‘The Rehearsal’ Season 2, Episode 2 Precap: The Height of Absurdist Comedy

Speaker 1 Welcome to the Prestige TV Podcast, aka the wings of voice of TV recaps. I'm Charles Holmes of the Midnight Boys.
She's Jodi Walker of We're Obsessed.

Speaker 1 And while Nathan Fielder might have been erased by the Paramount Corporation, we have not. That's right.
We're back to talk about the second episode of the rehearsal season two.

Speaker 1 But before we do that, Jodi,

Speaker 1 let me know everything. How are you doing? How's the rehearsals in your life going?

Speaker 2 Oh, Charles, everything is going great. I'm just so glad that you saw the star potential in me to bring me on as your co-host today.

Speaker 2 And it's why I've prepared my very special rendition of Amazing Grace, which I will sing for you now. Ooh,

Speaker 2 they cut the audio, but it was gorgeous.

Speaker 1 We had to cut that audio because honestly, I'm signing you to Prestige TV Records. All right.
We can't let that get out until we have a

Speaker 1 marketing budget behind it, working it. And I'll be real.
You want to know who is on this Zoom who has heard my beautiful voice before at karaoke?

Speaker 1 Justin Sales and I were at karaoke two weeks ago, killing it. You know what? I had a whole

Speaker 2 two weeks ago.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I had, I had sex, I started with Sexy Back. We did a little Sierra one-two step, and then I had to like bless everybody with some Neo So sick.
I did almost start crying.

Speaker 1 You know, it's been being single on these LA streets has been tough. And I did shed a tear.
I was like, why do I have to do it?

Speaker 2 But if one thing can cure you,

Speaker 1 it is karaoke. You would make it way farther in Wings of Voice than I would.
You would have been passed. I would have not.

Speaker 1 Justin says in the chat, it was beautiful. Thank you, Justin.

Speaker 2 Justin,

Speaker 2 you know, notably requiring some training and confrontation and rejection, says that it was beautiful.

Speaker 1 Hell yeah. Well, before we get to that, guess what, Jodi?

Speaker 1 We have some mail from our listeners. Can I read this great email that we got? Please do.
All right. Shout out Michael Baker.

Speaker 1 Quote, he said, I don't know what you guys did with Joe and Rob, but please don't hurt them. First of all, do we look like killers, sadistic murderers? What did he think that we did with Joe and Rob?

Speaker 1 We love Joe and Rob.

Speaker 2 All we did was put them in one small room and try to suck out some of their podcasting talent and take it on as our own.

Speaker 2 We have been conducting a series of rehearsals with them so that we can learn from their greatness. Is that so bad?

Speaker 1 We are the rehearsal versions of Joe and Rob, but we are the real versions.

Speaker 2 We're like those weird holographic severance versions of Joe and Rob.

Speaker 1 Just stuck in the room.

Speaker 1 You're Joe. Wait, no, I'm Joe.
You're Rob.

Speaker 2 That's right.

Speaker 1 Our

Speaker 1 friend, Michael Baker, he said,

Speaker 1 where the idea came from. There was a chapter around this very thing in the Malcolm Gladwell book, Outliers, about 20 years ago.
If I had to guess, I'd say that's where the idea came from.

Speaker 1 And Michael might be on to something because I did some Googling.

Speaker 1 I did not read the chapter of the book because it's just been a very busy week in my life and my brain is not working, but I was just like, oh, Michael, let me see.

Speaker 1 And chapter seven of Gladwell's 2008 book is indeed all about airplanes and the various ways faulty communication between pilots, dispatchers, and the like can lead to horrible accidents.

Speaker 1 So my question is for you, Jodi, if you're Nathan Fielder, are you afraid that like Gladwell might step to you and be like, hey, yo, this was my block. You're stealing ideas.
Fuck this. Let's fight.

Speaker 2 I mean, I think most art is an exchange of ideas.

Speaker 2 And this is definitely an expansion on chapter seven of Outliers, which mostly focuses on, I don't know if you saw this in your research, but mostly focuses on a specific Korean airlines crash, which was mostly due to poor communication or the inability for the co-pilot to assert themselves to the captain.

Speaker 2 But what's interesting is a lot of what Malcolm Gladwell came down to in that chapter is that this was sort of a cultural issue about confrontation and the ability to confront a superior, tell them they're wrong, and does ultimately assess that

Speaker 2 the solution to this could be practice. But I think if Malcolm Gladwell were going to step to Nathan Fielder, he would have a larger case, which is that

Speaker 2 a lot of what that book outliers is about is the 10,000 hour rule, which is that, you know, if you practice anything enough, you can become a master of it, which is kind of also the concept of the rehearsal.

Speaker 2 If you rehearse something enough, you know, we're not rehearsing

Speaker 2 trivia for 10,000 hours, but the idea is that if you practice something enough, you can master it. What I think is really interesting so far in season two

Speaker 2 is that while in season one, to the extent that it went off without a hitch before everything got kind of crazy out there in the woods, it was about mastering scenarios so that you could kind of expect every twist and turn.

Speaker 2 Season two so far is sort of about mastering emotionality and behavior, which is a lot more difficult of a thing to tame.

Speaker 2 But once I get, once again, I say, I think I said this last week, is also just kind of therapy.

Speaker 2 Like what Nathan Fielder is doing is just sort of behavioral therapy in the most absurdly comedic way possible.

Speaker 1 I mean, the other thing, if we're, if we're continuing on the outliers of it all, I feel like this episode was also also interesting in that I'm like, oh, Fielder has put in 10,000 hours of doing this type of comedy.

Speaker 1 And I think this episode in general is like the Russian nesting doll where it's like, he goes all the way back to Nathan for you.

