Hollywood isn’t new to the idea of blending fiction and reality. Part of the reason The Blair Witch Project was so successful was the ambiance around the film and the actors disappearing from the scene to help sell what was ultimately a fictional film. But this isn’t the only sphere blending the fake with the real. Docu-series-type shows have become popular too, where the fictional cast is being followed by real cameras held by fictional people. This genre had a huge surge a couple of decades ago seeing shows like The Office, Parks & Rec, and Reno 911! have their day. Yet, it’s a genre still getting traction with new shows like Abbott Elementary. There’s something in the human psyche that appreciates trying to decipher the line between fiction and truth and Nathan Fielder likes playing jump rope with that line.
Unfamiliar with his work, I truly didn’t know what to expect going into The Rehearsal. From the beginning, it appears as just a normal project. But as things continue and progress, I wondered if the line hadn’t been crossed all along and if Fielder isn’t using HBO’s money to play God instead of just going to therapy. I mean, men will recreate a whole-ass bar inside a warehouse and move that whole-ass bar across the country rather than go to therapy. I don’t know, maybe that’s unfair. I don’t remember if Nathan mentioned being in therapy or not. But regardless, having the money in your pocket to create everything we see here is something indeed. What Fielder allows is for an average person to play out a scenario and act out every single what-if they can imagine. Imagine you work for your friend but you want to quit the job and you don’t know how she or you would handle it. HBO, Fielder, and the money in the sky make it happen. You can fake quit and the actor portraying her screams. You say, “No, she’s far more reserved of a person. I’ve never heard her yell even when she was livid about something.” The actor digests the feedback and it’s another go-around. Meanwhile, Fielder is on the sidelines adjusting the flow chart of decisions and reactions and helping the participants understand how they’re going to react and how they’ll move events forward themselves. And it’s take, after take, after take, all practicing for the main event. But what’s real and what’s staged? Here is how the official trailer presents it:
While HBO hasn’t confirmed if The Rehearsal is a scripted show or following the vein of Fielder’s other works, I had mixed feelings myself but tried to go into it on the side of real people having real reactions. As time went on and new experiences emerged, my viewpoints shifted and in the end, I was left shaking my head wondering what was it all really for. But reflecting on my own life became inevitable and I couldn’t help but feel tricked into being introspective. Nathan, you clever bastard. If different media, acted or real, can help people question and actively look inward, then I suppose I can’t really complain.
- Orange Juice, No Pulp
This episode centers around trivia fan, Kor, who has been lying to his trivia group about having an advanced degree. One small lie years ago has now built to the possible point of breaking and he wants to come clean. He knows most of his friends will likely be fine, but one friend in particular might be angry so he wants to practice telling her first. Nathan creates the whole bar, hires actors to fill it, and they practice all the scenarios that could possibly happen. “If this, then this” over and over and over and over. But even with all the practicing, Kor’s more obsessed with winning the trivia than telling his friend the truth. In the end, he can’t even take the moment when she’s got her mouth stuffed with pizza. But finally, he comes clean, she takes it fine, and they win the whole night. Only for Nathan to admit he planted the answers to the questions in conversations with Kor the past week so Kor would focus on the task and not the winning. Not surprisingly, the whole thing is now completely tainted for Kor. [Ed. – That is not the real Kor of the piece; it is Fielder rehearsing with a fake Kor on how his confession of manipulation might turn out. But it is not explained to the viewer that the moment is faked. The real Kor is pictured above. ]
2. Scion
This next one is a fascinating concept, but difficult and insane how they manage to pull it off. Yet also the beginning of the unraveling in my opinion. Angela (pictured, right) desires to experience what it’s like to raise a child from birth to 18 years old over only 2 months. An insane feat to set up logistically, into which we’ll delve further later, but especially at first because Angela is single and looking for someone to participate with her. She has a couple of dates with this one guy and eventually asks if he’d be willing to take part in the project. And here’s why you pick your life partners carefully; because this homeboy seemed dedicated but couldn’t even make it through one night. And here’s where Nathan injects himself into the scenario and it all begins going downward…
3. Gold Digger
The episode starts with Nathan and the make-believe son in Halloween costumes, a holiday Angela does not celebrate as a devout Christian. “Not everything is make-believe. Some things are real.” Everyone is entitled to what they believe. The part that cracks me up most is her dream into a homestead. To have the garden and the chickens and all of that, but she’s playing make-believe so people plant the fully grown cucumbers for her to pluck out of the dirt. She’s homesteading without the actual work…oh my god, she’s like a tradwife influencer in the flesh. Purporting a certain lifestyle while someone does all the work for you behind the scenes…clever Fielder, clever.
