https://blackgirlnerds.com/review-chaotic-predictability-in-hbos-the-rehearsal-season-2/

You know, a thought occurred to me as I sat and watched an episode from the second season of Nathan Fielder’s The Rehearsal. There I was, on my couch, Pomeranian by my side, watching Fielder watch Fake Nathan take a real shower while the latter acted out how the former reacted to the very real news of a content dispute with Paramount+. As the real Fielder handed Fake Nathan a towel, I thought: “This show might not be for everyone.”

In fact, this show is so uninterested in bringing novices and the uninitiated up to speed that Damon Lindelof, the mind behind Lost and The Leftovers, might think Fielder was being a bit too opaque and self-referential. But please understand: I never once said that this made the show bad. It’s just not something that will likely be enjoyed by anyone unfamiliar with Fielder esoterica dating back to his pre-Nathan for You days.

But perhaps I should attempt to summarize this work without spoiling it or driving people from it in droves.

This sophomore season of Fielder’s HBO production The Rehearsal centers on Fielder’s thesis that airline disasters caused by human error on the captain’s part can be avoided if only the plane’s copilot were more assertive. Like Season 2 of The Leftovers, this second run feels like a soft reboot, maybe even a requel. There are minimal rehearsals for individuals like Kor Skeete, who found the Season 1 experience largely positive but the resultant hipster fame a tad frustrating. The show seems to have moved away from its apparent original intention to have a “person of the week” in favor of a traditional season-long arc more concerned with Fielder’s anxious scenarios than anyone else’s. However, this is not a complete departure from what came before.

Fielder’s fans know that Season 1 went from following a formula that matched Nathan for You in terms of a new person (victim?) weekly to exploring Fielder’s onscreen persona and his fears about parenthood. Those fans will likely recall the many highlights that pivot gave us: Fielder’s visit to Dr. Fart, who encouraged — demanded, in fact — that his patient eat poo; Fielder’s realization that rehearsing fatherhood with another fully grown man might hinder his ability to fully invest in this parental practice run; or the time Fielder had his teenage actor “overdose” and die so the character could be softly rebooted.

While these moments were shockingly hilarious, one also gets the feeling that they were the result of necessary improvisation. In 2021, Fielder and co-writers Carrie Kemper (The Office, Beef), Adam Locke-Norton (The Curse), and Eric Notarnicola had to wrestle with the weight of the pandemic and the pressure it put on all productions. The more I watch Season 1, the more I get the feeling that the plan was to have more real-world characters like Patrick deal with their issues rather than to spend so many claustrophobic moments with Angela and her wacky proselytizing. Like the rest of the planet, Fielder and company had to make due with restrictions on the amount of people that could be in proximity to one another. Regardless, the result was beautiful, but it was likely a happy accident.

This new season, on the other hand, has no such restrictions. To put it succinctly, Season 1 will survive as a testament to how strange and ad hoc of a time the pandemic was, but Season 2 will remain notable as a monument to the grandiose absurdity Fielder will revel in if given time, space, and HBO’s seemingly endless resources. Indeed, this review is spending so much time talking about the season obliquely because to discuss it in full would lessen the impact of the journey. Let’s try this: I’ll give you a set of words, and you’ll predict what they might mean for this new season.

Here goes.

Planes, Tinder ban, First Officer Blunt, George W. Bush statue, Congress, “Wings of Voice,” the Miracle on the Hudson, “Bring Me to Life,” the Fielder Method, animal pack mentality.

Alright, did you do it? Did you create a season-long arc that conceivably connects each of these seemingly disparate things? Did it make sense at all? If you said yes, I don’t believe you. If you said no, you should plan on watching Season 2 of The Rehearsal in order to see how Fielder’s writing team connects these far-out dots. 

If you consider yourself a fan of absurd humor, this will be the show for you. There are moments that happen that I wouldn’t describe for two reasons.

First, so much of this show, one ostensibly based on the value of predictability, is, in fact, predicated on taking its audience to the most unexpected, outlandish spaces. To say too much would be to dilute the experience and the humor.

Second, I don’t want to get fired. Fielder gets really gross really fast, and I don’t need an editor mad at something a television comedian made me say. Still, this occasionally gross-out unpredictability is a major reason to watch this show. Like the best performance art, it is entirely unconcerned with mass appeal. It has a specific vision of how to bring its plausible, seemingly sincere thesis to light, and it will use every warehouse set and Fielder Method-approved actor in Los Angeles to do so. 

If you got past the first paragraph, if you read that messy jumble inspired by the chaotic ode to predictability that Fielder and Co. have created, then you are one of the true believers for whom this season of The Rehearsal was made.

The Rehearsal premieres Sunday, April 20, 2025, at 10:30 p.m. ET on HBO and Max.

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