Speaker 1 And it's like, it's the Fielder cinematic universe where it's like, we have a little bit of Nathan for you. We have some of the curse.
We have previous seasons of the rehearsal. And I'm just like,

Speaker 1 we have Canadian Idol, which we didn't even know was in the fielder universe but but now it is and that brings me to we didn't do this last week or we did it a little bit but this episode especially there's a lot going on so if you don't mind can i can i start with a plot kind of synopsis a little bit about everything that happens and then we'll get into the episode Cool.

Speaker 2 Please, Charles, help the people out.

Speaker 1 All right. So episode two is directed by Fielder, written by Fielder, Carrie Kemper, Adam Loc Norton, and Eric Nader Nicola.
Sorry if I butchered your name.

Speaker 1 Nathan creates a fake aviation theme music show called Wings of Voice.

Speaker 1 This show is based off Canadian Idol, a spin-off of American Idol, a show where Nathan Fielder got his break as a young producer who is basically telling people that they are not good enough to be on Canadian Idol.

Speaker 1 The reason for creating Wings of Voice, Nathan wants to put his collection of first officers in a scenario where they have to put bad singers down gently.

Speaker 1 From there, the episode spins out and we learn that Nathan is upset that an episode of his Comedy Central show was removed from Paramount Plus.

Speaker 1 This episode in question, season three, episode two, Horseback Riding Man Zone. Why was the episode removed, you asked?

Speaker 1 According to Nathan, quote, in late 2023, a decision was made by Paramount Plus Germany to remove the episode in the region after they became uncomfortable with what they called anything that touches upon anti-Semitism in the aftermath of the Israel-Hamas attacks.

Speaker 1 Through a series of recreations, Nathan confronts the fake head of Paramount Germany in order to get the episode reinstated on the streamer. With that done,

Speaker 1 please give me your initial reactions to episode two of this season.

Speaker 2 It is unbelievable. I think two things are happening in this episode.

Speaker 2 It is, Nathan Fielder is at the height, I think, of his absurdist comedy, of being able to say something in a monotone voice that just absolutely rips you apart.

Speaker 2 When he says that, you know, he's bringing in the co-pilots to

Speaker 2 be judges for a fake singing competition show in order to,

Speaker 2 he says, I hope, talking about their

Speaker 2 ability to be confrontational, I hoped this could be revealed in an aviation-themed singing competition.

Speaker 2 Just ain't, ain't that just the gist? I mean,

Speaker 2 the season like started at such an absurd level, much more so than season one. And it's just getting wilder.

Speaker 2 I will say about this episode, there was a lot going on and there were a lot of themes to connect.

Speaker 2 And I think for me, individually, the basically three things happening here, one, wings of love, the singing competition, two, singling out our, our sort of two participant main characters, Jeff, who we'll get to, and Meredy.

Speaker 2 And then, and then, of course, going to Paramount Plus Germany, all perfect. Like, they're so funny.
Each, each one, but they're, they almost felt like vignettes.

Speaker 2 And while the exposition is there to connect them, they were a little disparate for me. My feeling is that in the totality of the season, they will feel all more connected.

Speaker 2 I don't think that any of these things exist in a vacuum. And there is, there is something already two episodes into this season that feels like we are painting a big, big picture.
And at times,

Speaker 2 when those puzzle pieces are going into place, they don't look like they'll fit. But I think in the end, they will.

Speaker 1 No, I actually agree with you so much because I love this episode.

Speaker 1 I thought it was funny, but there were moments where I feel like we're getting out of a zone where the last two things that Nathan Fielder has done, the curse, and the first season of the rehearsal.

Speaker 1 felt way more to me contained and honed and and just very specific. Like the curse is a perfect example of a show that I had a lot of difficulty difficulty week to week.
There was funny moments.

Speaker 1 There was moments like, what's happening? And by the time you get to the end punchline, you're like, this is genius. And with the first season of the rehearsal, it felt very much like

Speaker 1 Fielder was tapping into something that maybe was a little bit more artistic, a little bit more thought through.

Speaker 1 And this episode, almost weirdly and probably on purpose, reminded me of watching Nathan for You, where that show is broken up into a bunch of different bits.

Speaker 1 And like, some of them are really, really funny. Some of them don't work as well.
And for this,

Speaker 1 I was just like, oh, this reminds me of a Nathan for you episode where he's trying to string together all of the vignettes. He's trying to string all of them and have a thematic backbone to them.

Speaker 1 And I'm like, I don't know if they, if that is actually there,

Speaker 1 but it was still really, like, it was so funny, I almost didn't care as much by the end of the episode.

Speaker 2 And I also think I trust it. Yeah, like I don't totally care because I'm laughing and it's funny and it's so big.
Like it's so big and crazy what he is doing in this episode and on this show

Speaker 2 in general.

Speaker 2 But what's exciting is that we get to look forward to how this might continue because I do think I started feeling like, wow, this is kind of all over the place about the time that we arrived in fake Germany.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 2 But then by the end of that vignette, when the actor is basically confronting him him about what he feels is a false sincerity, I was like, oh, yeah, everything we're doing here is about what quantifies and qualifies sincerity within this episode, within these people, within rejection, within confrontation.

Speaker 2 And then what is sincere about Nathan, the character? What is sincere about Nathan Fielder and what he's presenting to us?

Speaker 2 And does sincerity even matter is what it felt like Nathan was taking on by the end of the episode. And what I assume we will continue to follow as he continues to try to figure out aviation safety.

Speaker 1 No, I

Speaker 1 could not agree. It's a theme that pulls it all together.
I could not agree more. This,

Speaker 1 I had a similar feeling of like when I thought the episode was

Speaker 1 completely went off the rails

Speaker 1 when they, when he recreates the fake Paramount, uh, Paramount plus Germany.

