The Rehearsal

Nathan Fielder's The Rehearsal is getting a second season, HBO announced on Friday. The 30-minute comedy is a bit of a mind-bender, and even the network ...

“We have no idea where season 2 will take us, and that is the delight of this boundary pushing show from a truly singular talent.” With each episode taking wild turns into social anxieties and the nature of performance in reality television, it’s hard to know exactly what part of Fielder or the show The Rehearsal will turn over next. The result is an intricate and meticulous series that simultaneously builds up

Now, we know you did not have time to rehearse your reaction to this bit of news prior to its release in the absolutely perfectly replicated setting, ...

Fielder serves as executive producer, writer, director, and star of the series. All the while, Fielder finds himself more and more involved in his own experiments. “Nathan has sparked such a lively conversation with The Rehearsal.

HBO has renewed The Rehearsal for a second season ahead of the season one finale, which airs tonight (August 19).

Christie Smith and Dan McManus executive produce for Rise Management. [Nathan Fielder](https://deadline.com/tag/nathan-fielder/) will be staging some more real-life interactions. Then there was Angela, an aromatherapy-loving Christian massage therapist who wanted to have a baby.

Nathan Fielder will continue experimenting as his latest series 'The Rehearsal' lasts beyond this week's season finale.

[Nathan For You](https://ew.com/creative-work/nathan-for-you/), The Rehearsal followed him helping regular people rehearse important moments in their lives ahead of time. "We have no idea where season 2 will take us, and that is the delight of this boundary-pushing show from a truly singular talent." [relentlessly purging content](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/19/heres-why-hbo-max-is-pulling-dozens-of-films-and-tv-series-from-its-streaming-platform.html) from HBO Max.

The series, which was partly filmed in Oregon, features Nathan Fielder working with people who want to "rehearse" how they might deal with challenges ...

[“Apocalypto,”](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0472043/) whose director, Mel Gibson, has been accused of being antisemitic, and criticisms from a Jewish tutor Fielder hired, Angela says in her video that she and the tutor “talked about a lot of things,” and that Angela felt “satisfied with how the cut came out. As for “Apocalypto,” Angela says in her video that she loves the movie “purely because of its cinematography, its message and just the sheer art and the masterpiece that it is, as a movie. They did a good job.” [The Times of Israel reports](https://www.timesofisrael.com/hebrew-tutor-miriam-stole-the-show-on-the-rehearsal-heres-what-she-has-to-say/) that the tutor, [Miriam Eskenasy,](https://cantormiriam.mymusicstaff.com/) “is bound by a non-disclosure agreement not to talk about what happened during the filming, and she had not seen the full episode before it aired. I’m really looking forward to Episode 6 and seeing what he does with it.” The sort-of reality series, [which was partly filmed in Oregon, ](https://www.oregonlive.com/entertainment/2022/07/the-rehearsal-nathan-fielder-comes-to-oregon-for-a-fascinating-new-hbo-series-review.html)was created by, and stars Fielder. [Nathan Fielder’s ](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2358709/)offbeat show, [“The Rehearsal,”](https://www.hbo.com/the-rehearsal) which airs its season finale Friday (Aug. Where “Nathan For You” focused on Fielder’s ridiculous suggestions for small business operators, “The Rehearsal” is built around the concept of Fielder going to absurd lengths to, so he says, help people anticipate dealing with difficult situations by staging rehearsals for such encounters. Angela expressed strong Christian beliefs, and Fielder argued that his own Jewish faith should be part of the fake child’s upbringing. But she told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that she knows her personality could potentially steal any scene — as she does when she accuses Angela of antisemitism.” [Angela ](https://www.instagram.com/thegetwell_ig/)discusses moments in the episode where she says she can’t participate in Judaism, “because Judaism denies that Christ came and died for us,” and “I wouldn’t raise a child to deny that, because it’s the truth.” [“Nathan For You,”](https://www.hbomax.com/series/urn:hbo:series:GX3UHzAJKPxmDbAEAAAH-?offer_id=5&transaction_id=102bc258b87c76646145b3c4d66088&affiliate_id=1009&aff_click_id=102bea6bc2e4c27b1cccd0c075fab1&utm_source=Skimlinks&utm_medium=affiliate) “The Rehearsal” has featured the actor, writer and director interacting with real people as he supposedly tries to help them out. [ stream “The Rehearsal” Season 1 finale episode, “Pretend Daddy,” on HBO Max](https://www.hbomax.com/?offer_id=5&transaction_id=10276ac09749dd6728d006d9d3c68f&affiliate_id=1009&aff_click_id=102ca740cc5456b2680917ffe86478&utm_source=Skimlinks&utm_medium=affiliate).)

If you have absolutely no idea how The Rehearsal could possibly wrap up all of its loose ends in tonight's season finale, you're in luck. Th...

The shocking (and expensive) While The Rehearsal has been lauded for being both [manipulating](https://twitter.com/NightlifeMingus/status/1552329144326770688)" the show's subjects, despite participants consenting to being on TV and signing waivers.

