of helping people getting lost in self-references and meta narratives, and the episode 2 target whom I found unlikable extended into a recurring character.

To use an analogy, a zombie movie should never really be about the zombies. It should be on their effects on real people surviving. The Rehearsal was just too much about Nathan and his setups, and it's easy to guess why: their experiments didn't result in enough footage.

I get it. When you're filming in the real world, you may not get enough footage to make a show. I think this series should have been planned better though. For example, they invested heavily into helping one target who quit, instead of going through to the end of the experiment.