Speaker 1 And, but then when he sits down and he has this very like impassioned speech about like art and what art means and censorship, and then the fake CEO has another speech where he's calling him out on his bullshit.

Speaker 1 And I'm like, wait, what's happening? I'm like, is this genius? And then they end on the punchline of Nathan looking out the window and seeing all the soldiers.

Speaker 1 And I'm just like, please don't tell me these are Nazi soldiers that are supposed to be working at Paramount. And then you see their little

Speaker 2 Paramount Plus soldiers.

Speaker 1 Yeah, when they had the little Paramount Plus band on with the little logo, I was just like, okay, it's back to being funny. Like, this is all back to being so funny, so locked in.

Speaker 1 And, but the thing I kind of wanted to talk to you about is: what does this episode have to say about Nathan? Because the more and more I watch

Speaker 1 this kind of era of Nathan Fielder, it seems like he is trying to

Speaker 1 figure out what his persona is and poke at it

Speaker 1 and try to reveal something about himself and how not only he's perceived as a performer, but what is that boundary between Nathan Fielder the comedian and Nathan Fielder the human?

Speaker 1 Because I think he in turn, like he knows that there is something

Speaker 1 discomforting about him and the way he talks and his the tempo of his humor. And he's always leaning into that.
And I'm like, what does he actually think about the Nathan Fielder project?

Speaker 2 I mean, I think that I really do think that he's a genius and that he has, like you said, he's done his 10,000 hours of this kind of content. And I think

Speaker 2 I think he does it because he likes it, but what it does feel like is he is showing us the absolute mastery of it. Because I think in this episode, especially, he really takes what

Speaker 2 who could be naysayers down this road of, well, what does sincerity mean for you? Because I think that probably the largest criticism against him as a comedian

Speaker 2 and as an artist is that he takes advantage of the awkwardness or the sincerity of these real people that he puts on his shows and that he and that he makes them look foolish, and that he doesn't, he's not very, he's not careful with their humanity, and that at the worst, that he is encouraging audiences to laugh at them because they're not laughing.

Speaker 2 Like the thing that makes it funny always is that these people don't know that what is happening to them or around them is hilarious. And that could seem inhuman.

Speaker 2 I think if we believe that Nathan has a mat, that Nathan Fielder has a mastery over it, then we can believe that he is being careful, that these people are cared for in some way, that he does care for them.

Speaker 2 And I think that we really, for me, see his mastery of that. You were talking about that, like it really starts, like it feels like it's going off the rails.

Speaker 2 And then you see the Paramount Plus soldiers and you're like, what the fuck is going on? But then it all circles back to the wings of love competition.

Speaker 2 Nathan Fielder or Nathan goes back in, pours his heart out to this child, this child that he is rejecting, gives her this beautiful speech.

Speaker 2 We see a completely different Nathan than you've ever seen on the rehearsal. An earnest, kind,

Speaker 2 not monotoned, smiling, seemingly sincere Nathan. And then what does it all end with? Him looking at the score and then deciding to make it whatever he wants it to be.
He turns the six into a nine

Speaker 2 what does sincerity matter

Speaker 2 as long as the final product makes you laugh makes you feel better makes you feel something i think i think his ability to

Speaker 2 just like never

Speaker 2 never let you like settle into an idea you know like never let you make up your mind kind of what's going on here is the goal. I think that's what he's doing.

Speaker 1 And I think also what this episode revealed to me and why by the end of it,

Speaker 1 I appreciated the journey is that I think it's very intentional that he starts as him as a junior producer on

Speaker 1 Canadian Idol. Because what I realized, I was like, oh, if you think about the big thing, big things that Nathan Fielder has done, if you think about kind of his filmography, all of it in some ways

Speaker 1 is like this loving ode to reality television.

Speaker 1 I think it's like easy, especially for for men to be so dismissive of reality television, to feel that there's no art to it, that there's nothing to be said about it.

Speaker 1 And I think with Nathan, I'm like, oh, I think you're a genius actually at reality television. You started your journey on this competition show.
You saw everything that happened.

Speaker 1 behind the scenes that we don't ever get to see. Then you, you're in front of the camera for something like Nathan for you.
And now you're the person who's building the artifice.

Speaker 1 And even when you watch the curse, you're just like, this guy loves

Speaker 1 HG TV so much. He knows the ticks of it.
He knows what makes it awkward, what makes it uplifting.

Speaker 1 And with this episode, I'm like, this is almost to your point, a guy being like, can there be anything like sincerity in something, in an age where it's like every singer who went on that show wanted to be seen, whether they made it to the actual end round and they won the con they're not even competing for anything like money.

Speaker 1 They just want to be on TV. And I do think that there is a level of like Nathan kind of pointing out, if that is your ultimate goal,

Speaker 1 even when someone is super sincere to you, when Nathan has that speech in front of that, that girl and he's given all this advice. First, I was just like, this seems very practiced.

Speaker 1 I don't even know if this is sincere. That girl is like shaking her head.
She still gives him a six, though, because like at the end of the day, I want to be a singer. I want to be on this show.

Speaker 1 You told me that. No, you're stopping me.

Speaker 1 And I was like, oh, that's, there's something so dark and comedic, but also true about it.

Speaker 2 Oh, Charles, let me tell you what. If those are themes you're interested in, you're going to like reality TV.

Speaker 2 As a studier myself, as a bit of an anthropologist of reality TV, I always say that reality TV is the sports of human behavior.

Speaker 2 And in reality TV stars, we are seeing elite athletes, people capable of performing at the top abilities of human behavior, spectrums you didn't even know existed.

