JUST A LITTLE TOUCH OF STAR QUALITY: Thoughts on S2/E2 of THE REHEARSAL

What makes a star?

Nathan Fielder's dour and awkward demeanor does not place him in the annals of what one could traditionally call "charismatic", but that is honestly what makes him a true star in my eyes. 

Fielder has been essentially playing a version of himself; sort of like Larry David did on Curb Your Enthusiasm or Woody Allen in several of his own films. He captures the vibe of lacking any kind of social grace or decorum, and yet he has so much confidence in reality that he is willing to make himself look like an idiot or a wimp so frequently. 

His persona becomes a key part of Season 2, Episode 2 of The Rehearsal, which is entitled "Star Potential". 

Before I go any further, this is the second of what will be a series of posts devoted to each episode of The Rehearsal's 2nd season. I will likely not go too in depth when it comes to discussing the previous episodes so it will help to have seen the episodes beforehand. If you have not read my post devoted to episode one, you can do that here.

As is his won't, Nathan Fielder tries to look towards his past endeavors as a means to shine a light on his current projects. Considering he is trying to work out a way to create a rehearsal program between airplane captains and co-pilots and how they communicate, he talks about his first professional gig in the business: a junior producer on Canadian Idol. He talks about how he would be tasked to watch people's auditions and would determine if they have "star potential" to be on TV. While the goal was to find legit talent, it is hard to ignore that a lot of comically bad singers would be let through on shows like these. 

In order to gauge the confidence of the pilots, he has them act as "producers" of a new singing reality competition program called "Wings of Voice" which gives them a chance to deliver potentially sad news to a contestant in a way that hopefully wouldn't be condescending or vindictive. Fielder leaves a ballot box outside of the audition room and asks the auditionees to rank the judges on a scale of 1-10.

One of the pilot judges, Mara'D, has the highest average score of roughly 9 out of 10 while most of the other judges' scores average around 7. When Fielder takes a crack at it, he only manages a 2 and a 4 despite trying to emulate Mara'D. 

It is always a bit of a snowball with Fielder as one of thing leads him to re-evaluate his own life, which includes Paramount+ removing the "Summit Ice" episode of Nathan for You which had been considered an episode that was making light of the Holocaust and therefore had some calling it out for antisemitism. This only intensified following the development of the Gaza attacks. Fielder goes as far to create the Germany Paramount offices in the way he feels it probably looks, complete with guards and studio heads dressed like they were a part of the Nazi Party.

By the episode's end, Fielder is feeling a bit dejected and misunderstood. He can't seem to find the right energy and confidence to defend himself and to get others to see that he is a genuine human being despite his timid demeanor. He watches one more audition of a 15-year-old singing and playing her own guitar. It is clear she could have potential, but she needs more training and confidence. He does his best to explain to her that he has faith that she will succeed in life because she is actually TRYING to fulfill her dreams while others don't put up the fight. 

It is clear that she is sad, but she seems to take his advice in stride. Once she gives him her rating and leaves, Fielder checks the paper and sees that the score is a 6...still his best score but not up to par of any other pilot's average. However, turn that frown upside down as they say, since it flips it over to resemble a 9. It may have been another fabricated instance, but for a moment, he achieved his goals.

This episode has me mostly on the positive side, but I am not sure if I feel as strong for it as I did the premiere...and certainly not anything from season 1. I am not necessarily saying that I am disappointed with this season, but rather that I do feel perhaps a slight bit of trepidation as to where he may go with this. 

I just read a review by The AV Club that postured if The Rehearsal is actually "narcissism with a budget". They weren't attacking Fielder per se, but they did acknowledge that no matter the cause, it always comes back to how Nathan Fielder examines his own life.

I don't really see it that way. I do agree that is what is happening on a surface level, but I wouldn't make the claim that Fielder is a narcissist. It is just the same as someone like Larry David; it's HIM but it is a heightened fictionalized version of himself on Curb Your Enthusiasm. 

I do have faith in him, and I am very excited to see the season through. I just find myself unsure of how to respond to this concept. It is very intriguing, but somehow, the hook for it hasn't grabbed me like it did for the first season. I could see a world where once this season ends, the final results could bolster it up and then the whole season will age remarkably well. 

This isn't to say I am unhappy with the season so far, it is just a little bit of an adjustment. 

I will be back next week to discuss the third episode which is entitled "Pilot's Code". I hope that we get a bit of a boost with that one.