In the masterful finale, Fielder opens with the uncomfortable realization that Remy, one of the child actors hired to play 6-year-old Adam, had become too ...

Or was it the show’s character of Nathan deciding to lean fully into his delusion, collapsing all the layers of artifice he was able to build at HBO’s expense into a single truth? “He just didn’t know what he was doing.” She owns up to the fact that the show was “a weird thing for a kid to do,” and maybe it was a mistake to let him be part of it. Was it Fielder razing the notion of parenthood, allowing Remy’s mom to say that she’s enough as a sole parent, a mom and dad swirled into one? (Fielder eventually reunites with the real Angela, apologizing for what he put her through.) Maybe he should have hired an adult actor to play a child, ensuring he didn’t mess with a young mind still wrapping itself around the concept of reality versus make-believe. The simplicity of the moment raises a million questions. The show’s poignant final moments burst into a kaleidoscope of feeling. (The quick cut to Adult Adam taking a smoke break in the yard is a perfect editing choice, in a show filled with precise and brilliant editing choices.) Maybe he should have convinced Angela to stay, because having a fake mommy around would remind Remy that the show is fake. “Everything about this rehearsal felt so trivial now.” Still, he continues with the project, moving on to an older version of Adam played by a boy named Liam. Maybe he should have just used a mannequin, to avoid tricky human feelings altogether. It’s hard to watch Fielder try and fail to convince this child, who has so deeply bought into the premise of the show. By the final scene, Fielder had not only thoroughly addressed critiques that his show was manipulative, but also dashed theories that the show was entirely staged.

In the Season 1 finale of 'The Rehearsal,' Nathan Fielder gets lost in the puzzle of his own design.

It’s a never-ending Russian doll of theater, as Nathan once again simulates his talk with Remy — this time, as his mother. After trying to console the young kid, Nathan has a conversation with his mom, who tells him, “He sees other kids with dads… In this brief moment of poignance, it seems like Nathan might finally come up for air, realizing the harm his experiment has caused on its subjects — and, perhaps, himself. [Nathan Fielder](https://variety.com/t/nathan-fielder/) says in the Season 1 finale of “The Rehearsal.” He’s dropping off his fake son at a Jewish school. At the beginning of the series, he was Willy Wonka. But Nathan is now the subject of his own rehearsal, raising Adam — played by dozens of child actors of varying ages — all alone.

Nathan Fielder's plan—was it sinister, or beautiful?—finally came to its end. Here are our many (many) thoughts on the season finale of “The Rehearsal.”

Throughout The Rehearsal we watched as Fielder slowly came to terms with the rubble in his wake. The child actor corrects him, in a whisper you might use to hint at a lineread on stage. Fielder refers to himself as a dad, despite the fact that he's playing a mom. In the funniest sequence of the episode, he asks one of the other child-actors—one that he doesn't have the same connection with—if he's a convincing dad. Fielder dons the guise of Remy's mother, in an exact replica of her home, with a facsimile of her son close by. You could imagine Fielder wanting to say these things to Remy itself, but in this pocket dimension, a rehearsal is the best he can hope for. The show ends with Fielder, dressed as a mother, instructing her factitious child—who is sobbing from the emotional whiplash—that life is better with surprises, that the television host didn't mean to confuse him, that we're all figuring things out along the way. Fielder prepared for everything, and yet this boy still wanted him to be his dad—and despite himself, he felt the same way. This is a mild violation of competitive integrity, and Nathan Fielder—a man who has taken advantage of so many people's faith in the goodness of strangers throughout his time in the spotlight—comes clean. Fielder creates an environment where Kor can practice that admission over and over again with all of the chaotic variables fully in his control, and within that simulation, Fielder begins to feel gross about himself. Taken at face value, The Rehearsal is built around the premise that the rigors of real life might be more palatable if we can prepare for them. We've marveled at the ramifications, because it's easy to laugh at a few angry, confused Starbucks customers.

None of us could've anticipated that the season finale of Nathan Fielder's increasingly deranged series The Rehearsal would hinge on a line as terrifyingly ...

