I didn’t get to catch The Rehearsal when it first appeared on the 2025 TV schedule earlier this year. But, when I was coming back from my grandfather’s funeral and needed something to watch on the train, I decided to download all six episodes of Nathan Fielder’s cringeworthy TV show with my Max subscription and binge it all the way through. Little did I know, but this excruciatingly awkward yet endearingly sincere HBO show would prevent me from having a full-on meltdown on what would become a 15-hour train ride from Hell.
Between a broken air conditioner, a group of kids in front of me that wouldn’t sit down, a three-hour stop in the middle of nowhere during a massive thunderstorm, and a lady who was screaming on her phone at 3 a.m., I needed a distraction, and The Rehearsal was there in a very strange and admittedly on-brand way. Allow me to explain…
The Rehearsal Season 2, And It's Outrageous Focus On The Airline Industry, Was A Nice Distraction
In case you haven’t watched yet, The Rehearsal Season 2 follows Nathan Fielder as he tries to get a better understanding of the interpersonal relationships shared by captains and first officers on airplanes and how improving that line of communication could make air travel safer for all. Just like with the show’s first season, and pretty much everything else the comedian has done over the years, Fielder takes what could be a serious topic and turns it into something that’s not quite heavy but also not fully comedy either.
Honestly, after burying my grandfather, having my trip home delayed multiple times, and dealing with all the shenanigans that come with travel by train, Fielder’s deep dive into the aviation industry (and that random sidetrack where he called out Paramount+ for removing an episode of Nathan For You) served as a nice distraction. I laughed, I groaned, I pressed pause a couple of times to wrap my head around certain scenes...but for around six hours, I was able to tune out the world around me.
Nathan Fielder's Shows Usually Put Me On Edge, But Not This Time
Going into Season 2, I had such a strange relationship with Fielder and his body of work. Though I enjoyed The Curse, I didn’t like it as much as critics or Christopher Nolan, who called it “an incredible show,” His shows usually put me on edge, force me to think about some random memory or conversation or truth that I’ve buried deep down in the recesses of my mind hoping never to be revisited again, and go into a bit of an existential crisis.
Not this time.
I don’t know if it’s the absurdity of the show’s premise, the increasingly awkward interactions (like a chat with a United States Congressman that made my skin crawl), or the fact that The Rehearsal was helping me forget my own troubles for a while that did it, but I wasn’t freaking out, I wasn’t sad, and I just kind of existed for a chunk of my train ride.
As Strange As It Sounds, The Show Helped Me With Some Much-Needed Soul-Searching
Similar to how Friendship made me feel very uncomfortable (both during and after my screening), The Rehearsal, oddly enough, helped me with some much-needed soul-searching as I experienced what was, without a doubt, the worst train ride of my life. One of the major topics that comes up multiple times throughout the six-episode season is how to properly communicate empathetically with those around us. As someone who has long struggled with empathy, conversations with strangers, or simply communicating his feelings, this exploration of the human condition was both terrifying and fulfilling.
There’s a section of the show where Fielder set up a fake singing competition – Wings of Voice, an elaborate play on his experience as a producer on Canadian Idol – that feels like it was constructed for the sole purpose of allowing the comedic mastermind to figure out how to talk to people. It was outlandish, it was over the top, and it was undeniably absurd, but I’ll be damned if it wasn’t poignant.
Despite The Myriad Of Issues With My Train, The Show Reminded Me That It Could Be Worse
As I’ve mentioned already, there were a myriad of issues with my train coming back to the Midwest, some of which I’m sure I’ll be telling people about for years to come. However, after blowing through the show’s second season, I was reminded that it could always be worse. Much, much worse…
From all the plane crashes that are examined and recreated in stunning detail to the various uncomfortable conversations that played out through each episode to the way tragedy was explored throughout, I kept remembering that it could be worse. I mean, being stuck on a train for the better part of a day sucks, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s not that bad. I made it home, my day wasn’t completely ruined, and I didn’t have to go on CNN to defend myself to the FAA for learning how to fly a commercial jet and taking a group of actors on a short trip over the Mojave Desert.
However, I Feel Bad For The Random Guy Sitting Next To Me During The Sully Sullenberger Episode
Imagine having an open seat next to you and going to the restroom before going to sleep for the night, and then coming back to find someone sitting next to you. That didn’t happen to me, but the poor guy next to me on the train ride from Hell. Now imagine a couple of hours later, when you look over and that guy that ruined your spacious trip is watching Nathan Fielder dressed up like a baby version of Sully Sullenberger breastfeeding from a giant puppet.
It’s been a few days, and I’m still wondering what must have been going through that guy’s head when he looked over and saw me watching one of the strangest shows of the year. I don’t know if he could hear the Evanescence song “Bring Me to Life” on my headphones throughout the biopic episode about the “Miracle on the Hudson,” but he was probably scarred enough at that point. I never got the guy’s name, but my sincere apologies go out to the man who was six hours late getting back to Chicago.
I honestly don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t downloaded The Rehearsal before hitting the train station. Hopefully, Fielder and HBO team up again for a third season by the time I take my next overnight ride.
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