Nathan Fielder will be back to confound audiences with a second season of whatever the heck he’s doing on The Rehearsal. HBO has officially renewed the maybe reality (maybe brilliantly scripted) series, which provided the comedian with a stunningly hilarious amount of resources that allowed him to evolve his sociological experiments from Nathan For You to a wild new level.
“Nathan has sparked such a lively conversation with THE REHEARSAL,” Amy Gravitt, Executive Vice President, HBO Programming said in a statement. “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.”
Over the past five episodes, The Rehearsal has deviated from its simple premise of helping people “rehearse” for delicate interactions to an awkwardly mad-cap exploration into Fielder’s own psyche with a treatise on religion thrown in for good measure. Literally, no one knows what the show is working towards in its season finale. Critics were only provided the first five episodes of The Rehearsal, so it will genuinely be a surprise when it airs.
After “Finding Frances,” the daring and shockingly brilliant season finale of Nathan For You, expectations are high for what kind of trick Fielder has up his sleeve for The Rehearsal season finale, if there even is one. The show has been as unpredictable as it gets, so there’s no telling what will happen as Fielder continues to dive even further into a simulation of his own creation.
Here’s the official logline from HBO even though it’s debatable if this description even applies to The Rehearsal anymore. It’s gone so far off the rails, and we’re here for every awkward second of it:
THE REHEARSAL explores the lengths one man will go to reduce the uncertainties of everyday life. With a construction crew, a legion of actors, and seemingly unlimited resources, Fielder allows ordinary people to prepare for life’s biggest moments by “rehearsing” them in carefully crafted simulations of his own design. When a single misstep could shatter your entire world, why leave life to chance?
The Rehearsal Season 1 finale airs on August 19 at 11 PM EST on HBO.