The Rehearsal Confirms Nathan Fielder Is a Comedian Visionary: Assessment
The Pitch: Comedy has lengthy mined the wealthy vein of need working inside most common residents for fame — or not less than some form of recognition. That yen for the highlight is what allowed ’60s duo Coyle and Sharpe and modern-day bellower Billy Eichner to show “man on the road” interviews into improvised gold and fed the creation of far too many prank exhibits.
It’s additionally a craving that Nathan Fielder has spent the final decade twisting to absurdist ends, each on his acclaimed Comedy Central sequence Nathan For You and in his behind-the-scenes work on exhibits like How To with John Wilson and Sacha Baron Cohen’s Who Is America? In each, on a regular basis individuals willingly put themselves below the attention of a TV digicam, typically revealing an excessive amount of of themselves within the course of. The outcomes are both damning, heartwarming, or just ridiculous.
The brilliance of Nathan For You was how Fielder served as a valence in every episode, utilizing his dry presence and out-of-the-box concepts to have an effect on the companies and folks he was meant to assist. In Season 1, for instance, he tried to each get new clients for a struggling pizzeria and get the proprietor to incorporate him in her will. Fielder’s presence solely acquired bigger because the sequence went on, as within the improbable fourth season installment the place he went to insane lengths to create a wild story he might use as an anecdote for his look on Jimmy Kimmel Reside.
The Rehearsal (HBO)
Fielder looms simply as massive in his unimaginable new sequence The Rehearsal. As with Nathan For You, the supposed objective of the present is to assist actual individuals put together for troublesome conversations or large life adjustments by placing them by a apply session with actors posing as family members, associates, and bystanders. However as the primary season wears on, Fielder, taking part in a needy and insecure model of himself, turns into as a lot part of the rehearsals as the parents he’s supposedly aiding, and makes use of these interactions to replicate on his existential woes. Be ready for a lot of pictures of Fielder staring off into the gap with a glance of pained contemplation on his face.
Is There One thing You’re Avoiding? Whereas these moments present the beating coronary heart of The Rehearsal, the comedy typically comes by way of the outsized personalities of the shoppers Fielder works with, and the outrageous lengths he goes to in hopes of attaining their objectives.
The opening episode facilities on a geeky New Yorker who needs to fess as much as a prickly member of his bar trivia workforce that he doesn’t have a complicated diploma. Easy sufficient, sure? In Fielder’s arms, it turns into a Herculean effort involving a meticulous reconstruction of the bar the place the confession is to happen, shares it with extras, and has his consumer undergo the night a number of instances to be able to be ready for any attainable state of affairs.