The Rehearsal series two: Nathan Fielder's docu-comedy is 'laugh-out-loud funny'

Nathan Fielder standing in front of an airplane in season two of The Rehearsal — Nothing is straightforward with the deadpan comedian

(Image credit: Sky Comedy / Now)

The first season of Canadian comedian Nathan Fielder's "The Rehearsal" was "an entrancing experiment", said Esther Zuckerman in The New York Times. Released in 2022, the satirical docu-comedy had a simple but "absurd" premise: what if you could rehearse for events in your everyday life, from having a conversation with a friend to raising a child?

For the second series, he has turned his attention to commercial airline safety: having researched the subject extensively, he has concluded that most air disasters occur owing to failures of communication between subservient seconds-in-command and their captains. His solution is to get pilots to "open up, through his rehearsal methods involving professional actors". But, as ever with Fielder, nothing is straightforward.

This time, Fielder is "deadly serious", said Dan Einav in the Financial Times. His findings "are no laughing matter" and his motives seem sincere; but the aviation industry isn't much interested in the advice of a deadpan comedian. So, over six episodes, he goes to bizarre lengths to prove his point, building a full-scale replica of an airport terminal, setting up "a pilot-judged singing contest", and re-enacting the entire life of aviation hero Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger.