The Rehearsal Season 2 Review: An Unhinged Nathan Fielder Somehow Reaches New Heights

The biggest challenge of "The Rehearsal" season 2 was simply escaping its first season's shadow. Season 1 was a stunning experiment that stretched the boundaries of what a reality TV show was even allowed to be. There were moments in that first season so meta it felt like the show was collapsing in on itself, yet kept going. Moments where it felt like Nathan Fielder was breaking the law, but somehow continued along as a free man. By the end of season 1 we'd gotten an unexpectedly deep look into Fielder's tortured psyche, to the point where it felt we couldn't possibly journey any deeper into him. After watching Fielder spiral into insanity in his attempt to capture the joys of fatherhood, how can he up the ante from there?

The answer is that Nathan Fielder has shifted from tackling parenthood to tackling one of the most high-stakes issues he possibly could: aviation safety. The season's first episode, "Gotta Have Fun," features a solemn Fielder examining the cockpit transcriptions of multiple deadly plane crashes of recent years. This is a serious problem, Fielder makes clear, and he's committed to tackling it. In fact he's so committed that, by the end of the season, he's pulling off an experiment that puts hundreds of people's lives in his hands. 

Season 2 doesn't dive quite as deeply into Nathan Fielder's mind, but it does raise the stakes to absurd life-or-death levels. A lot of the humor comes from just how serious and driven Fielder proves himself to be.

Although season 2 is not as introspective as season 1, there's a compelling character arc here for Nathan Fielder. His biggest obstacle to selling his ideas about airline safety to the government is that his reputation is that of a prankster, a clown. Fielder supposedly wants to put all that aside so that he can save the lives of countless passengers, but he knows that HBO is expecting a comedy show. How can he successfully make his case to congress while still being funny to general audiences? 

For the first two episodes, Fielder sells that this is a genuine struggle. The second episode has Fielder using his real experience working for "Canadian Idol" in the 2000s to explore the season's main thesis. The third episode, meanwhile, goes full silly: Fielder's journey spurs him to study the mind and upbringing of famous pilot Chesley Sullenberger. The methods and conclusions Fielder draws here are far dumber than anything else he's done in both seasons so far, but it works because the big punchline — involving a deduction Fielder makes about what must've happened during Sully's 2009 emergency landing in the Hudson River — is one of the funniest things I've seen in years.

Fielder's willingness to still go full goofy at points might lull viewers into a false sense of security, allowing them to assume that Fielder's supposedly noble intentions are just a vehicle for more comedy. But rest assured: when it comes to the core of this story, Fielder isn't joking. Or if he is, he never makes it clear. Legally speaking there are things Fielder does this season that must surely be fake, at least to some extent, but the boundaries between real and fiction are blurry to a concerning, riveting degree.  

If there's one thing missing here, it's the lack of eccentric real people for Fielder to stumble across. Nobody here advises Fielder to drink his grandson's urine, nor does anyone try to convince Fielder that every number he comes across is a sign from god. There are still some real-life oddballs Fielder meets, like a pilot who's been banned from every dating app or a woman who is fiercely attracted to Albert Einstein, but Fielder doesn't form a relationship with anyone in quite the same way he did with Angela or Remy in season 1.

But what season 2 lacks in fun new guests, it makes up for in just how many treats there are for long-time Nathan Fielder fans. One storyline is based around Fielder's reflections on his 2023 Showtime drama "The Curse," and another's based on a "Nathan For You" season 3 episode that was removed from Paramount+ due to its "Holocaust Awareness" gag. If you've had questions about real-life Fielder's thoughts on his past projects, season 2 answers (or at least, pretends to answer) a surprising number of them. 

The most interesting bit of self-reflection from Fielder comes in the final few episodes, where he mentions he's been reading many of the articles and Reddit threads people write about him. (One of /Film's articles even gets a half-second shout-out in the penultimate episode.) Much like how he handles people face-to-face, Fielder reads the coverage of his show like an alien trying to understand human culture; he doesn't get what viewers are talking about when they compare his show's rehearsing premise to the life experiences of many autistic people, but he's willing to explore the idea to its full extent. 

Season 1 Nathan Fielder felt like a lonely scientist trying to find a secret formula for human connection; season 2 Nathan Fielder feels like a doctor trying everything he can to save his patient's life. The patient in question is America's troubling recent pattern of plane crashes, and not even Fielder is sure if he's up for the task. The result is a season that's not quite as boundary-breaking as the first, but which maintains a clearer sense of direction from start to finish. Season 1 started off as a simple idea that evolved into something bigger; season 2 knows exactly what it wants to be from minute one. Thankfully, for both the viewers and the real-life people involved, Nathan Fielder sticks the landing. 

/Film Rating: 9 out of 10

"The Rehearsal" season 2 premieres on HBO April 20, 2025.