Even though he’s inserted himself into Angela’s parenthood fantasy, he’s still helping people work through their “what ifs” and arranging scenarios. One guy is dealing with a stolen inheritance and needs to hash out the beef with his brother. Fielder creates a whole other restaurant, a whole other offhand scenario meant to recreate the situation within the situation…it’s getting a little Inception-y with the amount of strings Fielder is pulling. But at the end of the day, the guy stops showing up, proving to Fielder sometimes a little rehearsal is all someone needs, they don’t need to do the whole thing. But also Nathan learns more about work-life-fatherhood balance.
4. The Fielder Method
Back in parenthood land, Nathan is learning more about Angela and how she ended up asking to experience motherhood accelerated. Nathan’s immersion into the project brings up questions and self-doubts. And here’s truly where the project gets off the rails. He brings in actors to his own studio to learn more about the immersion style Fielder Method. The Inception levels go insane here and as we see Fielder open up about his vulnerabilities including his involvement in the project. And I think ultimately this is where it lost me. 
Because you can plan and plan and plan, and life will still do something unexpected. And to a point, I get Fielder’s frustrations. I have anxiety too. I hate not knowing. But if you spend all your time planning for life’s variabilities, you miss life’s spontaneity right in front of you. Life is unexpected and crazy and sometimes a little hard to figure out, but if you use your time trying to find too much order in the chaos, you’re only wasting it instead of experiencing it. Which is perhaps Fielder’s point in doing the experiment in the first place. Stop planning and start doing.
5. Apocalypto
Fielder is throwing himself into the dad role and finding aspects fun, but also now finding himself butt against Angela’s beliefs again. She wants faith-based home-schooling, but Fielder is Jewish. He tries to approach mixed religious beliefs in the home which quickly goes nowhere as Angela is insistent she would 
marry a Christian man. We watch the conflict avoidance the same way unhappy couples refuse to have difficult conversations with each other. Just like the changing of the seasons…what an aerial shot of the house showing the constant work going into the thin veil between reality and imagination.
Fielder finds himself faced with the dilemma of how to be a father. But especially how to co-parent with someone with different fundamental beliefs. I don’t recommend secret Judaism classes disguised as swimming classes. But I suppose that’s just me. In the end, as much as Fielder has thrown himself into the project, Angela has backed away. She’s clearly not fulfilling her end of the deal anymore nor trying to even uphold the mysticism of the experience. She backs out, while Fielder fully commits.
6. Pretend Daddy
Child laws are good because it means children can’t be forced to work too long of hours. For the context of this experiment, it means a lot of children rotating and some don’t always get that they’re playing make-believe. Gotta love casting child actors who get too attached to their fake dads. As Fielder might forget, 
especially for these kids, fake acting does still involve real emotion. And even if the extras at the birthday party can’t really talk, expecting little kids to fake feelings isn’t going to go well. That’s the beauty of kids. They’re so earnest and honest about what they feel. Kids do not care about the brutality of their words, they will tell you that they don’t like you. For Fielder and his anxieties, he feels the need to control, and that need butts up against what a child can really handle. He might be playing God with the help of these kids, but what happens to these kids when he stops playing God? For most, they know it’s a job acting. But now Nathan has to wonder how much damage he’s done to multiple people’s lives in an attempt to allow one woman to live out her fantasy. And isn’t that society as a whole? People trying to live out what they want for themselves instead of looking at what it does to everyone as a whole. But admittedly, the downward spiral of intensity and levels of fake realness got to me eventually to the point where I wondered what was real, what was fake, and when would it all be over.
I don’t know entirely what to make of Fielder. It’s said this work was directly based on past work of his. So perhaps I should wander down his filmography. While I’m not sure what to think or feel about him as a person, I can’t deny this whole experiment made me think and question what I was seeing. But also questioning how that made me feel. What at first didn’t land, found connection upon further thought and examination. And in that regard, I can say the show succeeded. Truly, there’s something to the notion of living out an experiment of that magnitude and depth of life experience. Especially for women, once you make the choice to go down the motherhood route…well, life is a bit different. Being able to experience motherhood accelerated, she can better decide what she wants for herself. And in the case of such a huge life change as that, the experiment is quite a prize. I’m not sure what else to expect from Fielder, but I’m sure I could do a million “what ifs” and probably still not know where his brain will end up going.
THE REHEARSAL is renewed for a second season said to arrive in 2025.