Speaker 2 But I think, like you say, what Nathan Fielder knows is that editors and producers are the artists of human behavior. That's who's creating really good reality TV.

Speaker 2 You have to have the performers, but you also have the, you must have the people who shape it into something interesting.

Speaker 2 And so you're right, like what he is really doing here is just putting the producer in front of the camera, but then that's a performance too, but you're seeing him produce the dark, funny thing that he's making and you're seeing how it affects him too.

Speaker 2 And then, you know, presumably in years to come, the camera will just keep moving back and back and back, showing him in an editing bay, showing him, you know, pitching Paramount Plus, like just going back and back and back on this process.

Speaker 1 I mean, and I think the genius thing that I was realizing too about this episode is that you were kind of comparing a lot of the rehearsal to almost like psychotherapy or going to therapy. And it's

Speaker 1 Nathan Fielder is making literal that feeling that I feel like all of us have, especially if you're in front of a camera or you're doing anything that's in front of people, social media, whatever, where you just want somebody to tell you the rules of engagement.

Speaker 1 If I can just say fantastic a bunch of times to someone and they'll just like me more, you, we want that. We want that formula.
Mara D,

Speaker 1 even through to your point, through the camera, she just has this reality show thing about her.

Speaker 1 The moment she started talking, I was just like, she's not even trying to do anything, but her presence, the way she's talking, the way they're editing her, I'm just like, oh, yeah, I'd give her a good score too.

Speaker 1 Like, I understood intrinsically why a singer would be like, oh, okay, sure, to Mara D. And then when Nathan's in the room, there's something like,

Speaker 2 she's a pleasant person. And I mean, I do think it's really funny to,

Speaker 2 it's so impossible to know how Nathan Fielder really is, but it is funny to think about like the impetus of so many of these projects being like,

Speaker 2 why does Mira D get to innately be pleasant and I don't? And how do I emulate it?

Speaker 2 I'll tell you, I do, I think my single biggest laugh of the episode is him studying her behavior, studying her fantastics. Fantastic.

Speaker 2 And then, and then it all gets to the point where a guy, he says, what's your name? And the guy says Danny and he says, beautiful. Beautiful.
Beautiful name.

Speaker 1 Let's go to some MVPs of this because we kind of briefly talked about Mara D.

Speaker 1 Jeff, the lead pilot, I was,

Speaker 1 I don't know where, and to your point, there being like an art to this type of show to building this. I'm like, you just don't find a Jeff anywhere.
Like Jeff,

Speaker 1 when he arrives, I'm just like, okay, like, where is this going? I know this is about to be so cringe-inducing.

Speaker 1 And then when he starts talking about getting kicked off every single dating app, I was like, this is a version of a guy that I have had conversation, like a random guy I've had a conversation with who's trying to basically explain to you, like, no, no, no, no, no, you don't understand.

Speaker 1 It's crazy getting kicked off a dating app. I'm like, what did you do, man?

Speaker 1 And the more he just starts talking, he has this one line that I was dying where he's just just like, yeah, there sure are a lot of Latinas there. And I'm like, where's the

Speaker 1 conference? Why are you talking about this?

Speaker 2 A lot of beautiful Latina women there. I'm going to have to learn some more Espanol.

Speaker 2 I'm going to get on Duolingo. I was like, Jeff is about to get his ass kicked off of Duolingo, too.

Speaker 2 All the dating apps, Instagram, and Duolingo. Like, I could not believe Jeff.
I, and I thought what was so interesting about Jeff, and Mary D sort of as well, is like they are people who

Speaker 2 sort of present

Speaker 2 very briefly, in Jeff's case, as like socially capable. You know, like you could put them in a room, they'd know how to talk to someone.

Speaker 2 Jeff undermines that at every turn. It's incredible.
Like the speed, and I actually don't think this was editing, the speed with which he,

Speaker 2 in the conversation, which we'll get to, like in the cockpit with Maradie, the speed with which he was like, oh, so you're celibate, it took them like three minutes once they were in the fake air, maybe not, maybe like 30 seconds for him to get there.

Speaker 2 With, I mean, I, what I would love to know, where I would like the camera to continue to zoom out through seasons of the rehearsal, is to somehow know what Nathan is thinking as the creator of this show.

Speaker 2 When he hears Jeff,

Speaker 2 first of all, can I say,

Speaker 2 can I quote what Jeff said right before he informs us that he has been kicked off of every dating app he's ever joined?

Speaker 2 He says, I'm not a psychologist, but I feel like I know how to read people pretty well.

Speaker 2 And then immediately tells Nathan that he has been kicked off of every dating app he's ever been on. And there's no reason.
They don't give you a reason. They don't even tell you why.

Speaker 1 He signed up using his mom's email. And he's just like, yeah, there's something in their algorithm.
They can tell your face. I got kicked off as well.

Speaker 1 I'm like, what if your mom wanted to be on bumble? Now you fucked up her shit too.

Speaker 2 Now you got to borrow her phone every time you want to get on bumble, man. Like there's, this isn't for you.
Other people are not for you. He was

Speaker 2 unbelievable. I, I, I, I could not believe my ears any moment that he was talking.
And also like his tiny shirt, like he is wedged into that pilot's uniform. The second they drop the captains into

Speaker 2 ding, ding, ding, return of the season one bar, Nate's lizard lounge in the partial recreation of the Houston airport, incredible.

Speaker 2 He's like, oh, those the female pilots over there, I'm going to go talk to the female and immediate alarm bells. Get away from them.

Speaker 2 Get away from them.

Speaker 1 Women. That's where I have to judge Nathan.
I would have been like, if I'm a producer, I'm like,

Speaker 1 safety issue.

