Just finished the third episode. I have really enjoyed this but it is not what I expected. I am still not sure how I feel about the Angela story arc, but the episodes have been plenty entertaining and intriguing.
It is hard not to compare this with Nathan For You, but what I loved about that series is that regardless of what the business is, the people involved are often unique personalities but overall redeeming. Also, while they often have a certain oddness to their personality/character, they were almost always portrayed in a positive light, regardless of how much of their oddities were the focus or the butt of the joke. Also, I remember with "Nathan for You," when the show became meta, the critique was often on Nathan himself, the character he created, and reality television more generally. With the Rehearsal, some of that is definitely present, ie, where Nathan reads from the script to the actor's parents that is full of fake personalization. But overall, I find the tone of the show much more cynical and it is the other characters, particularly Angela and Robin, that are the focus of the critique. Nathan is now sort of the straight man where previous in Nathan for You his social anxiety/isolation made him the outcast in his own show, even though his social isolation is still a point of commentary/critique here. It wasn't often that he was the normal one in the room.
Bill from the Finding Frances episode arc in Nathan for You was truly an odd character, and there was judgement of his motives, but ultimately his story, and by extension his personality, was portrayed in a relatively positive, if sad, light. While there was plenty of criticism of Bill's motives, there is still an attempt to personalize his story and make the audience feel connected to him. The first episode of the Rehearsal was a lot like the feel of Nathan for You; a pretty unique guy who really is a person you connect too. But the whole tone in the last two episodes has just been different and definitely more melancholy/cynical. For example, I think that if that Robin dude was in Nathan for You, he would have probably been portrayed like the stoner/drunk kid in the souvenir shop episode - the "Shoutout to J-Squad kid" - his numerology shite would have been made fun of, as would his non-use of condoms, but he would have exited the show in a more lighthearted manner.
I wonder if this was sort of the plan all along for the show or whether the Angela person became such an interesting character that they decided to make her story into more than one episode. It seems like they are trying to capture the same sort of magic that came with the series-ending "Finding Frances" episode from Nathan for You.
), even if it didn't make me laugh as much as just about every episode of Nathan For You did.