Even the dude who crashed his Scion at 100 mph?
This was all a rehearsal
Huge thanks to @chappers for directing me to this! Also, @justaguy2 for putting Nathan Fielder on my radar much earlier. As I was watching, I realized, “Ah, this must be the guy @justaguy2 told me about!”
Exactly my reaciton, @CharlesC! A compelling watch, to be sure. But also and overall, very unpleasant for focusing so much on a couple of really terrible people, and actually supporting their terribleness in disappointing ways, all because Fielder was so doggedly determined to crawl up his own ass by hiring people to indulge him in an alternate reality therapy exercise. Which, sure, is fascinatingly absurd and even kind of laudable for the degree of public introspection it takes.
But good lord, that bigoted Fundamentalist chick brought nothing to the show. No charm, no personality, no insight, no expressiveness, nothing. All I saw was a self-obsessed, intolerant, bigoted, and singularly unpleasant know-it-all. I’m sure there’s a person under there somewhere, but Fielder did nothing to reveal her. And what the heck did he think was going to happen when he brought in a rabbi (?) to confront her? Speaking of, sure, I suppose it’s funny when the lady rabbi starts bagging on Palestinians – har har both sides, amirite? – but it’s kind of a dick move to drag her into that situation and then out her own bigotry.
It just made me very uncomfortable in a “well what did you think was going to happen?” kind of way. Because when Borat does it, I know it’s Sacha Baron Cohen being an asshole, deliberately trying to humiliate mostly awful people with uncomfortable situations. But when Fielder does it, it feels layered with a disingenuous veneer of “but I’m only trying to work through people’s personal issues!”
But where it really bothered me – as you can probably guess – was with the fatherless boy. The real villain here seems to be the boy’s clueless mother for throwing her son into that situation. It’s one thing for a kid that age to take drama classes and maybe start looking into acting. Eventually, you get kids like the slightly older boy who was clearly ACTING! When he tells Nathan, “You’re a good scene partner,” it’s obvious he’s working on a craft, he’s studying the process of “professional role-playing”, a.k.a. acting. He’s a young impressionable kid being taught how to process, navigate, and exploit the lines between reality and fantasy, between truth and performance, between honesty and acting. He’s old enough to understand it and start learning it.
But that much younger kid? Left to play-act that he’s got a father with a really really convincing method actor, the two of them laying the groundwork for hours on end? While his mother sits in the green room doing fuck-all? Again, WHAT DID YOU THINK WAS GOING TO HAPPEN?
That just made me angry. And it made me think less of Nathan Fielder for not anticipating what would happen. But I guess he’s just new to this, so I should cut him a break?
…which I realized he’s not. As I’m sure we all know by now, Fielder has been doing this sort of stuff for literally years, from before he was gray. But after watching – and enjoying! – some of his earlier segments, I’m even more disgusted by what he put that little boy through. Fielder has been doing this sort of long-form in-depth improv with non-actors as a career, and he still didn’t anticipate what effect it might have on a confused little fatherless kid whose mother doesn’t know any better?
That’s on him, and I’m glad the last couple of episodes were about him wrestling with it. And while it might be resolved for him, it wasn’t for me. I came away from The Rehearsal upset with Nathan Fielder, disgusted by the intolerant bigot he spent so many episodes humoring, and heartbroken for that poor little kid losing a powerful father figure. I don’t think that was the intended effect of the series. :(
I had thought this was scripted–is that not right?
I think he did a good job revealing a very pleasant person in that first episode that she was in (the second episode of the show, I think). Most people I know are very generous and kind in their thinking and their dealings with people that they have been exposed to. That’s why people in cities who have been exposed to a wider array of people and cultures tend to be more tolerant of more viewpoints. With this kind of born-again fundamentalist, I just don’t expect that circle to be very wide, you know? So I would have expected her to only be kind and generous and accepting of other people within that same born-again Christian circle, mostly. But she kind of surprised me with her tolerance as she was dating and finding others who would raise the kid with her. I suppose in retrospect, to be born again, we learn that she herself went to some dark places, so she had a lot of sympathy and exposure to people who have succumbed to addiction, for instance. She’d been there, and she understood.
Of course, with each subsequent episode, she got more and more outside that circle of exposure, and that’s where you see the bigotry come out, as expected.
So I thought Nathan did a good job of exposing a real person in that first episode.
That’s not right.
But also right.
But also not right.
The show isn’t scripted but it is rehearsed.
Well, not entirely scripted. But it seemed clear to me the central family stuff was planned out.
This was a common reaction, but I don’t really see it. Observing my nieces and nephews they have gotten attached to people too and cry when that person has to leave, but they also forget about it quite quickly as Remy seemed to as well. It is sad that he doesn’t have a father, but it isn’t the fault of people who end up bonding with him that they can’t be a long term substitute for one.
Huh. I’ve only watched through to episode 4, but I assumed the whole thing was scripted. Or, at least, each scene was carefully planned out, even if the actors improvised their lines.
Everyone’s an actor though, right? And are ‘in on it’ in terms of the wider plot, concept of the show, etc?
EDIT: For example, the religious lady. She’s just an actor playing the role of “the religious lady”, and Fielder preps her before each scene eg “Say that you think Google is run by the devil”, etc.
Man, now I’m not sure what to think…
From what I have read of cast members posting in Nathan For You meme groups or from people posting cameo videos they paid for from these people, the personality you see on screen is pretty close to the real thing at least in these cases!
Hmm, I wonder if that’s just part of their contract ie playing up to their ‘character’ while off-camera? Maybe in 6-12 months it will all be revealed as an elaborate stunt?
I still struggle to imagine that some of the reactions on the show are genuine. For instance, the babysitter seemingly unconcerned about the cameras and fake child, etc. Or the guy assisting the grandfather for hours in the forest. Surely at some point he’d turn to the camera crew and say “This is a setup, right? What’s actually going on?” if he wasn’t already being fed the plot and how to react.
If they aren’t playing characters then…wow…I’d be more concerned than amused.
My understanding is a lot of the random people on Nathan’s shows know something is up, but not what exactly, and play along because they want to be famous/on TV/think it’s funny and he’s not usually asking too much of them.
That is a very fair reaction, and I believe it is the intended one. For me, the running tension of the show was “What will I, as a viewer, accept as a fun artificial reality and which aspects of that artifice are hiding uncomfortable truths?”
Does exploiting a child in order to explore the practice of exploiting children make it okay? No. Did I stop watching after it became apparent the show had shifted to exploiting the child’s real confusion for drama? No. Again, not an excuse for their behavior, but there was a sense that they were making explicit some of the implications of enjoying any reality show.
The show is deeply uncomfortable to watch, but I don’t feel like cruelty was ever the joke. I’m very curious what they attempt in season 2.
Nathan’s new show is The Curse.
It might eventually deserve a thread of its own. It’s nice to see it will be on Showtime. That means it will be on Paramount+, which means it’s essentially free since they still give out free months like candy.
Edit: Nov 10th.
I am a Day 1 subscriber, buyer, renter, procurer, purchaser, patron, consumer, acquirer, and drinker of anything Nathan Fielder offers up to the world. Can’t wait for this.
He’s also working on a second season of The Rehersal, according to all the copy I’ve been reading. Double Nathan Fielder? OK!