The Rehearsal - Nathan Fielder - HBO

I think Nathan made that flowchart after he decided he would join the experiment, but I honestly could see him preparing for the possibility before the opportunity came up. I can relate to Nathan and the concept of this show so much - I always do mental "what-ifs" to prepare for potential scenarios and well-beyond, into exceedingly unlikely scenarios (and, like Nathan, still am usually not prepared for the situations that do happen)

fuck me, this got even stranger

I love it so much. The highest level of episode release anticipation since Twin Peaks: The Return.

what am i watching

I was getting really into a monologue and it was serious and touching, then the visual of the way their crops were bearing fruit made me totally lose it but then it became poignant again SO GOOD How can a show that has a gross out Jackass type stunt make it shocking but kind? Wtf?

My wife abandoned this before the first episode was over because cringe isn’t her thing, but I’m going to try to get her back on it. So much more than cringe.

Huh? He never said that’s the only way one can make s flow chart. His “character” is a dude who likes to be prepared for everything and have a script to follow in any situation where others’ reactions are unpredictable. That is to say, a dude who likes flow charts.

Nah, I think mine is better. In other words, I wouldn't be surprised if every episode reveals another layer of rehearsal, which is another way of saying:

Wife and I were wondering if there’s gonna be a twist in the last episode where everybody’s been an actor the whole time and everything we’ve seen has been a rehearsal for making the “actual” show

Haven't seen E3.

omg @ this

when your three year old son goes into his room...and emerges a six year old a minute later...it can be hard to stay in the moment...so you need to have custom digital mirrors installed that allow to see yourself age at the same pace as your child..

he's not wrong

Any time they show footage of someone crawling in a window to replace a human child with a robot or mannequin I lose it and start cracking up

xps It's easy to imagine the Nathan we know, from this show and his last one, absolutely intending to shoehorn himself into being the dad and having the chance to feel a feeling.

"not everything is make believe. some things are real."

"....okay."

third episode is so good. the vegetable harvest at the end is just...unbelievable levels of naiveté, it's extraordinary to watch

let alone the gold digger experience. holy shit. it's also so, so hard to explain, it's hilarious.

what am i watching

― Guayaquil (eephus!)

it's funny to watch how they address the absurdity of the cameras and countdown timers to Destiny the nanny:

Nathan: "So Angela and I are in a kind of a non-traditional, non-romantic relationship. We're here to co-parent this child as part of a rehearsal"
Angela: "it's a simulated experience"
Nathan: "...yeah, before deciding if we want to do it in our real lives..."
Angela: "separately."

loooool

i should shut up about it, sorry for any spoilers. when everyone's done watching this i want to talk about the absolute absurdity of what angela's simulated experience is turning into, looooooool

Angela's dialogue has to be real, right? Not that nobody could write this, exactly, but I somehow feel nobody would.

A weird piece in the New Yorker that really sees this show as mean in a way I absolutely don't

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/the-cruel-and-arrogant-gaze-of-nathan-fielders-the-rehearsal

angela is 100% real, even if not, she’s a person that is out there somewhere even if not on this show

there’s a pretty big unsaid thing where these people, even if they’re unaware of Nathan, have to be aware of reality television to some extent and puzzling out the moments when they’re being themselves or being a character merge

jfc, that New Yorker writer is an insufferable idiot.

The last 3 minutes of this episode, holy shit

Wait, Richard Brody has a silly opinion? What?!

Just realized the “gold digger” plot culminated in them literally digging up gold

Lmao at the dude just bailing afterwards, guessing if this was mostly scripted they’d at least have some kind of resolution

Idk Nathan getting ghosted at a theme park funnel cake meet up was kind of the perfect button on that storyline.

this show is amazing, I just want endless episodes of it

also, the woman fake-eating the chicken was such a small thing but I laughed so hard

om nom nom nom

Also the focus on the kid's face right in the beginning when she reveals that she doesn't celebrate halloween, and his timing soon after when he interrupts her to see if she will dress as a fried egg instead.

Any time they show footage of someone crawling in a window to replace a human child with a robot or mannequin I lose it and start cracking up

― mh, Saturday, July 30, 2022 10:43 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

In this ep it's bookended by Nathan feeling bad he didn't get to read a story before bed and then having a mundane conversation afterwards. If you never saw the show and were flipping channels and landed on it during the goodnight-story moment that scene would be horrifying and confusing and it's really funny for me to imagine this happening to someone.

did you keyword search “halloween” and “satanic origins”?

lol

angela sniffing essential oils and then rubbing one directly on her arm was a nice quick shot

Fuck me to tears!

Nathan’s skill at slapstick is underrated. Chasing the chickens in this episode, struggling with the irrigation pipes, etc.

My prediction is “Adam” will be in the show all season and by the final episode he’ll be as old as Nathan

my ex sister in law was very much like Angela; converted evangelical, wanted to live off the land, prohibited her multiple children from celebrating Halloween or reading Harry Potter because it was satanic, expected her husband to work 100 hours a week at a job and at their homestead while she ate painkillers.

the story with Patrick was kind of upsetting, really. I want to know if he wound up getting his money off his brother.

in my elementary school in the late 80s a large group of parents tried to ban any mention of halloween, i assume it was late-stage satanic panic. a compromise was reached where halloween was allowed but any 'supernatural' references were prohibted (ghosts, witches, graves). a lot of kids and teachers ended up wearing sports equipment, it was very strange and confusing for a little kid.

https://i.imgur.com/bON5mPb.png
https://i.imgur.com/16NiSy8.png
https://i.imgur.com/y2rLK5w.png

I will say this show is reminding me of Review with Andy Daly as much as NFY. Particularly with the pivot from a fairly formulaic premise to more of a serialized style because of how the host’s role affects their own life.

― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Saturday, 30 July 2022 03:34 (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Do watch the OG if you can

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Review_with_Myles_Barlow

That one sounds like a literal take on the Nathan Barley subplot where the journalist goes "stray for pay" and jerks off a builder in order to write about it

Digital aging mirror so creepy

My prediction is “Adam” will be in the show all season and by the final episode he’ll be as old as Nathan

Or the adult child Adam will BE played by Nathan

akm how did your brother let a catch like that get away xp

I have no idea what I am watching. It's teetering on the precipice of profound, but could just as easily tip some other direction.

Nathan doesn’t know either

I suspect he *does* know, but he has such a poker face that he's not going to give it away (or is editing out tells).

Like, how much time *is* he spending in that house with that woman and the kid(s). How much time is *she* spending in the house? Does she go anywhere? Has it been days? A week? How many perfect replica bars/restaurants/whatever do you think Nathan has built on soundstages? And, like, seeing the sticker on the pepper, that was clearly a set up, because the shots had to be blocked, which is to say, written/directed. So no doubt other stuff has been thought out, too, but the potential how and why of it is fascinating.

Fave detail from this most recent one was an extra pretending to eat chicken fingers.

"akm how did your brother let a catch like that get away xp"

it's my wife's brother actually and he is also a moron who got semi-evangelical with her, they had a ton of kids, even though they kept getting in fights, and he kept leaving her. they eventually divorced. both of them suck.

Just wanted to give a shout-out to Nathan Fielder for deciding to film this in the PNW where the country's most cuckoo people live.

You assume it's the PNW, it might just be a giant field in Ireland with a huge digital backdrop.

there's a lot of strong competition for most cuckoo, but finding an Angela in the PNW is definitely a shade easier