‘The Rehearsal’ Season 2 Episode 2 review: “Star Potential”

Whether consciously or not, HBO’s The Rehearsal constantly lives in the shadow of Nathan Fielder’s previous series, Nathan for You. That’s not to say that this new show is lesser than; rather, it plays like something between a semi-sequel and an evolution. There’s no Rehearsal without Nathan for You, ultimately. And how Fielder’s troubled past deliberately or forcefully interferes and elevates his present work is at the core of The Rehearsal Season 2 Episode 2, titled “Star Potential.”

Nathan reflects on ‘Canadian Idol’

As we learn in this second episode, back in the late aughts, Fielder’s career started with a brief stint on Canadian Idol. That is exactly what it sounds like: a Canadian version of American Idol. He was a segment producer, which ultimately led to him serving as a middleman between the bright-eyed musical hopefuls coming in to realize their dreams and the judges that TV viewers watch during the audition episodes. This unseen work, which fields out the talent considered to be TV-worthy, is understandably grueling and soul-draining. As Fielder alludes to, you have to spend hours letting people know that their dreams ultimately won’t come true. For someone not socially adept like our mild-mannered host, this isn’t an easy task. He’s still haunted by the crying faces of the people he denied.

But this early career rough spot wasn’t for naught, for it provides Fielder with inspired motivation in his airplane pilot navigation pursuit. As the director explored in keen depth last week, one of the primary reasons why airplane crashes happen is that airplane pilots are typically unable to communicate properly with one another. Certainly, when you are flying a huge vessel with many passengers on board, you are in a tight, confined situation where you can’t take chances. This is a high-pressure, high-volume situation where the lives of many are in your hands. If you don’t effectively express your feelings to a near-stranger, then you could cause unspeakable damage.

Recreation and reflection

Rounding together a varied crew of airplane pilots (including an all-too-briefly seen Moody), Nathan creates “Wings of Voice” in The Rehearsal Season 2 Episode 2, a singing competition show-within-a-docudramedy(?)-show that plays in a format that’s similar to American/Canadian Idol. These aircrew members step into 20-something Fielder’s shoes, left to determine who gets to elevate to the next level and who goes home with crushed expectations. While Fielder is the only one here with any sort of experience in this matter, he is, as expected, watching over these pilots-turned-judges, trying to glean the best ways to interact with people and how to effectively communicate difficult news.

Following a decision to allow the contestants to discreetly judge the judges after their auditions, Nathan learns in The Rehearsal Season 2 Episode 2 that one pilot/judge stands out among the pack: Mara. Even though she’s almost always delivering bad news, her scores are practically through the roof. Fielder can’t process it. Sitting back in the judge chair once more, Fielder tries to incorporate what he perceives as her secret strengths — namely, overusing adjectives like “fantastic” and “beautiful” — he doesn’t fare any better than he did in his early Canadian Idol days. What does Mara have, Fielder asks, that he doesn’t? As one contestant, the vest-adorning Austin, later tells him, the personable pilot has an “aura” that the TV host can’t capture. Charisma isn’t something you can easily recreate.

Well, not if Nathan can have his way. As he notes with sinister edge, “every human quality can be learned, or at least emulated.” Fielder says, “it just takes time,” and that’s when we find ourselves interacting with an odd fellow pilot named Jeff, a man with his own baggage.

Even though Jeff  admits that he has been banned from several dating apps for reasons he’s unsure of, Jeff doesn’t seem like a bad guy, but it’s clear that he has trouble properly interacting with the opposite sex — to put it a bit mildly. Putting Jeff and Mara in the simulated cockpit together, Fielder observes with mild concern and curious interest as the two pilots engage in an expectedly awkward correspondence. Nathan observes the way that Mara tries to gracefully navigate around Jeff’s uncomfortable questioning and remembers his recent conversational conflict with people in power. Namely, the folks at Paramount+, which currently hosts Nathan For You on its service.

Nathan and Paramount+

While there are many standout episodes of Nathan For You, one of the most notable is Season 3 Episode 2: “Horseback Riding/Man Zone,” which introduced the Summit Ice outdoor fashion apparel line, the rare (probably only?) Nathan for You business venture that eventually spawned a real-world enterprise. Summit Ice, designed by a rabbi to promote awareness of the Holocaust, formed after Taiga, a Canadian label, praised Doug Collins, a Holocaust denier. It’s a must-see episode for anyone who loves Fielder’s work.

Fielder emailed Paramount to figure out why “Horseback Riding/Man Zone” was taken off their streaming service. Fielder claims the episode raised millions for Holocaust awareness, one of his proudest achievements, and serves as his one example of how a comedy idea can turn into a real-life problem solver. He learns that its removal was an intentional one due to “sensitivities” raised by Paramount+ Germany. In late 2023, during the Israel and Palestine crisis, Paramount+ Germany wasn’t willing to show anything touching on antisemitism. This sparked a domino effect worldwide, leading to Paramount+ removing the episode entirely.

This balance between naval-gazing exploration and interpersonal conflict is pure Nathan.

Reuniting with Alexander Leiss, the actor who notably played the fake version of Fielder back in The Rehearsal Season 1, the host untangles these seemingly banal corporate emails to figure out where he went wrong in not expressing his dismay, concern, and outrage at what he sees as erasure. The host didn’t want to compromise his chance at getting a renewal for his other series, Showtime’s The Curse, so Fielder opted to stay mostly cordial, even though this decision hurt him severely.

From there, we get what’s easily been the talking point of the episode, which sees Fielder in a recreated simulation of what he believes Paramount+ Germany would appear as, which looks not unsubtly like how Germany looked like in the 1940s, along with an actor playing the head executive, notably with blonde hair, a thick accent, and an outfit that, let’s say, strikes authority.

This balance between naval-gazing exploration and interpersonal conflict is pure Nathan, in the truest sense, and results in what will easily be one of the funniest and most memorable scenes in the season, if not the series. If it doesn’t ease gracefully into the central focus, then it was worth it to show, yet again, how far Fielder will go at HBO’s expense to pursue big, outlandish self-evaluation, all in the name of comedy and pseudo-emotional pathos.

Did this exercise bring him any step closer to figuring out the plight of these pilots? Does it matter? Fielder will likely always struggle to connect with people, as he often does here and perpetually aimed to on Nathan For You, but he can still make a less-than-honest effort to try it.

Nathan continues to blend the lines between his true self and his televised persona.

The Rehearsal Season 2 Episode 2 ends with Fielder, returning to the judge chair, as he watches Sophia, an earnest 15-year-old singer, realize her dreams. While she’s not quite ready for stardom, Fielder attempts to use the words and rationale he has learned in this episode to give this heartbroken singer the continued confidence she needs to continue following her dreams elsewhere. Everything Fielder tells her is a cliched pep talk. Fielder plays a variation of himself that can communicate with others, with the desire to make this young musician feel better about being rejected from this fake singing competition. And when it comes time for Fielder to look in the box and see how he performed, he realizes that he got a six out of ten — an improvement, if not quite the desired outcome. Unless, of course, this was actually … a nine.

In this desire to continue blurring the lines between ironic people pleasing and real-life sincere success, Fielder also continues to blend the lines between his true self, his televised persona, his controlling intentions, and the expectations of both himself and others. Whether he makes it to the next level is a question for another week.