My Controls

"It's a nice day to be out... flying around" Here is the ultimate rehearsal, the Fitzcarraldo of comedy documentaries. It is worth watching the entire series just to experience this, but as a stand alone episode this might just be the most impressive feat of television ever committed to the screen.

A delightful balance of thrills and compassion, the result is nothing short of cathartic... but what's equally impressive to me is that it is still funny as heck. Pure Evanescence.

One can only hope that First Officer Blunt and Captain All-Ears will become standard practice in every cockpit around the world, strengthening pilots' capabilities and inevitability making commercial flights safer for everyone. To Nathan Fielder and the team behind this series: You've created something truly special. Bravo.

After a relatively disappointing S02E05 (still entertaining but not at all up to the standard set by S02 overall) I was a little nervous going into the finale, but right away I knew this was going to be different and back to what made this season so great. The extra run time made this more like 2 episodes in one and for that I'm grateful as well, since it's likely going to be another few years before we get a new season of this, if at all.

I will keep this spoiler free, but I really love the absurdity of this all but also the true commitment to making something special. The amount of time and effort put into making this work is something I don't think I've ever seen somewhere before except for maybe a couple of YouTube series or other Fielder projects.

A really interesting exploration this season of the inability of humans to communicate during the highest and the lowest stakes moments of life, as well as the fact that it's not a level playing field. As Nathan says (paraphrazing) "I always found sincerity to be overrated, since it rewards those who are able to perform it better." While that's just a hilarious line in the context of Nathan's character, there's also some real truth there, and I loved the tangents related to this with Wings of Voice & Sully. We are all pilots or co-pilots in many aspects of our lives, and these same social barriers lead to issues on a daily basis - from tragic airline disasters to the inability to discuss your Starbucks girlfriend's "special friends" openly with her haha.

I don't throw the world around freely, but Nathan Fielder is a genius, at least from my POV. I know he doesn't do this alone, but he's the driving force behind more brilliant work than just about anyone else creating right now outside of a few directors and writers. I might get downvoted for this, but I hated The Curse (and yes, I understood it, and I enjoyed it until about 75% of the way through, at which point I felt more and more that I had just wasted 10hrs of my life, which the ending confirmed), so I'm extremely happy to see that Fielder hasn't lost what makes him special and unique (I applaud the swing on The Curse, but it felt like something that had been done much better by many others, while NFY/Rehearsal are pretty singular and def in his voice), and I can only hope there's a S03!

Season 2 of The Rehearsal is some of the best television I've ever seen. It was a complete blindside in the sense that I couldn't see the show taking this turn, but the signs were there. While the absurdity of season 1's plot line had its moments of helping Nathan grow, it also featured a heavy overtone of a strong message to leave the viewers on, and that's where season 2 comes into play but on a whole different level.

I've been watching Nathan for You and while Nathan is obviously very talented, the jump from that show to this is substantial, which is impressive considering how amazing the former is. Mixing comedy with shining a light on corruption and taking DIRECT action while keeping the nature of this series in tact is much easier said than done. He had no reason to go through what he did. He could've easily left episode 5 and said that's enough, I've made my point. But he took the step that no one ever would in his position and created something greater. If you told me after episode 5 THIS is the direction he'd go I'd tell you you're insane.

But Nathan was the insane one... until he proved he's not. He proved so many points but above all showed that anything is possible, as cliche as it sounds. Labeling is a very toxic trait that's growing worse over the years, and I think Nathan combated that in a way that shatters boundaries. As someone who's going to be driving soon and has anxiety over it due to the potential dangers of it, this episode really connected with me and it makes me happy to see that I'm not alone, even if obviously the stakes here are much different. Safety is so important yet can be completely dismissed by some for illogical reasons. Nathan and his team shined a light on these issues in an obscure yet brave way that I can't imagine being done to this degree ever again. I feel like saying thank you doesn't do this justice but nonetheless, I'm very thankful for this.

I hope Nathan learns to be a president in the next season. That would be a proper progression for the show.

But seriously, for me this is the best episode in history of TV, monumental, there is so many layers, let alone the fact that Nathan flew the plane himself. I am just in awe this was possible to choreograph so well. My previous goat episode was S5E14 "Ozymandias" of Breaking Bad. However, this here pushed the boundaries further by breaking the wall, keeping it funny and cranking stakes with real implications to the highest. Never thought I would see something even challenge BB and here we are. Good luck topping this. The bar is set.

A genuinely jaw-dropping social psychology experiment.

An emotionally insightful search of the self.

A top-flight documentary production making full use of considerably deep corporate pockets.

Critical hyperbole can feel like a gamble with Nathan Fielder projects. Their sincerity and reality often seem to exist in an uneasy comic superposition: potentially wry trickery or earnest objectivity at any given moment.

Nathan first explored the entertainment value of this tension as a former awkward tween magician.

Now, as a greying and adult, that tension informs most all of his comedy/television work, and it also courses through everyday life, in many social contexts, presenting as anxiousness. A nervy worry that you're not reliably apprehending the state of play. Season 2 of The Rehearsal synthesizes these threads into an absolutely audacious six-episode skyward odyssey of public service and comedy art, culminating in this all-encompassing capstone of a finale.

It's not hyperbole. It's the Pilot's Code.