Critic Reviews
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It is meant to disorient the viewer, and it works. ... Most important, it feels true. It is true enough that as the rehearsals play out, as more and more twists and M.C. Escher–esque turns are introduced into the rehearsal process, your body registers them as true and responds accordingly. You cannot help but want to cringe because it’s so byzantine and so simultaneously emotionally naked. Like it or not, that sensation of bodily distress is the feeling of Fielder’s rehearsals succeeding.
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A brilliant, brain-breaking six-episode HBO series.
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The result is something that can resemble a real-life Charlie Kaufman movie, or a less obviously malicious (but not un-scary) version of David Fincher's The Game. Sound weird? Trust me: Nathan's for you.
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One that is more audacious and thoughtful, and at times funnier, than Nathan For You. ... The Rehearsal will create many feelings inside anyone watching it, starting with vast amusement and perhaps ranging all the way to tears, even at the fakest parts. This is a great one.
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The result is a defiantly unpredictable mix of cringe and pathos that delivers a distinct blend of genuine emotion and laugh-out-loud humor. In a streaming world that thrives on conformity, The Rehearsal is the audacious outlier that delivers a wholly unique viewing experience.
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There aren’t many shows, especially in the comedy world, taking the chances that The Rehearsal does. Nor are they lucky enough to be led by someone like Fielder, a comic visionary who has, once again, turned a parody of reality TV into a brilliant dissection of human nature.
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The Rehearsal is a masterpiece of awkward chaos that plays as both an extension and expansion of his heralded Comedy Central series Nathan for You. ... Fielder takes things so far that it’s difficult to imagine how he concocted this lunacy and impossible to stop laughing at the bravado of his peculiar showmanship.
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The Rehearsal gives Fielder the scope and breadth to fully explore his craziest ideas, and it truly seems as though Fielder has immensely grown as a storyteller and created one of the hands-down funniest shows of 2022. With Nathan For You, Nathan Fielder proved he was a brilliant comedic mind, but with The Rehearsal, Fielder proves he just might be a genius.
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Through it all, you’re not entirely sure of what you’re seeing, but what you’re seeing is so oddly addictive, you can’t help but continue looking.
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Probing, surprising, and extremely funny.
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Beating reality seems like an impossible goal, but it is exhilarating, fascinating, and often very funny to see Fielder get closer and closer to it.
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There were times I wanted The Rehearsal to be more conventionally structured or even more conventionally funny; it gets weirdly poignant at times — or poignantly weird, I’m not sure which — as it walks a fine line between inspired and demented. (One participant’s comparison of Fielder to Willy Wonka isn’t all that far off.) But I can honestly say I’ve seen nothing like it on television before.
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Anyone tuning in purely for a good time will find plenty of well-orchestrated punchlines, off-the-cuff chuckles, and meme-able moments. Reality fans will latch on to a number of indelible characters, as Fielder continues to dig up priceless, one-of-a-kind personas. But most of all, “The Rehearsal” will move you. Even as a genre hybrid, rigorously blending raw reactions with scripted machinations, Fielder’s series honestly explores his subjects’ journeys as well as his own.
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Although there are some uncomfortable laughs in the series, I wouldn’t classify it as a comedy so much as a genre-bending experience. I never quite knew what was real, how I was supposed to respond, or even what I felt. ... The Rehearsal is a metastasizing metafiction that keeps you on the edge of your seat—even though the show’s premise is to completely eradicate all suspense and contingency from life.
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Uncomfortably funny, sneakily poignant and conceptually bananas. ... What starts as a life-hacking satire becomes a reality-comedy “Inception.” ... Entertaining but also disorienting. You are constantly gauging which sentiments are genuine, which emotions are more real than others, which scenes to invest in. ... And there’s a tender, even beautiful side to its surreal moments.
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Perhaps the best analysis of the experience is given by one of the actors working for Nathan in the show itself: “It’s weird, but fascinating.”
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For all the questions it raises about itself, Fielder’s work is reliably fascinating, if not necessarily amusing; it is usually presented as comedy, but here it’s comedy of a particularly melancholic sort.
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A show that isn’t always as funny as its predecessor, but captures a similar contemporary unease, has the potential for even greater emotional reach, and displays a level of ambition that’s as impressive as it is impressively silly.
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“Sometimes, I’m not sure why I make the choices I do,” Fielder says. Viewers may not know either, but “The Rehearsal” is unique in making us wonder. Whether you laugh, or stare in amazement, “The Rehearsal” will definitely keep you watching.
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In the case of The Rehearsal, the agenda is not always clear and takes on almost a free-association quality starting with the third episode. This will be fine for some viewers who enjoy watching the elaborate deceptions that Fielder and his production crew engage in to keep their simworld going, but ultimately it comes down to what you think of Nathan Fielder and his inward musings.
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A somber, introspective and highly mannered take on the prank show — Comedy Central meets Charlie Kaufman. ... But if the result is too often forced and airless, at least Fielder can boast once again that he’s created another singular series that doesn’t resemble anything else on television.
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“The Rehearsal,” whose creator’s work in the past has taken us unexpected places, now returns, endlessly, to the idea of the creator himself; it’s pulsing with imagination, but ends up with paralyzingly little whimsy.
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In voice-over, Nathan expresses an odd bewilderment about his power to “create feelings for other people’s rehearsals” but not for himself. It’s a bewilderment that reflects the intellectual and emotional blankness at the center of “The Rehearsal.” ... His cleverness masks the hollowness of his schemes. No digression, no incidentals, no loose ends can intrude on Fielder’s taut, compact, self-contained sketches. He looks the Look at the people he films, but doesn’t seem to see them.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 42 out of 56
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Mixed: 4 out of 56
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Negative: 10 out of 56
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Jul 16, 2022
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Jul 25, 2022
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Jul 19, 2022