English Podcast

The podcast discusses a binge-worthy series called The Rehearsal on HBO Max. They talk about the use of allusions and how it comments on authenticity in media. They also mention specific scenes and elements of the show that stood out to them. The hosts believe that the show highlights the difficulty of replicating real life and emphasizes the need for more authenticity in media. They also mention a new wave of media where authenticity is being explored. Welcome back to The Couch Potato, a podcast where we report on, analyze, and recommend the best TV so that you never have to take a break from binge-watching. I'm your host, Sally Thompson, and today I'm joined by two avid binge-watchers, here to discuss a new binge-worthy series on HBO Max, The Rehearsal. Hi, I'm Anika, and I'm really excited to be joined by you today. Same here, I'm Ian. Yeah, so today I think we're going to be discussing the use of various allusions throughout The Rehearsal, and how Nathan Fielder uses these scenes to make a statement about authenticity in modern media. I'm excited. Are you guys? Yeah. Absolutely. So for our viewers that haven't watched The Rehearsal, it's basically a show where a comedian named Nathan Fielder simulates situations that give people an opportunity to rehearse and experience scenarios that they may eventually experience in real life. What did you guys think of the show? Well, I think it was one of the best shows I've seen this year. Like, it was such an interesting show, and one thing that I really noticed that made it interesting was the demonstrations of the setups of The Rehearsal itself. Yeah, I thought that was really interesting too, because it kept kind of reminding me of how staged and unreal the environment is. Well, first of all, I want to say this was one of my favorite shows, and I do agree. It had many elements that fit very well, but this one particular element where they showed the sets of how Nathan Fielder helped his clients rehearse right before, I felt like it could have been improved or maybe even cut out, because it grounded the audience back in reality. When I was watching the show personally, I became so invested in the characters and their acting that it felt as if the show was actually about that one particular rehearsal happening in time, and when this happens, it's a little bit jarring, and I would have preferred it to happen. Yeah, I understand that. I've never seen a show be so aware of its own premise, but I do think that it made the show's commentary on authenticity in media more impactful. Yeah, but some of the examples that I thought would have been improved were how they switched child actors through the window when they were changing in the last rehearsal, where Nathan Fielder tries to become a dad, and so I was very invested in the characters. For example, Remy, the little kid there, he was a phenomenal actor for his age, but then when the time was up and they had to age the actor by three years, it felt so out of place, and I felt like it could have been a little more gradual. Yeah, I kind of noticed what you're talking about in the scene in the Raising Canes where Nathan's doing the rehearsal with Patrick, and we have this kind of beautiful emotional moment where Patrick actually breaks down and starts crying, which I think was one of the only times in the show where Nathan's rehearsal seems to actually allow someone to unlock something within themselves, and so we have this beautiful moment, and then the camera cuts to the woman pretending to eat the chicken tenders, and it just felt like the producers chose to show us that because they wanted to break up that emotional tension that had been created. They wanted to ground us back in the reality of the rehearsal and of the over-engineered situation. They didn't want us to get too invested in the emotional situation. So, I was doing some reading on the rehearsal, and one particular article I found was a New York Times article called All the World is Staged in the Rehearsal, and the writer says that, well, this is his quote, repeatedly, Fielder pulled the rug out from under you, and underneath it, there's another rug held by another Fielder who pulls that one out too. I really thought this quote was very interesting. Yeah, I think that quote's a great visualization of how Nathan is perpetually so invested in these rehearsals and these illusions, and the clip you mentioned with the baby being switched out of the window and the clip I mentioned about the chicken tenders, they're a way for him to show the audience that he's the puppet master, and he's showing us these clips to almost ensure that the audience doesn't get caught in the simulation with the participants in the show. For whatever reason, it's important to him that the audience is periodically reminded of the falsity of these situations. Yeah, yeah. And I think in that same breath, Nathan's also trying, throughout the show, he was trying to keep up this fake universe for his clients. For example, in episode three, there's a scene where he showed his staff literally planting vegetables, fully grown vegetables in his garden, sticking zucchinis into the dirt, which is really funny. But I think it kind of shows how Nathan was feeling really rushed to keep Angela's rehearsal as perfectly simulated as possible. But one thing that stuck out that he showed in episode three was there was a sticker on one of the bell peppers that showed that they bought this from the grocery store. So that kind of shows that, wait, you can't manipulate growing vegetables. You can't manipulate a garden. It's very hard to perfectly encapsulate reality. And I think he purposely showed these scenes to show how hard it is to replicate real life to the T. And that actually reminded me of a very profound quote that Nathan said in episode six when he went to Remy's real home. Every object was perfectly placed, but nothing was by design. It was a work of art, and it was just real life. So like Anika said, I think this is one of the most important things you can take out of the rehearsal. I'm not sure if Nathan Fielder did this on purpose like Anika mentioned or not, but what I really got from this is that no matter how hard you try to replicate something, you can actually match the authenticity of the original. Fielder, he tries to overly engineer situations, and these are intended to replicate real human experiences, but they have so many intricacies and complexities that even if you spend thousands of dollars of HBO budget money or have as many resources at your disposal, it's simply not easy to replicate. Yeah, I definitely think he's trying to highlight the fact that despite all of the effort and money that he puts into creating and maintaining these illusions, at the end of the day, he's still unable to recreate the authentic feeling of real life, and he wants us to see that. He wants the viewer to take that away from the show, and I think he makes the situations feel inauthentic to the viewer on purpose, and I think this might be a criticism of all the inauthenticity that we see in media, and I think he's arguing that we need more authenticity in media. We need to be aware of what's real and what isn't real in the media that we consume, and in the rehearsal, I think these scenes where he shows the setup and the illusions is his way of making the audience hyper-aware of the show's premise and the over-engineered situations. Well, after our discussion, I'm beginning to think it's not so bad that he included these factors that help you ground back in reality, because they have their own element and purpose as well. Yeah, and that's an element that I particularly liked in the show, and I think it's an element that I've been seeing more and more in media, and I really think that this show is part of a bigger revolution. Directors have been starting to become very meta about their work, and I think that's a very exciting development. For example, there's a new Barbie movie coming out on July 21st, and I recently saw an interview about it that showed how they're similar to how children play with their Barbies. The actors in Barbieland, there will be no water, and so when they shower, they're going to be fake showering, and they're going to be fake brushing their teeth. So these are literally things that kids do with their Barbies, and I like how they're going to show that same exact scenario in the movie. Yeah, I'm excited about this new wave of media where we're seeing more authenticity, and I think in terms of the rehearsal, he's showing authenticity through showing an almost satirical level of inauthenticity, you know? It's kind of the contrast between reality and the fake parts of the show. Yeah. Well, Couch Potatoes, that's all the time we have for today. Big thanks to Annika and Nathan for joining me on the show today. Here, I'm going to say this. Yeah. Well, Couch Potatoes, that's all the time we have for today. Big thanks to Annika and Nathan for joining me on the show today. We will catch you next time for another deep dive into one of your favorite shows. Stay on the couch!