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 1 Keep that.

Speaker 2 Truly, everyone was saying after episode one, like one episode into season two of the rehearsal and Nathan's already like broken up a couple, which is funny.

Speaker 2 It's a funny observation, but I think we should be extremely clear that Moody and that woman to the extent that they were ever dating were never going to last.

Speaker 2 So I don't think Nathan Fielder did that.

Speaker 2 But I would like to say that two episodes into Nathan Fielder, into, sorry, two episodes into the the rehearsal, and Nathan Fielder has just like put a woman in an extremely precarious harassment situation.

Speaker 1 But also the thing that was like so just hard to watch, but like weirdly just mesmerizing is Mara D

Speaker 1 deflecting like her ability to just like nod and be pleasant.

Speaker 1 And the thing that Nathan, as the producer of the show, had noticed about her when she's basically telling all of these people, no, you can't go to the next round.

Speaker 1 And seeing her do it in front of this just like

Speaker 1 terrible human, you're like, this is riveting fucking TV. How did they, how do you even get to, there was even a point where I'm just like, wait, how did we get to this point in the show?

Speaker 1 Like, is this the same episode? What is this episode even about?

Speaker 2 And then, but, you know, what's interesting on the behavioral level, and I'm sure we'll get there in future episodes, but it's, he keeps saying that perhaps Meredy has, like, she's the secret, like, you know, she has the special strain of DNA that we're going to be able to identify and then replicate in other people, that she is able to

Speaker 2 reject

Speaker 2 people without them disliking her.

Speaker 2 And if you're capable of recreating that, then presumably in the future, first

Speaker 2 officers could know that they can confront their captains without their captains getting so upset that it creates professional repercussions for them.

Speaker 2 But what we see when Mary D actually gets in the cockpit with someone who would gladly ruin her life and who has no respect for women, who

Speaker 2 truly like can't get a single word out to Nathan before he's saying that you have to walk on eggshells with a woman, he would of course call them female colleagues because they might get offended, you know, just like when you're trying to be funny.

Speaker 2 Hey, Jeff, here's an idea. Don't try to be funny in the cockpit.
Fly the damn plane.

Speaker 1 This is, I will say, this is,

Speaker 1 these are the pilots that are getting me to and fro. I'm just like, damn, just

Speaker 1 did it make me feel great. But also, I think if we're going deeper into the episode, the thing that I thought was so intriguing was Nathan ends up casting himself.
We see a version of fake Nathan.

Speaker 2 And we can't see it. Is it returning fake Nathan from the family?

Speaker 1 Return of fake Nathan. First of all, seeing his phone be the background and Benny Safty was there.
I was just like, all right, we are, this is going too far, but I was dying. I was like, fake Nathan.

Speaker 1 What was so interesting about Fake Nathan is there's this moment where he's reading

Speaker 1 the email that he sends to Paramount Plus when he, it's revealed that a season three episode is taken away, the Summit Ice episode.

Speaker 1 And Nathan says something to the effect of, I don't know why I was being so polite.

Speaker 1 And it was this moment where I'm like, oh,

Speaker 1 the real version of Nathan Fielder, or at least the real version that he's presenting, even as he's typing the email, is someone that has put in the 10,000 hours of being this maestro of discomfort.

Speaker 1 But in his own personal life, when he's writing an email to

Speaker 1 this company that didn't even give him seemingly any warning that they were taking down something that he had worked hard for, he's going through this process of being like, why did I add so many exclamation points?

Speaker 1 Why, why was I so fucking cheerful? And like, I think fake Nathan, like, asked him, like, how are you feeling? And he was just like, I don't know. I don't remember.

Speaker 1 And it was this moment where I'm like,

Speaker 1 does Nathan Fielder know as much about himself as we think he does? In terms of just like, I think he knows Nathan Fielder, the character.

Speaker 1 better than any comedian has known a character before.

Speaker 1 But like, that was a moment where I'm just like, oh, is he trying to say, like, when it's like, I'm in a room typing up an email, I'm just like, y'all, I go through the same societal motions that everyone does.

Speaker 1 I don't want to be disliked. I want to get another season of the curse out there.
Like I have to do all of the same mundane bullshit that makes me seem likable.

Speaker 2 Well, I think the only thing we can be sure of is that Nathan Fielder knows us. Like that Nathan Fielder knows and intimately understands the audience and the way that we will respond to things.

Speaker 2 And it's how he gets out in front of things and has these hilarious moments. It's how he says things in the exact right tone because he understands how we will receive them.

Speaker 2 We don't know where he falls within, you know, larger humanity and if he,

Speaker 2 as a genius, puts himself within that or outside of it. But I do think that in every episode, we should probably say where we felt most seen within the episode.

Speaker 2 And hands down, it is watching Nathan Fielder over-index on how many exclamation points he's using in an email. That's where I've put in my 10,000 hours is taking

Speaker 2 exclamation points in and out of emails.

Speaker 1 I will say

Speaker 1 the farther I've become, like my job has just become watch this TV show, come and then speak on this mic, I don't have to write as many emails, but when I do,

Speaker 1 I have had the same thought. I'm like, why the fuck are you talking like, like, why are you you writing an email like this?

Speaker 1 Like, just stop the bullshit, man. Like, I'm like the most pleasant version of myself, even if I'm like super angry.

Speaker 1 And I'm like, I've gotten those emails as well where I'm just like, this person is really pissed off, but this email is super nice. And I don't even know.

Speaker 1 Like, it's just such a disarming thing where you're just like, well, I can't be an asshole back now. Like, I would, this is going in the record.
I'd look terrible.

