Want to hear more from the actors and creators of your favorite shows and films? Subscribe to The Cinema Spot on YouTube for all of our upcoming interviews!

+ posts

Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.

How deep does this rabbit hole we call The Rehearsal to go? Oh, I shall tell you, dear reader. The fourth episode of Nathan Fielder’s HBO comedy documentary is titled, “The Fielder Method”. It is written by Fielder, Carrie Kemper, and Eric Notarnicola, and directed by Fielder.

In this review, I will be discussing The Rehearsal Season 1 Episode 4. There will be spoilers here, as the title of this article suggests. Nonetheless, please proceed with caution and read ahead at your own discretion.

Note: In writing this article, HBO and WarnerMedia allowed me to view the first five out of six episodes of the series’ first season to properly understand the wider context of the narrative.

Key art for HBO's comedy documentary television series, The Rehearsal, created and directed by Nathan Fielder
Official key art for Nathan Fielder’s HBO comedy documentary television series, ‘The Rehearsal’. Photo credits to HBO.

Discussion

Here we have an episode of The Rehearsal with a longer runtime and with more intricate detail. In my opinion, “The Fielder Method” is one of the stronger episodes of Nathan Fielder’s series due to the time it takes to tell its narrative. Now that we are four episodes into the documentary, we have a clearer notion of what the creator’s plan is meant to entail. Divided into two separate subplots, it seems to appear as if Fielder is willing to take the apparent story of “the rehearsal” as far as it can go.

Fielder, Kemper, and Notarnicola craft what I believe is an excellent half-hour narrative. To help bring that vision to life, we have Telleen on the production design, Falanga in the art direction, and Covington on the set design. Although, I do not think this would have worked out without Isom and Tinney’s set decorations, Jorgenson, Noel, and Wheeler’s costuming, and the casting team’s choices of actors to really get the minutiae right.

In a huge example, Fielder sets up an acting class and has the acting students come in on the second day — and the days that follow — dressed up and resembling the people on the street whom they “follow” and “interact with”, or essentially stalk, as well as bring in props such as large pieces of meat, automobile equipment, or ingredients for an Açaí bowl depending on the person’s respective profession.

Again, this episode feels like quite a rabbit hole that Fielder cannot seem to get himself out of but at the last second, he pulls him out of the spirals of madness and starts over. That is only putting it lightly. With that said, I would like to place focus on the “acting school” subplot of The Rehearsal first, then avert concentration on the “Adam” subplot with the woman we know as “Angela”.

Students, Fake Students, and Even Faker Individuals

In this episode of The Rehearsal, Fielder states that “an actor’s sense of authenticity can vary vastly from one to another”. Here, he convinces the viewer that everything has been depicted as real, yet we have had signs that it is all based on a lie. I mean, last week, we were shown a clip from a Christian film about a grown man and an animated caterpillar discussing the concept of lying. What else is there to say? No, Fielder takes it too far here.

At this so-called “The Fielder Method School of Acting”, he assists up-and-coming actors hone their performance with accuracy. They engage in discourse about action versus behavior, to which Fielder shows them a clip of the Tricia actor (Gigi Burgdorf) from the series’ pilot. Things are going well, that is, until he reveals his intention to create a rehearsal out of this already made-up acting class. Or is the fact that it is made up made up itself?

Two words that I found particularly interesting during this subplot is “immersion experience”. Having learned that earlier this year, such a process involves learning to mold a sense of self through an other. That is a difficult thing to do in this day and age — the era of digital technology — because none of us are Other but rather Same. Even people who want to be seen as “unique” can still be placed into the Same category. Thus, the process of becoming a “self-through-other” is intriguing, and it is through Nathan Fielder himself that we see a rabbit hole of what it could be like for an individual to place themselves in another person’s shoes. What begins with an acting class then becomes a fake(r) acting class and then replicating the life and routines of someone in a different position.

“Adam”, aged 15

While we do get the sense that Angela does not really want to participate in a rehearsal, we do see Fielder’s willingness to bifurcate in the rabbit hole that is the much larger rehearsal, whatever The Rehearsal seems to be. We now find the series creator in a form of self-torture with the “estranged father” stage of the “Adam” storyline. Having been in Los Angeles for over quite literally one week, how does he come home to an already fifteen-year-old Adam (Joshua Benard)? Where was the transition, or did we miss it?

At the end of this episode of The Rehearsal, Fielder makes a monologue of a statement about his self-torture that does come with a double meaning.

