Nathan Fielder drops a teaser for his mysterious HBO show The Rehearsal

HBO is a premium cable service known for innovative, controversial, and revered television series. But ever since How To With John Wilson’s second season ended, the network has been finding it difficult to put Nathan Fielder-produced projects on the air.

The plan: Release a teaser for the new Nathan Fielder series, The Rehearsal, online today.

First announced last June, The Rehearsal promised to give “people the opportunity to rehearse for their own lives.” Suppose we apply that logic to this incredibly vague and cryptic teaser. Nathan stands before a wall of monitors like he’s Ozymandias as a woman plays with a baby. In that case, this woman is rehearsing being around a baby… or maybe this baby is rehearsing for their own life. What if the baby is rehearsing to be around this adult? With Fielder, anything is possible.

Fielder first struck a deal with HBO in 2019, following the 2017 conclusion of Nathan For You. Since then, Fielder’s produced the cult hit and critical darling How To With John Wilson.

We imagine this show will be a little different from the prank/business-improvement series for Comedy Central. The brief look at The Rehearsal has all the hallmarks of a Nathan For You segment, including host Nathan Fielder, seemingly, a godhead controller of the people foolish enough to take him up on his ridiculous offers. He’s like Christof from The Truman Show, except he’s just trying to see how far a polite Canadian can go simply by asking.

There’s no premiere date for The Rehearsal either. Fielder only gave us a cryptic “very soon,” which, as far as we’re concerned, isn’t soon enough. Fielder’s work has been some of the most original and memorable comedic works of the last 20 years, with his Nathan For You finale, “Finding Frances,” standing among the great works the medium of television has ever produced.