HBO
The newest comedy from Nathan Fielder, “The Rehearsal,” premieres Friday, July 15 at 11 p.m. ET/PT on HBO.
If you don’t have cable, you’ll be able to watch new episodes of “The Rehearsal” via HBO Max after they air on HBO, but HBO Max no longer offers a free trial, so here are some other options for watching “The Rehearsal” online:
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DirecTV Stream
DirecTV Stream has four different channel packages: “Entertainment,” “Choice,” “Ultimate” and “Premier.” HBO Max is available as an add-on to any of the packages (if you’re planning on keeping it long-term, you can get three months of HBO Max for free if you add it to “Choice” or above), and you can select any package and any add-on you want with your free five-day trial:
Once signed up for DirecTV Stream, you can watch “The Rehearsal” live or on-demand on the DirecTV Stream app, which is available on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV or Fire Stick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Samsung TV, any device with Android TV (such as a Sony TV or Nvidia Shield), iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet. Or you can watch on your computer via the DirecTV Stream website.
If you want to watch later, you can watch “The Rehearsal” on the HBO Max app (use your DirecTV Stream credentials to sign in), which is available on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV or Firestick, Apple TV, Chromecast, any device with Android TV (such as a Sony TV or Nvidia Shield), Samsung Smart TV, PlayStation 4 or 5, Xbox One or Series X/S, iPhone, Android phone, iPad, or Android tablet.
Hulu
Whether you already have Hulu or you want to sign up for a new subscription, HBO/HBO Max is available as an add-on to either Hulu or Hulu with Live TV. If you’re a new subscriber, you can start a free 30-day trial of regular Hulu plus the HBO add-on:
Once signed up, you can watch “The Rehearsal” live on the Hulu app, which is available on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV or Fire Stick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Xbox One or Series X/S, PlayStation 4 or 5, Nintendo Switch, Samsung TV, LG TV, any device with Android TV (such as a Sony TV or Nvidia Shield), iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet. Or you can watch on your computer via the Hulu website.
If you want to watch later, you can watch “The Rehearsal” on the HBO Max app (use your Hulu credentials to sign in), which is available on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV or Firestick, Apple TV, Chromecast, any device with Android TV (such as a Sony TV or Nvidia Shield), Samsung Smart TV, PlayStation 4 or 5, Xbox One or Series X/S, iPhone, Android phone, iPad, or Android tablet.
‘The Rehearsal’ Preview
From the warped mind of comedian Nathan Fielder comes “The Rehearsal,” a new comedy series that “explores the lengths one man will go to reduce the uncertainties of everyday life,” according to the HBO press release.
It continues:
Nathan Fielder gives people the opportunity to rehearse for their own lives. 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 premiere episode is called “Orange Juice, No Pulp” and its description reads, “Nathan Fielder helps a Brooklyn-based trivia aficionado come clean to his teammate about a long-held lie.”
In an interview with Vulture, Fielder talks about how “The Rehearsal” came about out of his experience making the Comedy Central show “Nathan For You” in which Fielder played a fictionalized version of himself working with unsuspecting business owners and offering them outlandish strategies and tips meant to parody the way consultants work in the real world.
Fielder told Vulture that during each episode of “Nathan For You,” no matter how carefully they planned everything, someone would inevitably act in a way Fielder did not see coming and he thought that might make for an interesting series.
“It’s sort of universal that people want to have control over their lives,” he said. “There’s something really funny to that compulsion.”
As “The Rehearsal” goes on, the fictional Fielder finds himself moving into the center of the experiment. In a review of the series, Consequence of Sound’s Robert Ham calls the series “incredible.”
Ham writes, “Fielder looms just as large in his incredible new series ‘The Rehearsal.’ As with ‘Nathan For You,’ the supposed goal of the show is to help real people prepare for difficult conversations or big life changes by putting them through a practice session with actors posing as loved ones, friends, and bystanders. But as the first season wears on, Fielder, playing a needy and insecure version of himself, becomes as much a part of the rehearsals as the folks he is supposedly assisting, and uses these interactions to reflect on his existential woes. … There aren’t many shows, especially in the comedy world, taking the chances that The Rehearsal does. Nor are they lucky enough to be led by someone like Fielder, a comic visionary who has, once again, turned a parody of reality TV into a brilliant dissection of human nature.”
“The Rehearsal” premieres Friday, July 15 at 11 p.m. Eastern and Pacific times on HBO.