The Rehearsal

[Jeremy Blackman]

https://www.reddit.com/r/TheRehearsal1stdraft/

There is now a subreddit for "rehearsing" posts you might make on the main The Rehearsal subreddit.

[Jeremy Blackman]

https://twitter.com/hbo/status/1560672949610299393

[Yes]

Disappointing.

Feels like a missed opportunity and repetitive

[polkablues]

Had the renewal not been announced today, I think I would have agreed with you. It definitely felt like we were waiting for that final leap into the next level of absurdity/surrealism/profundity/whatever, and the episode never quite got fully off the ground. But knowing that it's returning, I don't mind that they held back. If season two doesn't go full balls-to-the-wall Synecdoche, I might be a bit disappointed, but Nathan Fielder hasn't let me down yet and I don't think he has any intention of doing so.

[Drenk]

I liked the finale, it was one of my favorite episodes. Maybe because I never fully loved The Rehearsal.

I think there's a form of self-pity in everything about "Nathan" that I don't like. It was already present in Finding Frances, but the call-girl was a more interesting person than all the actors on The Rehearsal who, once again, only exist to feed the pre-conceived self-pity narrative around "Nathan".

I dig the absurdity/surrealism, but it was ultimately quite hollow emotionally, in my opinion.

Also, all the reflection about manipulating participants feels more fucked to me than what he was doing in Nathan for You. (Once again: hollow. He doesn't give a shit.)

This is about the season as a whole, because I think this episode culminated to a great scene.

[WorldForgot]

I think it'd be pretty funny if this show were able to land the 'rehearsal actors' nominations for their performances of rehearsed moments. Fake Angela and the kids who played Fake-Adam-Becoming-Fake-Remmy both seemed to put out strong performances under the 'Fielder Method' lol

[Drenk]

The child actor in the last episode was probably rehearsing in the womb. 

A few updates on Remy here: https://twitter.com/girlTaylor/status/1548161014247485445?s=20&t=VbdimZwXd7P4hjHiKZwIng

[Drenk]

Here is the spin-off:

[Jeremy Blackman]

I started a rewatch, and I have to say I don't find the finale any more problematic than episode 1. At least in the finale, Nathan tackles the crisis head-on with urgent empathy, enough that it even pushes him a bit out of character. And yes, Remy's apparent grandma is currently on social media praising Nathan and assuring people that things are fine.

Side note – if it struck you that Remy's mom was less weirded out than most other participants, apparently she and her mother were already Nathan Fielder fans.

I liked the finale quite a bit. I didn't really expect things to be taken to a whole new mindblowing conceptual level. As the previous episode wrapped up, it seemed clear that the parenthood rehearsal was on the brink of a full collapse. It felt like the main thing left to do was deconstruct it, and that's exactly what happened in the finale.

What I really appreciate about this show is the way it fully embraces improvisation. Nathan & co. are willing to scrap everything in pursuit of whatever opportunity will produce the most interesting and demented result. The production being so manipulative sort of counterintuitively opens them up to following the human element wherever it leads. Angela's cynical ambivalence, Nathan's student's reluctance to participate, and Remy's dad crisis... well, they all shaped the show in overwhelming ways. At the very least, their real human reactions to this ridiculous production inspired some of the biggest turns.

I also love that, when they find an especially great rehearsal actor (fake Angela and teen Adam especially), they're more than happy to move the spotlight and let these actors drive the narrative.

[polkablues]

To a certain extent, I feel like the question of how much of the show is "real" versus "staged" is beside the point, but at the same time I'm so curious what story points throughout the season were pre-planned and which ones were the result of reacting to events as they unfolded. Ultimately, the difference is irrelevant to the final product that we see on screen, and maybe knowing the answer would ruin the magic, but I still would love to know just on a logistical level how they went about it.

[Jeremy Blackman]

To me it seems obvious that the shape of the season shifted dramatically based on what they were (or weren't!) getting from the participants. And some of those things, like Remy's dad crisis, are clear human reactions that can't be manufactured. What's manufactured is what the show does with that, which is quite transparent.

I have no doubt that they fed lines to many participants, especially during rehearsal scenes (there's some info out there about this). But, for example, it's not like they picked out one of Nathan's Fielder Method students and said "okay you're playing the reluctant student and we're going to make a whole story out of that." There's just no reason to pre-script to that degree when you have insanely talented producers who can more easily juice content from human moments.

It's not even clear to me what people mean when they say the show is fake. I think some people genuinely (as below?) still think "they're all actors" when 10 min of research or any familiarity with Nathan's previous work would disabuse you of that notion.

https://twitter.com/lindaholmes/status/1561347713270255616