Orange Juice, No Pulp

Nathan has done it again. I couldn't believe what I just watched. Top notch production value and a different twist on his comedy than NFY. I was on the edge of my seat front to back. Can't wait for next week.

Everything I expected and more, but with an interesting focus on drama over comedy at times. There are so many memorable moments of this episode and I keep thinking back to it. So far the best episode of the series.

It's hard to call Nathan Fielder a comedian because his statements are less often punchlines than they are psychic barbs, poignant reflections of the human psyche. What Nathan brings to television is so much more than some funny jokes or bits; he constructs labyrinthian schemes to test his subjects' and audience's gall - at times, what he puts his subjects through is very hard to watch - revealing in us what he reveals with his schemes, be they hard-truths about the shallowness of our interactions, or the deceptions we use to fool ourselves into believing everything is normal. What his shows offers on-top of off-the-wall, intricate worlds of his imagination, and hilarious interactions with "characters" too outlandish to be fake, is a chasm of introspection.

I hadn't seen the trailer for this show, only a handful of teaser images, so I really wasn't sure what to expect. With Nathan For You, I felt his best 'skits' were those where he truly pushed the boundaries of what people would put up with as legitimate (like the lawyer), but certainly his best work was in "Finding Frances" which delved into the humanity of someone who often cast aside his humanity to get a leg up. It was a humbling experience to watch someone who put on such a façade so often break down their walls and just be relentlessly themselves. Which, in showing his respect to Bill's humanity, Nathan, too peeled away the façade he himself wore throughout the whole of Nathan For You. With The Rehearsal, what lies beneath that façade remains exposed and Nathan is himself, relentlessly, a hilarious person who is masterful at dancing around the typical social cues and truly testing peoples' ability to adapt to whatever psychosocial darts he throws at them. It's truly a spectacle to behold, as the discomfort is intended to stir within the viewer a deeper sense of calamity than what is presented at first glance. The further he drills into the uncomfortable, anxious, tepid underscore of social interaction, the more harrowing it is to watch because it makes the viewer imagine themselves being forced into such an unwinnable situation. Unwinnable in that there is no leaving that conversation feeling like a normal conversation was had, that none of the words were right, that the lens of self-consciousness we feel in high-stress social interactions is bearing witness to every crevice of our being and the spotlight is shining so brightly on us there is nothing, nowhere to hide.

Faced with this unpredictable untenability is what makes his interactions so enthralling, and here he has incorporated that into the very fiber of his endeavor with The Rehearsal. It says a lot that the man who thrives on unpredictability has channeled it so profoundly in this show that is literally about removing the unpredictability from social interaction that the predicted is still unpredictable.

This episode was a rollercoaster, but the entire ride was being in the front seat on that climb to first drop, teetering towards what has to be the launch. Roughly 90% of this episode was that feeling of upheaval before the ride actually starts and you start hitting those loops and curves. What is universally seen as the worst part of the ride on a rollercoaster was painstakingly crafted here to truly make that launch so much more than it actually is. "

The journey was the destination" is only half-true here. Because the journey was a tantalizing beauty, but they payoff was impeccable, which, to be completely fair isn't entirely Nathan's doing. Because this show is "unscripted" by nature, having the payoff actually be payoff and work within the context of the situation Nathan constructs his world, it's actually not something Nathan himself could control, even if he adjusts every variable he can to be in his favor.

What the rest of this show will look like, we may have some pretty solid guesses after this episode, but I highly doubt we'll be able to predict even 1% of the lunacy we're set to behold, and I'm very excited. Moreso because the first episode of Nathan's first official self-driven foray since Nathan For You was so fantastically executed that I now have faith with some degree of certainty that the he's just getting started and what lies ahead is going to be worth every second. 9.5/10.

I love Nathan for You, it's probably in my top 3 comedy shows of all time. Naturally I was excited to see Nathan Fielders next big project, however I was expecting it to be nothing compared to Nathan for You. I was wrong. I honestly put this first episode on par with Nathan for You. I'm excited to see more of these scenarios unfold.

That's right. Read it again. Again. Again. Again... Yeah you remember the bit.

This cat Nathan Fielder is without a doubt the ONLY comedic voice of the past 15 years. The current state of comedy in film and tv has been seriously weak since the late 2000's. There's been no guiding light, no voice, no savior in the comedy scene.

Cause in all actuality, the only time a true comedian takes a stranglehold on his generation (I call a generation every 15years but that's just me) is when they are entirely unique and SINCERE in THEIR approach to their comedy.

You'd have to go back to Louis C. K. a decade ago with Louie to find a creative force as funny and as genius as this man Nathan Fielder we have the PRIVILEGE of seeing today. At his peak. In his prime.

This show is one episode in and in every way possible, it's 'Nathan for You' but on crack. Crack cocaine, that is. It's grander in scale yet smaller and more intimate. It's more meta, diving the audience deeper into the comedic state where Fielder likes to hold us: augmented reality.

To wrap it up, this guy is only getting better and better. He makes me happy to be alive, truly. Just knowing there is someone out there with such an imagination and vision grand enough to somehow or another, take a 2022 audience, somewhere we have never been.

Thank you Nathan.