Speaker 2 And I'm not telling, I'm not saying that you or me or anyone should write crazy emails, but I think I've also been on the other side of an email that was very carefully worded and i'm gonna receive it how i'm gonna receive it you know it's like if it pisses me off it's gonna piss me off and then i might go back and read it like three weeks later and be like oh they worded this very carefully they meant what they said and i completely misunderstood it like you are at the end of the day always still writing to another human there's only so careful you can be in this case he is writing to paramount plus well he wasn't writing to paramount plus germany but ultimately that's where things were headed.

Speaker 2 Paramount plus Germany.

Speaker 1 So have you, before this episode, have you watched the Summit Ice episode of Nathan for You?

Speaker 2 I haven't watched it in so long.

Speaker 2 I did like a small rewatch of some of my favorite Nathan for You's before we started talking about the rehearsal this season, but I haven't watched that one in a long time.

Speaker 2 I did check and it is still not on Paramount Plus.

Speaker 1 All right, that was going to be my follow-up question. I was just like, I tried to like log into Paramount Plus, and they were just like, it it needs to reset your password.
I'm like, fuck this.

Speaker 1 I'm just asking Jodi. But it was this

Speaker 1 using even that

Speaker 1 and his like,

Speaker 1 because I was, the whole time I was interrogating, I was like, how actually angry or self-righteous about this is Nathan Fielder? Or is he, did this moment happen in his life? He gets angry about it.

Speaker 1 And then he's like, this would make great content. This would make, this would make a great episode of the show.

Speaker 1 Because like, I think we've kind of been circling around this feeling of the whole Paramount Plus thing almost comes out of nowhere.

Speaker 1 It's almost like this aside in the journey where I'm just like, you trying to connect this back to

Speaker 1 making sure

Speaker 1 pilots are heard more and communicate better so planes don't crash is so tenuous, but you almost don't care. Like, it's like good, like good reality TV.
It's just like some of the best reality TV.

Speaker 1 There's like, we're going on vacation. And then there's this entire subplot that's happening on like the periphery of the show where he's just like, that's actually the thing I want to follow.

Speaker 1 And I was just like, why is this even in the episode?

Speaker 2 I mean, I do think it takes us back to

Speaker 2 the thing that kind of kicks up in the latter half of season one, which is that Nathan is,

Speaker 2 in addition to trying

Speaker 2 to help

Speaker 2 someone solve their problem via rehearsal, he is also discovering issues within himself that he relates to that he's trying to solve and rehearse and work on in the human condition as well.

Speaker 2 So, like in that way, it's like, oh yeah, classic Nathan kind of following a side quest of trying to figure out why he was so pleasant in the face of this thing.

Speaker 2 My assumption is that real Nathan Fielder doesn't super care if one episode of a long-running TV show was pulled from Paramount Plus, but it's a good example of

Speaker 2 where being pleasantly confrontational get you? Because I think that's, I was starting to say this earlier: that in the cockpit with Meredith and Jeff,

Speaker 2 you see her

Speaker 2 working through a difficult situation pleasantly and and without offending the other person, a, by the way, very gendered skill, which he sort of gets into, but not totally. And also,

Speaker 2 as

Speaker 2 accidentally pointed out by Jeff, a big part of this communication difficulty in flying is often between

Speaker 2 the male powerful captains and a woman co-captain.

Speaker 2 One could ask:

Speaker 2 Should we perhaps be working on the captain's behavior and ability to receive feedback instead of the

Speaker 2 first officer's ability to

Speaker 2 be brave enough to give that feedback? And perhaps if they felt like they had a receptive captain, they might be more willing to do so.

Speaker 2 Or if it was received upon first comment, they might be more willing to do so. I don't know.
Where does the fish rot? But

Speaker 2 we don't,

Speaker 2 it did not seem to me like if put in a situation where Meredith had to be confrontational in a non-pleasant way and get her point really across, I don't know.

Speaker 2 I don't know if that's something that we can do. What we've seen that she can do is

Speaker 2 get people to like her

Speaker 2 and to seem sincere.

Speaker 2 But does that mean that you're capable of asserting yourself when it matters? Maybe that's in episode three.

Speaker 1 I mean, let's question it out. My question then for you is: do you think,

Speaker 1 and this might be looking a little forward ahead, is

Speaker 1 do you think Nathan Fielder thinks of himself

Speaker 1 as the head captain or the co-captain? Because there have been a couple examples in these first two episodes where

Speaker 1 Nathan's doing a good job of almost

Speaker 1 trying to get the audience to think that he's closer to a moody than he is to our

Speaker 1 fucking head pilot. But then there's other moments where

Speaker 1 almost like Nathan Fielder's like poking at himself, being like, when is, when are any of the co-captains around me going to say enough? Like, like, stop.

Speaker 1 And like, it's, it's this interesting thing where I'm like, I think he's doing it on purpose, where you're just like, wait, where is Nathan in this? Because like, he is the master orchestrator.

Speaker 1 He is the head pilot of this but a lot of times he is not presenting himself as such he is presenting himself as like one of the people who is like just trying to learn how to be likable but also have a backbone and i'm just like you're nathan field this is your entire

Speaker 1 like

Speaker 1 hbo met the warner discovery company gave you millions of dollars bro you're the head captain you're the problem

Speaker 2 but that if at least with the nathan that were presented when he sees himself like that when that is is reflected back to him, that he is the captain, he is the one who can't be approached, he is the one who is in charge, and people are scared to tell him no or to present their feelings truthfully to him, people are scared to be sincere to him.

Speaker 2 That is a position that he's uncomfortable with because everything about himself would tell him that he is the first officer, that he has trouble asserting himself, that he checks his exclamation points and emails to Paramount Plus, but then he's casting 70 actors, getting HBO to give him the budget to partially recreate the Houston airport.