It’s easy to assume that others think the worst of you, but when you assume what others think, maybe all you’re doing is turning them into a character that only exists in your mind. The nice thing is sometimes all it takes is a change in perspective to make the world feel brand new.

Nathan Fielder via HBO’s ‘The Rehearsal’ Episode 104, “The Fielder Method”

Fielder has Adam revert back to a six-year-old in the most dramatic yet hilarious way possible. This final scene is the rehearsal that simulates the return, that we are beginning a new spiral in the “Adam” storyline. Stay tuned. That gets harsher to manage next week…

Nathan Fielder in HBO's comedy documentary television series, The Rehearsal Season 1 Episode 4, created and directed by Nathan Fielder
Nathan Fielder (himself) missing on nine fake years of his fictional son’s life in Nathan Fielder’s HBO comedy documentary television series, ‘The Rehearsal’, Season 1 Episode 4—”The Fielder Method”. Photo credits to HBO.

The Crew of The Rehearsal

The Rehearsal is created by Nathan Fielder.

Fielder, Dave Paige, Dan McManus, and Christie Smith serve as the executive producers. Carrie Kemper and Eric Notarnicola serve as the co-executive producers. David Cress and Amanda Schulz are the producers of the documentary.

Marco Cordero is the director of photography. Andrew Fitzgerald serves as the editor, while Aashish D’Mello and Isaiah Fernandez are the assistant editors. Rachel Hein is the writers’ assistant for the episode.

Schuyler Telleen is the production designer. Briana Jorgenson serves as the costume designer. Peter Falanga is the art director, while Andrae Covington serves as the set designer. Katherine Isom is the set decorator, while Wynde Noel serves as the key costumer.

Angela Demo is in charge of the Los Angeles casting, while Simon Max Hill is the casting director for Oregon. Meghan Apostoles serves as the casting associate for the episode. Lexi Morsch serves as the casting associate, while Brian Brose is the extras casting director.

For the Los Angeles unit, Moshood Balogun serves as the casting assistant. Kellie Jo Tinney serves as the set decorator. Laura Wheeler serves as the costumer.

The Cast of The Rehearsal

Journey Baker and Lennon O’Flynn portray “Adam” at age 6, while Joshua Benard portray “Adam” at age 15. Alexander Leiss portrays a fake Nathan.

Christopher Fairbanks, Rif Hutton, David S. Jung, Bryan Marcos, Nick Mestad, Maral Milani, Nadia Mohebban, Lizz Ncube-Carter, Kathryn Hollis Peters, and Zhaleh Vossough portray fake students of a class.

Thomas McNamara and Ashleigh Morghan portray paramedics. Jennifer Khoe portrays a fake producer. Matt Patrick Fox and Tx Tario portray fake roommates, while Casey Morris and Chase Yi portray fake fake roommates.

Performances

The students (or the fake students) of the Fielder Method acting school do fine in their depiction of what I can only believe to be real individuals. What I appreciate the most is their ability to do so with straight faces. I assume this was the most challenging episode of the series to film, and so I must commend their durability in their seats as students and in their roles as Others.

Nathan Fielder takes a different role in this episode of The Rehearsal. Within the confines of 31-33 minutes, we see him doing mostly everything with a straight face, and it isn’t until teenage Adam’s overdose, that Fielder is able to exhibit pathos: discomfort, pain, and sadness in his action and behavior as a fictionalized father. If it were not for the fact that we know this is all fabricated, I do think tears would have been actually shed. Still, this is The Rehearsal. We must take every little bit of detail with grains of salt. Right?

Final Thoughts on The Rehearsal

This episode of The Rehearsal is one of the best that Fielder and his team have come up with. It is far from innocuous, but it is, indeed, immaculate. Next week’s episode is toned down a bit, but it does enter bigoted territory…

Nathan Fielder’s The Rehearsal is now airing on HBO and streaming via HBO Max!

Have you seen this series? If so, then what are your thoughts on it so far? Let us know! For more The Rehearsal updates as well as comedy and documentary-related news and reviews, don’t forget to follow The Cinema Spot on FacebookTwitter, and Instagram!

+ posts

Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.

John Daniel Tangalin

About John Daniel Tangalin

Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.

View all posts by John Daniel Tangalin

4 Comments on “‘The Rehearsal’ Season 1 Episode 4 Spoiler Review — “The Fielder Method””

  1. Pingback: Pilates Chiang Mai
  2. Pingback: Guns for sale

Leave a Reply