How Fans Really Feel About The Rehearsal So Far

Nathan Fielder's latest show, "The Rehearsal" on HBO Max, is an absurdist comedy, a self-aware docu-comedy, or a mixture of both, depending on how you look at it. Some might even wonder how real "The Rehearsal" is. HBO describes it as "Fielder allows ordinary people to prepare for life's biggest moments by 'rehearsing' them in carefully crafted simulations." But "The Rehearsal" is not that easy to define, although you might find it surprisingly easy to watch. Is Season 1 a meta-reality show, a bizarre social experiment, or all just an elaborate setup for Season 2?

Polygon reports that Fielder's latest experiment has been renewed for a second season, with the executive vice president of HBO programming, Amy Gravitt, commenting, "We have no idea where season 2 will take us, and that is the delight of this boundary[-]pushing show from a truly singular talent." Gravitt had every right to make that statement because it's likely that no one except Fielder knows what "The Rehearsal" is truly about in the long run. If anything, it's about a lot of things, touching on the issues of morality, self-awareness, and reality. But how do fans really feel about the show?

Criticizing "The Rehearsal" can be challenging due to its shifting nature. While the pilot episode is about helping a guy confess something to a friend, Season 1 later morphs into a parenting simulator and even something quite heartbreaking in the finale.

Fans of the show have flocked to Reddit to express how they really feel about it. The original poster, u/skepticalmiller, who loved the program, asked what everyone else thought. Other fans soon started praising "The Rehearsal."

Redditor u/WhaleTrooper said that they loved the first episode because everyone got what they wanted in the end and found that fact strangely wholesome, while u/chickfromthejungle claimed, "[Season 1 is] a masterpiece." Redditor u/AbysmalBelle even went so far as to write, "I LOVED it, we ended up going back and are rewatching all of Nathan [f]or You," referring to Nathan Fielder's docu-reality comedy. 

However, not everyone liked Fielder's latest offering. Redditor u/bananabossbaboon wrote, "As a fan of [N]athan for [Y]ou, [I] didn't really like it." Different strokes for different folks, so it might be best to watch all six episodes of "The Rehearsal" and form your own opinion.

And now that Season 1 has officially finished, other people have also shared their opinions on "The Rehearsal." Esquire talked to Dr. Jasmine Dayan, a cognitive behavioral therapist and psychologist, who dished out her thoughts on the show, with an accent on the similarities between Nathan Fielder's methods and real-life therapy sessions.

Dayan thinks that Fielder uses some pretty good therapy techniques, such as exposure therapy and role-playing, when helping people overcome their fears and anxieties by rehearsing the scenarios beforehand. She also loves that Fielder really pushed himself to understand other people's thoughts and feelings about him, which is a big thing in cognitive behavioral therapy and perception. Dayan concluded the interview by praising "The Rehearsal" because it's very interesting and it might encourage people to consider therapy themselves. She would even wholeheartedly recommend her clients participate, saying, "If that's something the patient wants to do, it would be helpful. They would be able to gain a lot by being able to role-play everything out so well."