Speaker 2 He is in charge.

Speaker 2 I mean, I think the way that he waffles so wildly between those two positions would suggest that Nathan Fielder and Nathan often just forget that they're human at all and that they subscribe to the things that they're studying.

Speaker 2 And I think that would probably be the point.

Speaker 2 But also, I'm like, well, if I was insane and put myself in this situation if i was a genius who created that show i mean just in my everyday life in my professional life it's like there are times when you're the leader where someone might be scared to approach you with an opinion that counters your own and there are times when you're that person who's checking your exclamation points yeah no and of course for the captains And for the worst of the captains, you know, like the just walking ego that we see in Jeff, or maybe some of the transcripts for these flights that have gone down.

Speaker 2 There are places in their life where they're not in charge and they're very happy to be in charge in this cockpit. And I'm curious what this show is making people think about airline pilots.

Speaker 1 I mean, if I'm going to be honest, the most revealing thing is, and I notice this about people in power in like my personal life all the time, when those pilots walk into the bar and like everything kind of changes it is this thing where it's just like i've seen it happen where you have some type of power over someone some type of leadership maybe it's a work event and you walk into the bar the room changes and you can kind of see this thing in like a leader or a boss's eyes where they're just like i so badly just want to be part of y'all i want to have fun i want to be at the bar talking or whatever i don't want this weird thing where it's just like people are like laughing at jokes that aren't funny and they're whispering or they have to change the subject.

Speaker 1 And I was like, oh, there is something funny there as well where it's like these.

Speaker 1 These like captains are assholes.

Speaker 1 Like even the way they talk, the way they walk, Nathan is like shedding a light on just like, oh, you get a certain level of power in your life and it does change you.

Speaker 1 But there was almost a sadness I felt where I was just like, God damn, like no one wants y'all here. Like no one in this bar wants you here right now.
And that is, I was like,

Speaker 2 and I think what I, I, what I thought when watching them in the bar suddenly together is,

Speaker 2 well, when does the first officer become the captain? Yeah. Because that's the trajectory here.
If these first officers stay in this career, they will become captains. Like

Speaker 2 many of them, that's what will happen.

Speaker 2 Will their whole personalities change? Because the first officers we're being presented with at least are like extreme cases of,

Speaker 2 you know, sweethearts at best, meek at worst. Like,

Speaker 2 when is that going to become a job? How are we going to get Duck Moody is basically like when is when is Moody going to become Jeff? Like, is that a change in his future?

Speaker 1 I actually, if I'm being real, I know Moody's a real person.

Speaker 1 That was something I was thinking about where I was was just like,

Speaker 1 is there something about being in that chair where a Moody who is like this meek has this meek individual who has what seems like a very fake relationship with the Starbucks barista,

Speaker 1 does he become Jeff and is just like, fuck it, I'm getting kicked off all the apps and I'm harassing my co-pilot, asking how old she is and like trying to set her up with my dad.

Speaker 1 I'm like, to me, that's actually not as large a leak

Speaker 1 as

Speaker 1 you probably think it is.

Speaker 1 But maybe if we kind of are like forecasting,

Speaker 1 this was like the first episode where, and there's only been two, but this was like one of the first moments where I'm just like,

Speaker 1 has the rehearsal and the Nathan Fielder project

Speaker 1 gotten too insular?

Speaker 1 Where it's like, because I've kept up with him, because I've watched a lot of Nathan for you, because I've watched the first season of the rehearsal, The Curse, I've seen a bunch of things that he's been in.

Speaker 1 This was like catnip for me. I got all the jokes.
I got a lot of the things. I was just like, this is insane, but I love this episode.

Speaker 1 But I was just like, if you just had watched the first season of the rehearsal because you just saw people going like crazy over it, do you watch this episode be like, Summit Ice? Wait, what?

Speaker 1 Is this real? Like, it's like, are you just, you're like, the curse? I don't have Paramount Plus. I didn't watch that.
Are you just kind of like, what the fuck is happening?

Speaker 2 I think

Speaker 2 you, no one should watch season two of the rehearsal without watching season one of the rehearsal. But I think you've got enough of the vibes to get it.

Speaker 2 Like, I haven't watched that episode of Nathan for You in a super long time. And I kind of was like, did not remember all the swastikas, you know?

Speaker 2 But like, I think you can get on board with understanding that he is

Speaker 2 completely absurd and sets people up in absurd situations and that that's what he's doing on his other shows too. I mean, the curse is a little different, but no, I don't think so.
I, I, I think,

Speaker 2 I think it's already pretty insular, you know, like I think it's already a pretty high concept situation that if you're on board for it, you're on board for Nathan Field. I think

Speaker 2 my

Speaker 2 like fear of does this work, can he make it last, is more so that the thing that exists in the real world, the aviation safety aspect of it is like, is that a theme he can really keep going through six episodes?

Speaker 2 And is the idea here that he's really going to solve it?

Speaker 2 And is it,

Speaker 2 I mean, of course it would be great if it was kind of a problem that was solved, but it's like this small problem within this huge thing, you know, like flying is still the safest form of travel that there is.

Speaker 1 And is that true? Yeah.

Speaker 1 More than like subways or trains?

Speaker 2 I mean, I, well, okay. I said, yeah, really confidently.
I always hear that.

Speaker 2 That's what people always say when their plane crashes is like, it's still, you know, it's safer than driving statistically.

Speaker 2 Obviously, if a plane goes down, that is like a great tragedy and it is a mass casualty event.

