Though “The Rehearsal” season 2 is essentially about Nathan Fielder’s valiant quest to unravel passenger airplane crashes as soon as and for all, its second episode detours into fixing one other difficulty: In 2023, the streaming service Paramount+ eliminated a season 3 episode of Fielder’s hit present “Nathan For You.” Fielder struggled to successfully elevate his issues with Paramount+ on the time as a result of, as he notes on this newest episode, he did not wish to mess up his probabilities of getting “The Curse” renewed. (“The Curse,” one other Fielder-led TV present, additionally streams on Paramount+.)
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The eliminated “Nathan For You” episode was “Horseback Driving/Man Zone.” It encompasses a storyline the place Fielder is dismayed to seek out out that Taiga, the corporate that owned his favourite jacket, had printed a tribute in 2001 to “infamous Holocaust denier Doug Collins of their winter catalog.” As a Jew himself, Fielder couldn’t abide this. He stopped carrying Taiga attire and created his personal attire firm known as Summit Ice, which might closely prioritize Holocaust consciousness in its advertising and marketing. That means properly, Fielder designed a Summit Ice advertising and marketing marketing campaign that appears much less instructional and extra like a celebration (or commodification) of the Third Reich.
Though the butt of the joke right here was Fielder himself, it is simple to see how the “Nathan For You” phase might be misinterpreted as making gentle of the Holocaust. Fielder is made a idiot in his try to coach buyers in regards to the topic, and the Rabbi he consults for the undertaking comes throughout as a dope. What makes the joke clear, nevertheless, is the response of the shop proprietor Fielder tries to promote the thought to. The man, who seems to be an actual particular person (it is robust to inform on Fielder’s exhibits), is on board with Fielder’s mission till he sees what it really appears like.
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The joke additionally comes with the underlying implication that Fielder’s much less excited by Holocaust consciousness than he’s with making a revenue. Fielder continued the bit in a later interview on “Conan” through which Fielder switched up his tone shortly the second host Conan O’Brien requested if his enterprise was counting on youngster labor:
Why did Paramount+ take away the Nathan For You episode? The Rehearsal presents one rationalization
In “Star Potential,” Fielder explains what’s occurred to that episode within the years since. Fielder found in late 2023 that the Summit Ice episode “mysteriously disappeared” from the Paramount+ service. When he requested the corporate what occurred, they defined that, within the wake of the October 7 Hamas assault on Israel, “Paramount+ Germany [decided] to take away the episode of their area after they turned uncomfortable with what they known as ‘something that touches on antisemitism.'”
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In his typical deadpan voice, Fielder explains how the German department’s resolution unfold all through Europe. As he talks, he exhibits a map of German Paramount+’s enlargement that evokes the Germany navy’s enlargement throughout WWII. Fielder continues, “Earlier than lengthy, the ideology of Paramount+ Germany had unfold all through your entire globe, eliminating all Jewish content material that made them uncomfortable. That is actual, by the best way.”
Certain sufficient, the “Nathan For You” episode was certainly faraway from the Paramount+ all over the place, and that is still the case as of the writing this text. Not solely has it been eliminated, however the resolution acquired remarkably little information protection when it occurred in 2023. When streaming providers had been eradicating episodes with Blackface in them all through 2020, these selections consistently made headlines, however the elimination of “Horseback Driving/Man Zone” acquired no such therapy. There is a good likelihood that “Star Potential” is the primary time lots of long-time “Nathan for You” followers had even heard of this.
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All through “Star Potential,” Fielder continues the joke from the “Nathan For You” episode by making clear he nonetheless would not perceive why anybody would have an issue with what he did there. “It has been my proudest achievement,” he says, “and served as my solely proof to those pilots {that a} comedy present can really make a distinction.” He describes the corporate as having “raised thousands and thousands of {dollars} for Holocaust consciousness,” and there is technically a chance that may really be true: Summit Ice is an actual clothes model Fielder created. The location is at present down, however for years followers had been in a position to purchase the clothes.
Nathan Fielder makes an attempt to take Paramount to process, but it surely goes poorly
Paramount+ did not see the attraction of the “Nathan For You” episode. Within the episode of “The Rehearsal,” Fielder notes that he might’ve fought again more durable when he first discovered it’d been eliminated, and decides to rehearse a gathering the place he might confront the Paramount+ Germany department and persuade them to convey the episode again. He does this “rehearsal” by portraying the folks working the department as literal Nazis, with Paramount+ banners hanging ominously from their workplace home windows.
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“You guys most likely really feel lots of disgrace about what you probably did previously, so now you are making an attempt to overcompensate by being the world leaders in preventing antisemitism,” Nathan says within the rehearsal, “However with regards to artwork, I believe it’s important to know your home, and it’s important to allow us to Jews specific ourselves.”
In fact, the always-reflective Fielder would not let this scene be a straight-forward second of ripping into Paramount+. He asks the actor taking part in the German Paramount+ supervisor to improvise and problem him, and that is precisely what he does. “You designed this workplace to look a struggle room,” the actor tells him. “You dressed me to seem like a Nazi. Pretending to need suggestions, however you do not really wish to get the Paramount+ perspective or the German perspective. […] This isn’t honest. You are only a man with a grudge utilizing his tv present to smear us, as an alternative of making an attempt to grasp us.”
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So for viewers who’re vehemently against streamers who take away TV episodes as a consequence of evolving sensitivities, this week’s “The Rehearsal” presents you about twenty seconds of catharsis as Fielder calls them out. It follows this up with one other twenty seconds of self-reflection, as Fielder’s character realizes that maybe he isn’t dealing with this difficulty as successfully or moderately as he thinks. Personally, I nonetheless assume Paramount+ ought to return the episode to its platform, however perhaps it is good for us to keep in mind that we should not put Fielder on a pedestal.
On the intense aspect, “Horseback Driving/Man Zone” continues to be accessible on different streaming providers like Max, which there is a good likelihood you are already subscribed to if you happen to’re watching “The Rehearsal.” Max subscribers nonetheless have the liberty to observe Fielder battle towards Taiga, one jacket at a time.