My head hurt by the end of the episode, which is, arguably, a testament to Nathan Fielder’s entire project. As a way to understand what happened and to forgive himself, Nathan decides the best way to do so is to see himself from the outside. You can try to pretend to be a good father but all you’ll ever do unless you actually become a father is be a great scene partner. A probing examination of the scripts and strictures we’re called to adhere to as part of our social contract? But they’ve become so increasingly deranged (note how even the rhythm of this episode was faster and more repetitive than usual) that you start to wonder how much of Nathan’s breadcrumbs you’re being led to follow. A six year old named Remy, to be exact, who not only can’t handle not play acting as six year old Adam any more but who refuses to acknowledge that Nathan is not his “Daddy.” In a series that’s probed the blurred lines between fiction and reality, constantly shuffling between the two often within the same scene, it was only a matter of time until one of Nathan’s actors would lose the plot this way. I myself talked about him hijacking Angela’s “rehearsal.” But to end on such a note is also to open us to the possibility that he’s (obviously) always been in control, nudging us toward examining why we may feel comforted or uncomfortable about his every move. After realizing the play-acting as Adam’s dad was a puzzle he was well-equipped to solve because he’d created it himself, he turns his attention to Remy because it’s a problem that forces him to think outside himself. And, as with everything in The Rehearsal, the line between its comedy (their conversation around clarifying how Remy should be happy he’s Christian) and tragedy (the later distinction between Nathan being a “friend” and not a “daddy”) got murkier and murkier as the episode went along. (HBO announced a [sophomore season](https://www.avclub.com/hbo-renews-nathan-fielder-the-rehearsal-second-season-1849434498) ahead of the finale’s airing.) As to what that second season will look like is probably still up for grabs: Will Nathan continue his fatherhood rehearsals or might he return to the initial pitch of helping others rehearse life changing situations? He has a hard time bonding with new nine year old Adam, a fact that yanks him out of the experiment altogether. [The Rehearsal](https://www.avclub.com/tv/reviews/the-rehearsal-2022) would hinge on a line as terrifyingly delivered as “No, I’m your Dad.” And yet, that’s where we were led in the final installment of what’s now officially season one of the show.

The season finale of Nathan Fielder's brilliant The Rehearsal may be a commentary on Fielder's past work. Read our recap here.

Whether any of the people who take part in these shows are happy about what they see isn’t something the creators of the series seem particularly concerned with. He continues to call Nathan “daddy” even when he’s off the clock and refuses to leave the set of the rehearsal. At the behest of the Christian parent of one of the rehearsal’s many Adams, Nathan has to cheerfully explain that he’s going to hell because he’s Jewish.

Nathan Fielder goes to some darkly brilliant but heartbreaking places in the season finale of HBO's The Rehearsal, some of which is hard to justify.

[has already been](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/the-cruel-and-arrogant-gaze-of-nathan-fielders-the-rehearsal)) tried in the court of public opinion – by this point, he is probably aware of that, and perhaps he has been since the beginning. [Fielder’s season finale](https://movieweb.com/nathan-for-yous-finale-documentary-masterpiece/) proved a further blurring of the line between Nathan The Creator and Nathan The Character. What can be ascertained is the audience’s role in this whole dialogue and how the unsafe, unreliable Nathan The Character is the one ushering us through it. There is much here to be mined, criticized, and questioned, and audiences have the right to be disgusted, and perhaps they should (even Nathan seems to be, questioning how he can even forgive himself). After Painting With John, How To With John Wilson, and The Rehearsal, nobody can say that HBO does not fully support the niche creative dreams of great artists. The first six chapters of this saga were already so ambitious and out-there, that one can only imagine what The Rehearsal will be like with more money and resources poured into it.

After weeks of painstaking preparation for every possible outcome, Fielder realizes that “life's better with surprises.” A recap of “Pretend Daddy,” episode ...

• I don’t think it’s the point of the whole thing that Fielder is only able to fully achieve the kind of transcendent absorption he’s been questing after this whole time when he’s in character as a woman, but I don’t know that it’s merely incidental either. I don’t have any big insights or theories about this beyond the fact that it’s there, and as this season has made clear to us, nothing is included in this show by accident. It was that exact look that led him to design Patrick’s rehearsal with an elaborate set of extra emotional stakes, and that addition led Patrick to a revelation about his grief. When they arrive at the part of the simulation after Fake Nathan has come over to their apartment and attempted to correct his mistakes, Fake Remy starts to cry and Fielder, in character, begins to comfort him. But the next face he makes, before he moves back into character and hugs his son, is harder to interpret; something about his expression seems almost sinister. The final moment — where he reassures Fake Remy that he’s his dad, and the kid breaks character to whisper that he thought he was his mom — contains a whole universe of meaning. She tapes his audition, goes to set, watches the Fake Nathan from the Fielder Method episode act out these scenes with her fake son, and feels the dawning realization that she might have made a mistake. But when Fielder asks her where she got her sweatshirt, I felt a pit open up in my stomach; when he and the child actor get back in the car, and Fielder asks him if he “[got] enough,” I felt the same free-falling, boundary-less blend of thrill and terror I remembered from the very first episode of the show. When he returns home, Fielder tries several rehearsal-based solutions to the situation, re-running his relationship with Adam using an increasingly creepy series of techniques, including a dummy and an adult man dressed as a child. When the two of them perform a scene Fielder designed to simulate the experience of counseling his son through an episode of bullying, it feels flat, not just because Fielder’s “solving a puzzle of [his] own design,” but because he’s getting his fake son to rehearse the same patterns that got him here in the first place. The sentiment is funny, but it’s also a gorgeous inversion; he’s feeling the same kind of amazement we feel when we see how meticulously he’s been able to recreate real places. As Nathan tries and fails to comfort him, he explains in a voiceover that Remy was one of his favorite fake sons.