The Rehearsal: Nathan Fielder makes genius appointment TV … that may spoil you for ever

In his twisted and often horrifying reality show, Fielder piles ethical grey areas on top of each other … like problematic pancakes. Get stuck in!Schopenhauer defined genius as someone who aims at a target the rest of us can’t see. Which raises a philosophical paradox – how do we know they’ve hit it? I was moved to such musings while watching this week’s pick, a singular piece of art that functions unlike anything else on TV, and calls the medium itself into question. No, it’s not Police Interceptors.In The Rehearsal (Monday, 10pm, Sky Comedy), comedian Nathan Fielder blends documentary, social experiment, performance art and absurdist satire in a devised method all his own. He has ordinary people tackle emotionally fraught situations from their lives, by role-playing them with hired actors in meticulously recreated sets that mirror significant personal locations. It’s arch, but the stakes are real. The first series opened with a man who wanted to apologise to his pub quiz teammates for cheating, before pivoting to a woman who wasn’t sure whether she wanted to become a mother. Mamma mia! Continue reading...