Speaker 2 And so there's, it can't all just be statistics, but it's, it's a very, very strange thing that Nathan Fielder is doing in this season of the rehearsal, right down to us just being like, so are pilots really like this?

Speaker 2 Like, what are we supposed to think about pilots? And I would like to say, if there are any pie, if there are any,

Speaker 2 especially, you know, self-aware pilots listening, please do feel free to email us at prestige TV at spotify.com if you have any thoughts on how pilots are being presented and if it is accurate.

Speaker 1 guys, I could honestly, I could not agree more. If you are a pilot, I'm talking head pilot, you the co-chair, we'll take voice memos, we'll take emails.

Speaker 1 Like, give it, like, I want the pilots in my life or in the greater, like, these are not pilots in my life, but you could be a part of my life.

Speaker 1 If you send us an email, you're a part of our life because there is a level. I will say the things that I've heard about

Speaker 1 just the aircraft industry are more like,

Speaker 1 damn, it's great to be a pilot. My hinge is crazy.
I'm in a new place. That's all I know.
So, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Which is also one of the.

Speaker 2 I've known some pilots from Hinge.

Speaker 2 I don't know if Jeff is certainly not

Speaker 2 representative, but

Speaker 2 they move around a lot.

Speaker 1 That was also, how were you getting kicked?

Speaker 1 I've heard from pilots and stewardesses that dating is extremely easy for those two jobs. And I'm like, how much fuck shit were you up to to get kicked?

Speaker 1 I'm just like, there's not, you could literally just be like, I'm in your

Speaker 1 city for two days. I'm a pilot.
I'm a stewardess. And everybody's going to be like, hell yes.

Speaker 2 Is there anything about Jeff that suggests to you that he could literally just say that thing and then stop talking? He's incapable

Speaker 2 of

Speaker 2 not

Speaker 2 talking, even when he's with Nathan. Like he just can't.

Speaker 2 He so did not have to tell him that he's been kicked off of every dating app he's ever joined, including seeking arrangements.

Speaker 2 He didn't have to say that he's been on seeking arrangements, but this is a person who feels like he must say everything that enters his mind, and then you must not be offended by it.

Speaker 2 Otherwise, you can't take a joke.

Speaker 1 Also, what probably makes it even funnier is I'm like, when I see him, I'm just like, oh, he looks like an asshole.

Speaker 1 But there was this moment where I'm just like, yeah, if you just shut the fuck up and got out of your way, you'd be fine. You'd be on your second or third marriage.
You'd be fine.

Speaker 1 And then the minute when he gets to the seeking arrangement part, I was just like, oh, you're a sick. I was like, oh, you, this is bad.

Speaker 2 Oh, no. Oh, no.

Speaker 1 And I was like, and he kept listing each app, and I was just like,

Speaker 2 Mary Dee might not have like solved aviation safety with whatever exists inside of her, but I would like to be able to selectively take a dose of whatever was making her say,

Speaker 2 oh, yeah, cool. What she, she like kept saying very specific things to him.
Like it was this kind of like broish broish statement where she was like, um,

Speaker 2 she kept saying, yeah, right on, yeah, right on. When he was like, a lot of beautiful Latinas there, she was like, right on.

Speaker 2 I would like to be able to selectively take a vial of like right on juice when I am about to encounter a particularly terrible person who I don't want to in that moment tell them that they need to be a better person.

Speaker 2 I just want to be like, yeah, right on.

Speaker 1 I will say, you could tell Mary D

Speaker 1 has like, she's said that phrase so much and she's done all the permutations of like what is the perfect phrase to say to a broish like captain that I need to shut the fuck up and she's like right on and to your point I was just like that is the greatest phrase because it's just like

Speaker 1 you're not that interested but you're almost saying like right on

Speaker 2 it's such a learned behavior that was a really like interesting look into what it's like to just get into that space with a stranger where you're doing your job but maybe you also have to do some small talk but also hundreds of lives are in your hands.

Speaker 2 And like, that's clearly such a sort of like muscle memory learned behavior.

Speaker 2 I always think about like, how do dental hygienists like learn how to talk to someone who can't talk back because your hands are in their mouth, but like lead on a pleasant conversation?

Speaker 2 They just learn it. And like, this is what Meridea has put her 10,000 hours in on is yeah, right on, is like handling the ego of a Jeff.

Speaker 2 how do you then insert into those 10,000 hours the emotional capacity to stand up to someone when it counts? And kind of only when it counts. Because who has the energy to

Speaker 2 point out when Jeff is wrong every time he's wrong? Like, that's what we're seeing with Maradi.

Speaker 2 She has a really specific kind of energy to just let it slide off her back, but who has the energy to be selectively confrontational and how do you teach it?

Speaker 1 I will say

Speaker 1 that is a perfect place not only to end this, but you are my podcasting Marody.

Speaker 1 You know, just make me feel great.

Speaker 2 Yeah, right on. Right on.

Speaker 2 Right on. Right on.

Speaker 1 Guys, that has been your episode of Prestige TV with me and Jodi keep tapping in every single week. We just let Joe and Rob out of the basement.
They will return to talk about The Last of Us,

Speaker 1 whatever show on Apple Plus. I forget the name of it.
What's the John Hamm show?

Speaker 1 Your friends and neighbors.

Speaker 1 My friends and neighbors, the friends and neighbors. Joe and Rob will be back.
We will be back. Thank you to Justin.
Thank you to CT. Thank you to everybody behind the boards helping us.

Speaker 1 And like, yo, guys, have a great rest of your week. And Donnie, I almost forgot, Donnie.
My bad. Fuck.

Speaker 1 Donnie, you're the greatest. Thank you so much, Donnie.
All right, guys. We we will see y'all very soon.

Speaker 1 Woo!