[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for The Rehearsal, Season 2 Episode 4, “Kissme.”]
If Larry David is comedy’s social murderer, utilizing his humor to dissect and dismantle the unstated guidelines of society, Nathan Fielder is comedy’s most invested social anthropologist. The comic has constructed a profession on reveling in uncomfortable conditions, pushing cringeworthy interactions so far as they’ll go, and letting the air of awkwardness dangle for so long as attainable, all within the title of unveiling some type of reality about our nature as modern Earth-dwellers. Oh, and for laughs — that too.
That is particularly the case in The Rehearsal, a present that (he insists) remains to be a comedy. Season 1 of the HBO collection obtained deep into the weeds of emotion, habits, clashing personalities, and higher concepts of morality, and to date, Season 2 has solely continued to widen the scope. The most recent providing of The Rehearsal, Season 2 Episode 4, finds Fielder returning to 1 explicit matter that has seemingly each and confounded him for the majority of his profession: love and relationships.
Fittingly titled “Kissme,” the brand new episode of The Rehearsal follows Fielder taking the following steps in his try to grasp the psyche of airline pilots. After a rousing efficiency of “Wonderful Grace” by the remaining contestants of “Wings of Voice,” Fielder turns into notably preoccupied with the struggles of 1 particular first officer, Colin.
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After we first meet him, Colin reads as a usually well-meaning, although fairly introverted, younger man who confides in Fielder a couple of lack of success with reference to his courting life. To instill extra self-confidence in Colin, Fielder introduces a brand new methodology of rehearsing known as “The Pack.” Impressed by a nature documentary that lined sure animals’ tendency to hunt in packs, Fielder hires a number of actors to hover round Colin on a staged date, mimicking his each phrase and motion.
“Animals will hunt in packs ’trigger it offers every particular person animal the boldness to do issues they might usually be afraid to do on their very own,” Fielder defined. “I puzzled if that concept utilized to people would make social interplay really feel much less scary.”
After all, being a Fielder manufacturing, the idea doesn’t cease there. Fielder then kicks it up a notch by calmly encouraging among the actresses to think about Colin as a possible romantic match exterior of the simulation. A couple of admit to discovering him cute — be it due to the way in which he carries himself or as a result of he has an attractive Einstein-ness about him — and begin to flirt with him on set. Considered one of them, Emma, finally even secures a real-world date.
It’s as soon as Colin and Emma embark on their first few hangouts that the true crux of the episode turns into clear. Bluntly, Colin is afraid to make a transfer. At the same time as Emma flashes her eyes and shares with Fielder that she’s been ready for a smooch, Colin can’t carry himself to lean in for the primary kiss.
This battle is juxtaposed with 5 simulated {couples} who’re every pretending to be Colin and Emma. In typical The Rehearsal style, these actors be taught every part they will about their respective mark after which reside on a set that’s constructed to be an actual replication of Colin’s condominium. On the identical time that Colin and Emma are struggling to gentle that first spark, most of the faux {couples} are already getting sizzling and heavy.
The Rehearsal, picture by John P. Johnson/HBO
The entire state of affairs deeply confuses Fielder. He clearly empathizes with Colin’s social anxiousness, however can’t work out a option to break down his partitions. Equally, he stands in absolute amazement as he watches among the “faux Emma” actresses get extraordinarily bodily with their scene companion whereas their precise vital others watch from just some toes away. “You’re cool with all this?” he asks one of many actress’ companions whereas she makes out with a “faux Colin.”
As he stands there taking all the madness in, laptop computer strapped to his shoulders as at all times, there’s an actual sense that Fielder is deeply invested within the delicate, illogical, unpredictable dance of human relationships. I imply, in a nutshell, that’s the complete level of The Rehearsal, in any case.
Returning to Fielder’s previous work reveals that he’s been tackling romantic and familial love onscreen because the earliest days of Nathan for You. A recurring bit on the beloved Comedy Central collection is Fielder attempting to rework skilled relationships into private ones. Severely, rewatch a season or two, and also you’ll be shocked at what number of segments finish in him asking the enterprise proprietor of the week on a date or to hang around.
Don’t get me flawed, it’s hilarious and has led to basic moments like “the wizard of loneliness,” however its consistency is outstanding. Each immediately and not directly, the subject of 1’s courting standing has been Fielder’s secret weapon to make issues each extremely awkward and surprisingly real, from that poor guy in “Maid Service” to the manufactured love triangle in “Dumb Starbucks” to the opposite co-pilots featured at first of “Kissme.”
Nathan for You additionally has a number of episodes devoted to Fielder comedically figuring out his personal relationship-related insecurities. There’s the faux courting present he creates for himself as a technique of immersion remedy (“Haunted House / The Hunk”), the time he went on dates actually carrying one other man’s pores and skin (“The Hero”), the time he secretly measured somebody’s dopamine ranges to substantiate scientifically that he was enjoyable (“Nail Salon / Fun”), and the notorious occasion of him asking an actress repeat “I love you” over and over (“People who smoke Allowed”). The collection even concluded with a full-length documentary in regards to the seek for a long-lost love, Discovering Francis, through which he forges a relationship with an escort that, in typical Fielder style, finally ends up blurring the road between leisure and actuality.
His post-Nathan for You tasks have been equally centered on romance. The Curse, the scripted dramedy that he references in “Kissme,” is basically involved with the interworking of his character’s less-than-healthy marriage, and the primary season of The Rehearsal confronted Fielder’s obsession with emotional connection head-on, culminating in a genuinely intense speech given by an actress portraying Angela. Even earlier this season, we’ve seen Fielder leverage a fractured relationship with the “friendship flowers” incident in Episode 1 and interview a dude who’s “been banned from just about each courting app identified to man” in Episode 2.
“Kissme” merely serves as his newest journey to the nicely of affection’s mysteries. Like in life, nonetheless, it appears as if the expertise solely served to introduce extra questions than solutions, particularly on condition that Colin’s decision is a lone, easy kiss on the cheek.
Fielder’s tasks typically really feel like an extension of himself, not in the slightest degree as a result of he nearly at all times performs a heightened model of himself relatively than a standard character. In that method, it’s tempting to view his profession as an try and each work out and exploit human nature, notably on the subject of how we work together with one another. If that’s the case, Fielder sadly appears a good distance off from cracking the code of affection. It’s a hell of an gratifying time to observe him attempt, although.
New episodes of The Rehearsal premiere Sundays on HBO and Max.
