Nathan Fielder is one of my favorite working artists. Back in 2020, I made a blog post that touched on his flagship show Nathan For You. At the time I said it “might be the funniest show I've ever seen”. And I haven’t wavered on this opinion. Fielder's comedy feels made for me, in a way only Tim Robinson has matched. Recently, I had the absolute pleasure of watching two more shows from the mind of Mr. Fielder. Let’s talk about them.

The Rehearsal

The Rehearsal in many ways is a spiritual successor to Nathan For You. Except this time he has HBO dump trucking him mountains of cash. Nathan helps people prepare for stressful scenarios by giving them an all-encompassing rehearsal. Restaurants are rebuilt on a sound stage, actors stand-in for their loved ones, and Nathan is the puppet master. 

The first episode focuses on helping this guy Kor tell his friend some bad news. Kor’s anxiety about the situation is riveting and really makes you feel for Kor. It climaxes when Kor almost gets cold feet during the real conversation, but then follows through. Heart pounding. A perfect episode of television.

This is why The Rehearsal transcends Nathan For You. Nathan is not only going for laughs, he’s digging deep into human psychology. The subjects are real and are genuinely seeking help. I expected the entire show to be a series of standalone episodes akin Nathan For You, but it’s not. Season 2 follows one long story arc and thank god it did.

Season two is crazy, and I’ll try to summarize. In airline disasters, there's often poor communication between the pilots in the moments before the crash. It was a matter of pride. First officers were too afraid to speak up against their captains. Captains were refusing to take orders from their first officers. It’s a real phenomenon. Nathan aimed to build rapport between the pilots by making them rehearse communication before takeoff.

The rest you truly should see for yourself, but the ambition is crazy. For such a serious topic, the season is filled with extremely memorable laugh out loud moments. In particular, the episode about Sully Sullenberger has my favourite joke payoff in recent memory. It’s a must see season of television that pushes the genre into the stratosphere. 

The Curse

Odds are you haven’t even heard of this show. Only true Fielder fans have seen this one. The real kicker is this is an entirely fictional show. Yep, Nathan Fielder is acting in this one. Emma Stone and Nathan are a couple who’s starting their house flipping reality TV show in the town of Espanola.

The show is exactly what you would expect from a scripted comedy starring Nathan Fielder. It’s uncomfortable. I feel like uncomfortable is too nice of a word. Think back to a show where you wanted to turn it off cause it was too cringy. I promise you The Curse is worse. The Curse may have perfected cringe.

The best comparison is to a horror movie. Muscling through the fear and the tension provides a thrilling experience. I’m covering my eyes with my hands, not because I'm scared, but because I'm dying of embarrassment. And this undoubtedly was intentional in the show's design. It’s filmed like a horror movie. Creepy close up shots, unsettling ambient music, scenes that drag on for far too long. Above all that, the characters are straight up villains. 

Nathan’s character Asher is a soulless dweeb. Every time he’s on camera he’s fumbling a social interaction or putting his foot in his mouth. But the true star is Emma Stone. There's no secret Emma rules, but her holier than thou TV personality beats Fielder at his own game. An Emmy worthy performance from Stone even though it got zero recognition. They are awful people. Awful to each other, awful to everyone around them. 

It’s not an easy watch and it’s definitely not a show I would recommend. I think 99% of people I know would slap me in the face afterwards. But, if Fielder’s comedy hits you in that sweet spot, this is like mainlining it into your arteries.