The Rehearsal Fans Are Pointing At Nathan Fielder As The Show's Villain

What did we do to deserve this? We're living in the age in which Nathan Fielder, the genius behind "Nathan for You," got a pretty big chunk of HBO Max's budget to make his new show, "The Rehearsal" (via The Atlantic). And he made pretty good use of that HBO money. In "The Rehearsal," we see Fielder rehearsing big moments with ordinary people via complex, staged scenarios that might or might not happen once the action takes place in real life.

For example, in the first episode, a man wants to make a confession to a friend. So Fielder built a huge set that's actually a replica of the bar where the man will meet with his friend in real life so that he can repeatedly rehearse his confession in a familiar setting, with many variables. If this reminds you of "Synecdoche, New York," you might be on to something — many, such as writers for CBR, have already pointed out the connection between "The Rehearsal" and the 2008 movie. But the next few episodes took Fielder in a different direction, and fans of the show are now pointing at Fielder as the villain.

In the following episodes of "The Rehearsal," Nathan Fielder moves in with a woman named Angela in an effort to rehearse raising a son. He then makes steps toward converting him to Judaism because Angela is a devout Christian. After a few episodes, Angela leaves the project, while Fielder remains to raise the child by himself. And as reality and fiction begin to blur, we are left puzzled as to what this show is really about and how real it is. While Fielder is fully in control in "Nathan for You," things quickly start going off the rails in "The Rehearsal." We're left to wonder who the real positive force of the show is as Fielder begins painting himself as a flawed human being many times over in the span of a few episodes.

Fans on Reddit have begun pointing out Fielder as the antagonist as well. The original poster, u/Sewati, claimed, "This show is clearly a meta-commentary exploring the ethics of Nathan-as-puppetmaster." Redditor u/nojudgment3 said, "The show so far is all about anxiety, control and how they relate," while u/mrsavealot claimed, "Everything [N]athan does and says is a part of a character study exploring the ethics of his work." Whether Fielder is a hero or an antihero is debatable, but we can all agree that this meta-show raises some pretty interesting questions about the principles of morality.

Angela, the woman who was rehearsing raising a son, has her own hot take on "The Rehearsal." Even though she left near the end of Season 1, this dedicated Christian posted a video of her reaction to Episode 5 in the Facebook group Nathan For You Businessposting that was subsequently shared on Twitter by @sorcamemes. Among other things, Angela said that she loved the actor playing her and was simply stunned by her back-and-forth with Nathan Fielder. On the other hand, when she met Fielder's Jewish friend, Miriam, we could see that the conversation didn't go so smoothly on the show. However, in the video, Angela claimed, "Miriam had a lot of fire in her belly," which she liked.

"All in all, I'm satisfied with how the cut came out," Angela said. And if you thought that she didn't pray on it and leave it all to God, we don't know what show you've been watching, but it wasn't "The Rehearsal." As her final message, Angela defended her favorite movie, Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto." Apparently, she doesn't love it because of who directed it, but because the movie has excellent cinematography, and she considers it a "masterpiece." There you have it — even the people who've left the show love it. And if that's not a great incentive to see it, we don't know what is.