The Rehearsal: Nathan Fielder Pulls Off His Wildest TV Stunt Yet In A High-Flying Finale — Grade The Season!
All throughout Season 2 of The Rehearsal, Nathan Fielder has been following a carefully plotted flight plan — but now he's really taking control of the cockpit.
Fielder's wildly experimental HBO series wrapped up its sophomore run on Sunday night with an hour-long finale, and though Fielder has pulled off some memorable stunts in the past on Nathan For You, he might have topped himself here. Fielder has spent all of Season 2 investigating the problem of commercial airline crashes by zeroing in on the lack of communication between airline pilots in the cockpit, and in the finale, he asks the actors he's worked with this season if they'll participate in one final experiment: take a ride in a Boeing 737... with Fielder himself flying the plane as the pilot. (Of course they all say yes. They're actors! They'll do anything for an IMDb credit!)
We then flash back to two years earlier to discover that Fielder has been secretly training to fly airplanes all this time, logging hundreds of hours in the air and mastering the art of taking off and landing. Now it did take him a while to master that art: We see him struggle in the cockpit over and over again, only to have his seasoned co-pilots take the controls from him to keep them safe. (Fielder admits his flight instructors labeled him their "slowest learner they had ever taught.") But eventually, he got the hang of it, and he managed to complete his first solo flight without any co-pilots to back him up.
But that was on a tiny propeller plane, and Fielder's plan is to fly a full 737. So he has to train for that in a simulator while he tries to rent a plane that can carry a full load of passengers like a commercial flight. It wasn't easy for him to find that plane — a lot of the owners were wary of handing a plane over to a comedian for a TV stunt — but he finally found a functional plane that fit the bill, and he recruited one of the veteran pilots from this season's experiment, Aaron, to be his co-pilot. Fielder also has to go through an extensive health checklist to get approval to fly, and he even decides to undergo a brain MRI to detect any anxiety issues he might have. But he doesn't get the results in time, so he just reports nothing wrong on his health checklist so he can move forward with the flight.
The day of the flight arrives, and Fielder dresses the part, wearing a suit and tie and captain's hat as he enters the cockpit with Aaron. They go through the pre-flight checklist together, and everything seems normal as they start the engine and take off. Fielder grows concerned, though, when he asks Aaron mid-flight if he's alright and Aaron doesn't respond. It turns out Aaron just didn't hear him, but Fielder wants to make sure they're communicating — that's the whole point of this experiment! — so he puts Aaron through one of his role-play exercises where Aaron is completely blunt and Fielder is open to feedback. Aaron admits that Fielder did forget to put his flaps back up after takeoff, and he did it for him, and Fielder thanks him for being so frank. Ahhh... the cockpit is a safe space.
It's time to land the plane (literally and figuratively), and even though we know they must make it back safely — we would've heard about it if they didn't, right? — it's still pretty tense as Fielder approaches the runway... and lands the plane safely. Fielder gets a round of applause from Aaron and his passengers for his successful flight, and we end the season with the winner of the Wings of Voice singing competition singing (what else?) Evanescence's "Bring Me to Life." Oh, and Nathan gets a message that his brain MRI results are available... but he deletes them without looking at them. If it keeps him out of the air, he'd rather not know, it seems.
So how are we feeling about this season of The Rehearsal? As a fan of Fielder's work, I'd say it was probably his least funny season of TV, and maybe his most revealing, delving into the issues he's had personally and professionally. I appreciate his willingness to take big swings, and Season 2 definitely gave us moments I'll never forget, like the Sully reenactment. But with Fielder, it's hard to know when he's actually being serious, and for a lot of Season 2, I was waiting for a joke that never quite came. I don't know if Fielder's work here will actually lead to any meaningful change in the aviation industry, but I do know that Season 2, for better or worse, was not quite like anything I've seen on TV before.
Give the finale — and the season as a whole — a grade in our polls, and hit the comments to share your final thoughts on The Rehearsal Season 2.