NATHAN TAKES CONTROL: Thoughts on the Season 2 Finale of THE REHEARSAL

"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 is what I wrote at the end of my post for the Season 2 Episode 2 of The Rehearsal. There was a little bit of skepticism, but I did have a kernel of hope that Nathan Fielder would stick the landing.

It seems like lately that Fielder has a desire to have his head up in the clouds. There is a certain quirky symmetry with how The Rehearsal ends its sophomore season and how Fielder (and Benny Safdie) ended the final episode of their Showtime series The Curse. While I don't think I was overly fond of that series as a whole, I have to commend Fielder for truly giving us something that I don't think any of us expected when SPOILER - Fielder's character Asher is sucked into space to his death - END SPOILER.

Here - the finale begins with Fielder doing something that doesn't seem too unusual: he is interviewing actors...but then he makes a comment that makes you do a double-take: he asks them if they are comfortable getting on a plane that he will be piloting. 

Ummm...say that again?

We then flashback two years and we realize that Nathan Fielder, ever willing to commit to a bit, decided to take flying lessons so he could learn more about the process. 

By the episode's end, I was pretty fucking impressed. 

Pardon the groanworthy joke that is akin to all dads, but Nathan Fielder did indeed stick the landing both literally and figuratively...even if the "literal" may have been a little messy. 

In the last 3 years since the first season of The Rehearsal aired, not only was Fielder making The Curse, but he was also trying very hard to become a pilot. To be clear, "trying very hard" is quite the apt phrase as Fielder struggles intensely to adapt the lessons to the point that all of his teachers refuse to let him fly alone and say that he took far too long to grasp the methods.

We see a montage where a few different teachers, because so many had given up on him, take over the reins of the lesson by using the phrase "my controls" to take charge of the flight. Eventually, Fielder does persevere and receives a pilot's license. He is no longer just an actor/writer/comedian trying to help pilots: he IS one. 

As we saw in the previous episode, Fielder's quest to get any kind of regulatory, congressional, or industry interest in his ideas leaves him at a bit of an impasse. He reconsiders another path: take the additional training needed so that he can qualify for a job as a commercial pilot and fly a 737. The training, shockingly and ironically, all takes place in a simulator; he will not fly an actual 737 until the big day arrives.

Leading up to the flight, Fielder fills out the application for his pilot's license and comes up to the question that asks if he has been formally diagnosed with depression or anxiety. He has NOT been diagnosed with these, but it brings up his concerns as to whether or not he may be on the spectrum. He undergoes an FMRI to get clarification on the issue once and for all...but they tell him that the results will not come through until after the flight would occur. With that in mind, he finishes the application with the belief that he does not suffer from anxiety/depression nor is he on the spectrum. 

The day of the flight arrives, but Fielder is not all alone. He does have a pilot named Aaron with him to serve as his second-in-command...but while this is clearly a good thing in theory, Aaron ends up being almost too even keeled to work for the assignment at hand. Fielder wanted to use this flight (with the help of HBO's resources) to be his own way to bring awareness to his cause. Fielder thinks that Aaron might be tense but instead he keeps insisting he is fine...which in turn makes Fielder uneasy about bringing it up again; ironically adding to the bit of a pilot feeling an inability to properly communicate.

The stakes are high, and the tension is palpable, but perhaps one of the best aspects of the flight sequence itself is when a lot of the tension comes from HBO itself as a separate plane filming the 737 is circling around trying to get some good shots.

Fielder manages to land the plane after doing a circle from San Bernadino to the NV border and back again. He managed to achieve a truly personal goal for himself after having it be spun as a way to help the aviation field...and with that, we flash back to the "finale" of Wings of Voice, a plot-diversion that Fielder seemingly fell into that had various singers competing for an American Idol-like title.

The winner performs, to tie back into the brilliantly loony usage of it in the season's 3rd episode, "Bring Me to Life" by Evanescence. Like clockwork, Fielder receives a voicemail letting him know that his results are in. Much like his claim that the song gave Sully Sullenberger the strength to achieve the "Miracle on the Hudson", it punctuates Fielder realizing he doesn't need to know the results. In the end, he was able to fly a 737 and that is enough.

As the episode ends, we learn that Fielder has been using his newfound skill to help fly unused jets to various corners of the world after learning more about the program when searching for a plane to fly. We learn that he has flown over the Amazon rainforest at night, and as a clear sense of vindication, we hear him talking about flying solo over the Atlantic and seeing him reach the sands of an African desert adding via voiceover: "They only let the smartest and best people fly a plane of this size. No one is allowed in the cockpit if something is wrong with them. So, if you're here, you must be fine".

One could argue that this sophomore outing of The Rehearsal was a bit grandiose in comparison to the first season...but it also felt insanely personal to Nathan Fielder, like a very bizarre meta character study mixed in with a singing competition and a mini-Sully biopic that I would pay to see a full version of. 

Fielder may have been trying to help out pilots, but as the season went along, it became clear that he really needed to help himself...and it felt invigorating to watch him achieve not just what he did with this season, but with the fact he is now a licensed pilot!

It is truly inspiring, to say the least!

As someone who has been a fan of Fielder's work since Nathan for You, it has been such a delight to watch him grow and expand with his material. You see signs of it very early on in that first series, but he is easily the most intriguing and genius mind working on TV these days.

He always manages to keep you on your toes and second guessing in ways that still leave me in awe; even when I feel a bit mixed or perplexed by the final product (i.e. The Curse). Perhaps what will be interesting to see is if the Emmys will embrace it.

It was just announced that HBO will be submitting The Rehearsal in the Outstanding Comedy categories, which has it pitted against more traditional fare like Abbott Elementary. I would love to be pleasantly surprised and see them embrace it, but I feel doubtful at the moment. I hope that thought ages like a glass of milk sitting on a sunny windowsill in the month of July, however. 

There was a line written by film critic Pauline Kael when she was discussing the 1973 film The Way We Were starring Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford. She thought positively of the film but acknowledged that it wasn't exactly perfect and described it as: "a torpedoed ship full of gaping holes that comes snugly into port".

Now - this line is WAY too harsh to describe how I feel about this season of The Rehearsal but the general idea behind it rings a bit clear. As a whole, I do think this season did falter a bit only in keeping its intentions a bit unclear at first which lead to more middling episodes like "Star Potential" and "Kissme"...but the final results tie it all together so beautifully and it was even something I sort of expected would happen but not to this extent. 

I adored the first season, but there is something undeniably potent about what Fielder achieved here. It feels so emotionally resonant and as if he is bearing his soul to us in a way that feels unlike anything I have seen on TV in...well...maybe ever.

I would love to see him do a third season, but even if he moves on to a new project that isn't connected to this idea, I think it would make sense. How is he going to top becoming a pilot? Is he going to run for office? 

Hmmm...imagine something like that for a moment.

Nathan Fielder is a genius...and I am glad that he found a new sense of peace and self-assuredness, not to mention a cool new hobby.