Nathan Fielder is doing something on television right now that few creators ever manage: he’s redefining how we think about sincerity, control, and identity — all while wearing a diaper and choking on fake milk. And he’s doing it with a smile that never quite reaches his eyes.
Fielder’s HBO series The Rehearsal returned for a second season, and with it, a deeper dive into the mind of a man who built his career on elaborate, deadpan pranks. But this time, Fielder isn’t just toying with small businesses or awkward social interactions. He’s aiming for human psychology at its most high-stakes: airline safety.
The Rehearsal season 2 turns pilot communication into a personal mission
Each episode of Season 2 centers on Fielder’s odd-but-earnest quest to reduce plane crashes by improving communication between pilots and co-pilots. He studies accident reports, consults with former NTSB members, and constructs painstakingly detailed simulations to rehearse conversations that might one day save lives. It sounds practical. It isn’t.
Fielder’s obsession with rehearsal and control quickly spirals into... well, Fielder-levels of surrealism. In Episode 3, “Pilot’s Code,” he doesn’t just reenact a cockpit scenario. He reenacts the life of Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger — the hero of the Hudson River landing. And he does it with full commitment, including a scene where he plays baby Sully, fed by a giant puppet-tilted mother. It’s absurd. It’s uncomfortable. It’s genius.
Fielder’s Sully sequence blurs the line between parody and prestige
The Sullenberger episode is a perfect example of what makes The Rehearsal so untouchable. Fielder takes a small detail from the black box recording — a 23-second silent pause before Sully asks for input from his co-pilot — and turns it into a psychological investigation. He reads Sully’s memoir, Highest Duty, and tries to live through the captain’s experiences in order to understand his mindset.
One odd detail catches Fielder’s eye: Sully’s mention of Evanescence in the memoir. The rock band, featured nowhere in Clint Eastwood’s film Sully, becomes a key emotional weapon in Fielder’s simulation. He imagines that the silence in the cockpit was spent listening to the chorus of “Bring Me to Life” — a chorus that’s exactly 23 seconds long. So he recreates the landing scene, pilot-stylishly closing his eyes as the lyrics soar.
It’s the kind of moment that defies description. Evanescence’s Amy Lee calls it “really beautiful” and “blowing my mind.” It’s foolish and heartfelt in the same breath. A peak moment in a show full of peak moments.
This isn’t the same Nathan Fielder who gave us Nathan For You
What’s most striking about Season 2 is how much Fielder is trying to shake his own reputation. The creator of Nathan For You is often remembered as a comedic trickster, someone who masked awkwardness with absurdity. Now he’s asking whether someone like him can ever be genuinely helpful without mocking the people he’s helping.
His previous work thrived on the edge of social discomfort. The Rehearsal still walks that line, but now it’s more of an excavation than an ambush. When Fielder builds a simulated judge panel for pilots based on their feedback styles, he’s not just testing them — he’s testing himself. When he reuses child actors despite past criticism, he confronts his own ethical boundaries. He’s not just experimenting with others. He’s experimenting with who he is.
The Rehearsal season 2 is an existential crisis disguised as a safety study
Fielder’s fixation on pilot communication may seem like a random career pivot, but it’s actually the perfect metaphor for what The Rehearsal has always been about: how people express themselves under pressure. Like the pilots, Fielder operates in a space where miscommunication can lead to disaster. His rehearsals are his way of gaining control, of avoiding the chaos of unfiltered reality.
But the more he tries to control, the more he uncovers. In his quest to save pilots from miscommunication, he ends up trying to save himself from becoming “nothing,” as he puts it in the season premiere. The show that once made us laugh at the ridiculousness of fake business plans now has us watching a man willingly regress into a baby persona for the sake of emotional understanding.
Nathan Fielder is no longer just a comedian — he’s a television auteur
It’s tempting to categorize Fielder’s work as comedy, but The Rehearsal is operating in a different space. It’s theater, therapy, sociology, and satire all rolled into one. Fielder writes, directs, produces, and stars in it — giving him total control over how he’s perceived. And yet, he constantly pushes against that control, trying to break free from the image of the “meta-comic” who used to sell poo-flavored yogurt.
Whether he succeeds is up to the viewer. But the fact that we’re even having this conversation about a man who once made a business proposal involving a logo on a dartboard says everything about where Fielder is now. He’s not just playing with reality anymore. He’s using it to ask what honesty even means when you’re known for joking.
In a world obsessed with branding and reputations, Nathan Fielder is busy deconstructing his own. And somehow, that makes him more real — and more watchable — than ever.