Review: The Rehearsal, "Gotta Have Fun" | Season 2, Episode 1

Welcome to Episodic Medium’s coverage of Nathan Fielder’s The Rehearsal, which somewhat inexplicably returns after its buzzy first season back in 2022. As always, this first review is free for all, but subsequent reviews will be exclusively for paid subscribers. To learn more about our upcoming programming, check out our spring schedule.

Nathan Fielder doesn’t want to be funny anymore. Or at least not in the way we might think he does. The first season of The Rehearsal was, in effect, one long joke. By introducing the idea that a dedicated recreation of an environment could help a person with that famed Malcolm Gladwell-esque 10,000 hours thesis, and then taking that to its logical conclusion (“life’s better with surprises), Season 1’s finale functioned as a perfect punchline to a season’s worth of setup. Why risk coming back for more?

Season 2 of his HBO series seems to know it can’t pull the same trick twice. Instead, Fielder shifts his grand experiment to focus on…aviation safety? Bolstered by a haunting opening in which we see a dramatic plane crash, only to immediately reveal that it’s just another rehearsal, the episode makes one thing clear: The Rehearsal’s second season is aiming to take its premise to new heights.

Although there’s a setup and a punchline to that very idea. Fielder spends a decent chunk of time trying to convince former National Transportation Safety Board executive John Goglia—but really, the audience—to care about the seriousness of this new premise. The recreations of cockpit chatter were highly effective for me, especially as a Washington, DC resident, where the spectre of January’s Potomac plane crash still lingers. But nothing diffuses that tension better than the cuts to silent Fielder watching it all play out, like Ozymandias standing watch over his wrecked works.

What finally propels “Gotta Have Fun” into that laugh zone after Fielder’s admitted ten minutes of no laughs is how quickly various situations are revealed to be rehearsals. While some sophomore seasons might go out of their way to remind audiences of what’s come before, “Fun” drops everyone into the thick of it with the expectation that they know what the deal is. That understanding buttresses the episode’s humor. Once it’s established the show is moving right into rehearsals without handholding, “Fun” really comes to life, shifting into a bit of a guessing game as to what’s real or not. While this could get tedious—if everything’s fake, then what’s real?—Fielder’s deftness at pulling the curtain back at the exact right moment ensures we’re not scrambling too much. The injured clown is fugazi from the jump, but the initial call with the public relations rep being quickly revealed as a rehearsal elicited the biggest laugh of the episode for me, second only to seeing Fielder peer over the seat in the back of the van with Moody towards the end of the episode.

The Russian Nesting Doll of Rehearsalness eventually gives way to the understanding that this version of the show, just as last time, is really about communication and the human condition. And, just as last time, it's also about the show’s creator himself. There’s a special alchemy that’s on display when Fielder’s mad experiments come together as it does at the end with Moody and his girlfriend. The entire episode builds to this moment and has to go right in order for Fielder’s thesis to be proven correct on any level. But what I’m not sure even he counted on is how electric the moment is as it happens. Throughout the episode, Moody’s been about as passive as the other co-pilots seen in the various role-played scenarios. But as soon as his girlfriend starts fidgeting in the cockpit, he jumps at the opportunity to talk about his feelings.

Just as we saw last season, the absurdity of this unreality creates reality. Having difficult conversations is always tough, and I personally tend towards the Moody side of being more on the conflict-averse side of things, but I think that trying to have a serious conversation with my wife in the context of a Fielder setup sequence would yield no results. And yet, Moody and his girlfriend end up doing the exact opposite, legitimately hashing out his main concern. The physical experience of Moody grabbing the flight stick is akin to seeing the prestige, and is simply electric. For those few moments, the show is flying (no pun intended) with its new premise and certainly pulled me all in on what Fielder’s trying to accomplish.

But, of course, it’s never quite that simple, and there’s yet another rug pull at the very end as both Moody, his girlfriend, and Fielder all stand around awkwardly in the wake of what’s happened, in a manner that makes it seem as if they’ve shared too much. Fielder’s comments about holding it all on will likely continue to be the roadblock he’ll fight against all season, especially given the fact that the episode is consistently seeding the idea of a profession that’s inherently closed off, emotionally speaking. Sure, the process is a work in progress, but there’s enough of a spark—and plenty of money from HBO—to make something a reality. But even as a proof of concept, there’s enough there there to build out whatever it is that may come next.

Fielder’s concerns about the show being funny are warranted. But that becomes less of a personal issue for me when what we see is as insightful and illuminating it is here. But more so, I’m curious to see how these insights into others may give us further insight into who Fielder is, whether it be the character he’s created alongside credited writers Carrie Kemper, Adam Locke-Norton, and Eric Notarnicola or his actual self. But even if that doesn’t end up becoming the case, the tension between someone of Fielder’s status—specifically the notions we as an audience bring to the show about who he is—and the legitimate desire to do some good, are enough of a baited hook to see this flight out to its final destination.

Stray observations

• I would really like to gauge the reaction of someone sitting down to watch “Gotta Have Fun” without having seen last season. Definitely took me a second to remember the Fielder method and what all that entails when the episode pivots into it in the back half.
• As with last time, I remain truly floored by the production’s incredibly meticulous attention to detail. I would love to read an in-depth interview with production designer Rosie Sanders about how she brings all this to life.
• Props to the casting department for just absolutely nailing the appearance of each one of the airport actors. The cut from the actor playing the captain to the actual captain is sublime.
• The flight simulator appears to leverage The Volume, or a technology similar to it, to create its flight visuals.
• Quote of the Week: “Omaha!” “Omaha’s there.”
• Really interested in engaging with you all about the show. Full disclosure, I was late to Season 1 and caught up all in one weekend before the finale, which meant I missed a lot of the discourse around it. Even with its new angle, the metaness of it is an endlessly fascinating rabbit hole.