Take a moment to think of a secret you’ve been hiding for years. Now imagine sharing it with the one person in the world that is likely to overreact or not take it well. It’s enough to give anyone sweaty palms. But what if you could practice your conversation over and over again with a trained actor, playing out different results, so that when you do finally have that conversation you’re fully prepared?
That’s the plot behind Nathan Fielder’s new HBO Max series The Rehearsal. In the reality-comedy, Fielder finds people who have specific issues that they are trying to work through and helps them resolve those issues by allowing them to practice the scenario with a trained actor in a fully simulated environment, so that when they do confront the issue in real life, they’re prepared for almost any outcome.
The show is considered a reality-comedy in the eyes of HBO, and as a comedian himself, Fielder is no stranger to the genre. His previous series, Nathan for You, dealt with a similar premise, but The Rehearsal cranks that up ten notches.
But whether or not The Rehearsal is truly a reality-comedy is the question. There are comedic bits, to be sure, but there are also emotional moments and dramatic ones. All in all, Fielder’s newest social experiment is striking contradictory chords amongst viewers, with many wondering how much of it is real and how much of it is scripted.
Do we know if The Rehearsal is scripted or real?
On one hand, there is a very uncomfortable aspect to the show that is off-putting for some viewers: Fielder has full control over the situations he’s simulating. He lets each and every scenario play out however he deems worthy, leading the real-life people on the show to maybe say or do something they might wish they never would’ve said or done, especially since it’s forever memorialized on TV. Sure, they’ve signed contracts and know what they’re getting themselves into, but the cringe factor is just a tad too much for some people, made worse by the guise that it’s all in the name of helping people. But in reality Nathan holds the key to the edit, and these people may or may not walk away feeling better than when they started, especially when they watch themselves back on TV and see how the puppet master maneuvered their strings.
Sure, it’s thematically beautiful, but is it morally corrupt? Then again, the question can only be answered if we know whether or not the show is scripted or real because that would, in fact, make all the difference in the world.
Unfortunately, no one really knows for sure whether the show is really scripted. It’s hard to discern where the script ends – if there is one – and where reality begins. HBO has yet to comment on the matter, nor has Fielder, which has undoubtedly aided the show in its allure.
You can read our full review of The Rehearsal here.