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“The Rehearsal” Demonstrates How Algorithms Are As Imperfect as the Coder
Nathan Fielder’s new show attempts to prepare for every eventuality — and fails — in the same ways that computer algorithms do
There were several times during the first episode of Nathan Fielder’s new HBO show The Rehearsal where I noticed something oddly familiar about the project. While it’s supposed to be a show that expands upon his Nathan For You finale from years ago, in 2022, Fielder’s show also doubles as a peculiar parody of Westworld with an added benefit of incorporating a lesson on how surveillance and predictive technologies are as imperfect as the code writer.
The Rehearsal is a show about Nathan Fielder’s sincere, brutal awkwardness combined with an unsuspecting guest hoping to solve a problem in their life through Fielder’s reality show. In the new HBO series, Fielder attempts to prepare and predict the subject’s future through an intense amount of manipulated and planned rehearsals.
In the first episode called “Orange Juice, No Pulp,” a man named Kor responds to Fielder’s catfish-style Craigslist post because he was looking to offload some guilt he’d been carrying. A decade earlier, Kor lied to his friends about his education status by falsely telling them he held a…
