Nathan Fielders comedy can feel like watching a slow-motion plane crash. On semi-scripted shows such as Nathan for You and The Rehearsal, the comedian makes real people squirm with his bizarre suggestions, which he offers with rigor mortis-level deadpan. Some of it is best viewed through the slightly parted fingers of a face-obscuring hand.
The second season of The Rehearsal, returning to HBO on April 20, is no exception. Like its predecessor, the show again uses elaborate role-play to game out difficult social scenarios, only this time the stakes are way higher. Season 2 focuses on the dynamic between copilotsand how it can lead to, or possibly prevent, plane crashes. But while the topic may be eerily timely, this season is truly about the universal experience of standing up to a superior at work.
In its first season, Fielder positioned The Rehearsal as a show where different people practice solving a new interpersonal problem each episode. Using a fleet of actors and expensive, movie-caliber sets, Fielder created a reality-simulation technique that allowed its subjects to rehearse, say, admitting to a friend theyd been lying for years about having a masters degree. By Episode 2, however, the show pivoted to helping one womanand Fielder himselfrehearse what it might be like to become parents. The remainder of the season was spent burrowing further down that (often uncomfortable) rabbit hole.
The second season instead dispenses with any pretense of being an anthology and announces its aviation concentration straight away. As glimpsed in the trailer, the seasons opening moments encapsulate everything the show will spend this batch of six episodes unpacking. Inside a cockpit, the first officer voices his disapproval of the pilots tactics. The pilot ignores him, and their plane crashes in a fiery wreckonly for the cockpit to be revealed as a motion simulator. Cue Fielder emerging in front of a projected inferno, a Mona Lisa smile on his face.
As they used to say on infomercials, theres got to be a better way.
At some point after the first season of The Rehearsal aired in 2022, well before the recent spate of plane crashes and near misses, Fielder apparently became interested in air disasters. While reading through endless pages of black box transcripts, he uncovered a distinct pattern. Whenever first officers seemed to sense an imminent problem, they often either fell short of a full-throated warning or buckled under the slightest pushback. What if, Fielder wondered, he could help first officers rehearse advocating for themselves more effectively?
Disagreeing with ones supervisor presents a classic conundrum. Say something and the boss might either overrule you or resent you for being right. Keep it to yourself, letting the chips fall where they may, and you might be the one getting thrown under the bus if theres any fallout. This thorny communication issue carries exponentially more urgency and risk, though, when it happens at high altitudes, with dozens of lives at stake.
[Photo: John P. Johnson/HBO]
Though he understands he might not be the right person to take on this particular communication conflict, Fielder recognizes a source of killer material when he sees one.
A lot of the comedians previous work mined humor out of the way people communicate. His breakout series Nathan for You, which ran on Comedy Central for four seasons in the 2010s, featured Fielder convincing small business owners to try out wild marketing strategies. Although the strategies themselves were the meat of the showa yogurt shop unveiling a poo-flavored option, for instance, to drum up publicitypart of the cringy fun was watching Fielder talk people into going through with them.
Hed present each ridiculous idea with a straight face and a feather-soft voice, then the owner would laugh nervously, unsure whether Fielder was serious. (Rule number one of these shows: Fielder is always serious.) Viewers could practically see the gears turning in the owners heads, questioning whether the reward of getting a plug for their business on a TV show will be worth the short-term pain of actually going through with a poo-flavored yogurt promotion. Invariably, theyd agree to whatever madness Fielder had in store, usually after an awkward silence.
[Photo: John P. Johnson/HBO]
In the second season of The Rehearsal, though, that equation has inverted. Instead of using his authority as an ambassador of television to talk people into doing something, hes teaching people to talk someone in a position of authority out of doing something.
Throughout the course of the season, as with most Fielder productions, some profoundand profoundly uncomfortabletruths come tumbling out. Also as per usual, the show is filled with surreal meta-moments, inventive tableaux, and the creator rappling with whether his own communication issues might stem from having the aura of a corporate IT guy with a dark secret.
Whether the comedian ultimately finds a practical method for making difficult cockpit conversations easier will remain unspoiled here. Watching the show, though, should provide some new ideas about how to communicate with ones bossespecially when theyre about to make a huge mistake.
