Welcome to the RPPR newsletter! This is a new thing for me, but I’m eager to share my writing and some of the other stuff I’m working on. In every newsletter, I plan to write an original article and then share some links I've found and recent podcasts and other projects I've worked on. Let’s get started!

Nathan Fielder is the King in Yellow: A Review of The Rehearsal

Nathan Fielder has transcended cringe comedy with his new show, The Rehearsal. It is a masterpiece of surreality, an absurd mixture of scripted drama and spontaneous reaction and it’s impossible to know which is which. It’s a show of ostensibly rational people calmly saying the absolutely most ludicrous statements with utter sincerity. Fielder’s test subjects are so unhinged that they flabbergast him at various points in the show, a true delight.

The premise of The Rehearsal is simple enough: what if you could rehearse important moments in your life before they happen? In the pilot episode, Fielder recruits a man who wants to tell a close friend that he lied about something in his personal background. But before we can even begin that rehearsal, Fielder has the crew of his show go undercover as inspectors to video and 3d-scan this man’s apartment, so a perfect replica set can be built of it. Fielder then hires an actor to play the man, so he can rehearse asking the man to be on his show. This is shown in the first minutes of the show. That’s the base level. It’s as normal as the show gets. HBO gave Fielder the resources of a prestige comedy series - millions of dollars worth of highly skilled film crew, studio lots to build sets, and anything else necessary to create simulacrum of anyone or anything needed for a rehearsal. It’s an incredibly clever conceit. Film and TV productions are in the business of flawless illusions.

The horror of the King in Yellow is seductive, that a fantasy contains greater truths that reveal the true nature of reality. Seeking knowledge or insight is usually a noble pursuit, after all. Reading the play lifts the veil of ignorance and it is impossible to put the veil back on. But after exposure to the play, the character gradually drifts away from accepted reality as they are pulled into the orbit of Carcosa. Eventually the character either goes mad or disappears entirely, presumably making an appearance in court of the King in Yellow.

My experience of watching The Rehearsal felt a bit like I was reading the King in Yellow. Every new revelation amused, stunned, and horrified me. The show is an absurd comedy with many hilarious moments but it veers into transcendent drama at times, as test subjects seem to have genuine emotional breakthroughs. At other times, I wondered if the show had gone too far, if the simulation had lifted one veil too many. It’s impossible to say for sure, because we have no guarantee that any particular moment is actually real. How do we know that Fielder didn’t rehearse something for a better reaction?

Now that I’ve seen The Rehearsal, I can’t unsee it. The idea that such extraordinary storytelling can be done with such a limited premise is still mind blowing. While the show is clearly an expensive production, it breaks no technical barriers. Hollywood has an industry of professionals at its call to create illusions at a moment’s notice. Any moment of our lives could be rehearsed, over and over again, until it was perfect. The idea that it would not be hard and in fact routine is unsettling. The chance that Nathan Fielder could be building a perfect replica of your home or workplace and casting an actor to play you, so someone else could rehearse an encounter with you is low, but never zero.

Cool Links

1. Namco Museum Vol.1 - An Introduction to Museum Features: A funny and insightful video essay from RPPR contributor Chris Farmer about preserving video game history through a virtual museum.

2. Roll A Sandbox: The best random generator for tabletop RPGs that I've ever seen. Create an entire campaign setting with the click of a button.

3. Space Station Zero: a new tabletop skirmish game that's easy to learn and play. Supports competitive and co-op games for up to 4 players.

Podcasts and Other Projects I worked on

​RPPR Episode 193 - Creating new monsters with Greg Stolze and Caleb Stokes: A fun discussion about the process of designing new monsters for RPGs.

​Night Clerk Radio on the music of Doom: The 1993 and 2016 versions of Doom have great music so Birk and I talk about its legacy.

​RPPR Livestream - Space Station Zero on Tabletop Simulator: Baz and I do a weekly livestream discussing RPGs and similar topics. In this episode, we played through a game of Space Station Zero on Tabletop Simulator. Very fun!