"documentary"

2022 · 2 Seasons · HBO · Docu-Comedy / Reality Experiment

The Rehearsal is unlike anything else on television, a show that uses elaborate simulations and meticulous planning to explore whether human connection can be engineered, and in the process reveals more about loneliness, control, and empathy than most conventional dramas manage. Nathan Fielder built something truly innovative here, blending comedy and philosophy in ways that make you laugh and then make you deeply uncomfortable about having laughed. Legitimate ethical concerns about its treatment of participants are impossible to dismiss, and the show's ambiguity about its own intentions can feel like evasion rather than art. But as a piece of television that expands the boundaries of what the medium can do, it's extraordinary.